Between Tides and Thunder by Leena Kazak is a book that gave me Avatar the Last Airbender vibes almost immediately upon reading it. It also almost instantly made me feel bad for Daak, because even though he was introduced as the love interest, I knew that wasn’t going to last.
This book starts strong and traumatizing with us as the reader learning about Mayah (our main character) and how she is traumatized and terrified of thunderstorms. We learn that her she is a small child, hiding in a closet, waiting for her mother to come and save her.
Unfortunately for her, there is no saving.
As this trauma haunts her into the present day of the book we learn that Mayah has agreed to be traded into marriage to the Crown Prince of their enemy territory in the hopes of peace for their own kingdom. Obviously this doesn’t go according to plan – because why would Mayah get any kind of peace?
Mayah is promised to the first son of the opposing kingdom, but when her carriage to said kingdom is destroyed by rebels, she and Zevayr end up walking quite a distance together. As Mayah starts falling for Zevayr, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that he confesses he is the one that murdered her friends years ago. He said it in an attempt to try to stop her from having any feelings for him, but it really didn’t work!
One of the two big plots twists in this book, is Mayah being a water wielder as well as being a healer. I understand why this was a big plot twist, however I think it could have been done better and alluded too more. Honestly, it felt like it came out of nowhere and was a convenience for the author more than important to the story.
After this big plot twist is revealed, I really enjoyed how the author showed us that Mayah outgrew her love for Daak in this book. If she had stayed in her kingdom for her entire life, she would have married Daak, they would have had little babies together, and she would have been incredibly happy with her life. But instead, she outgrew that love with everything she had been through, and learned that her childhood didn’t necessarily need to be her future. I thought this was such an interesting and lovely addition to the story.
One thing I think this book does poorly, is the “specialness” of dual wielding things. In the lore of the book, it is said that dual wielding two powers is incredibly rare, and not a lot of people have the ability. AND YET, three of the prominent characters in the book are able to do so. For something that was supposed to be rare, it ended up being fairly common by the end of the book.
Another downside of this book is how rushed the ending was. The entire book is building up to this epic ending where the reader is in suspense of what is going to happen next and how it is going to get resolved, and then the resolution happens in the blink of an eye. Seriously, all of the plot points got resolved in like thirty pages which is insane! I would have almost preferred the author make the book longer, or maybe split it into two books.
Overall – If you are looking for a book that reminds you of Avatar the Last Airbender but with adults, look no further! This book was fast paced but also really good! It did have some downsides, namely how quick the end was and how many people ended up being able to dual wield.
Between Tides and Thunder by Leena Kazak
Cost* – eBook is $9.99 , paperback is $11.85 , hardback is $22.40. This book is included with kindle unlimited.
*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published
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