• Author: Diana Marcellas
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• ISBN: 9781497631335
• Pages: 398
• Genre: Fantasy (Science Fiction?)

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I’m just going to say that you probably shouldn’t name one of the races in your book using the same word for Islamic law.  Perhaps take 30 seconds to type the word into any search engine before choosing it, just to be on the safe side.  Especially when those people are witches persecuted by the other race of people in your story.

Since I began reviewing books, I have loved or at least enjoyed every book I’ve read that has been published by Open Road Media.  So, when I chose Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea, I was expecting that experience to continue.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  Besides the horrible choice of name for the race of witches, the book suffers from far too many lengthy and unnecessary passages that either could have been cut in half or removed altogether.  On top of that, there’s a quickly formed and somewhat ridiculous romance.  To make matters even worse, there are hints at the possibility of some Science-Fiction type elements, but then no other mention of them and my questions were left hanging there with no answers; not even a further suggestion that might make me want to pick up the next book.

I was disappointed in Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea enough that, while I’m not giving up on Open Road Media books, I will not read any more of the series.  I wish I could say differently, but there it is.  I just don’t care enough to find out if this is indeed Fantasy or Sci-Fi, or some strange mixture of the two.