As an opportunist, Istrae yearns to get off her home island and visit Kerth, the City of Light and Abundance. Her preferred method of travel, however, didn’t include drowning. And she didn’t expect the city to be so dirty. Her memories are as broken as her body. She begins to piece them together with the help of a spirit bound to a statue and an ambitious army captain called Rime she enjoys teasing.
While Rime guides Istrae in her new life, it becomes evident the rigid rules of society and the city’s Temple do not welcome those who seek to shake the established rules, which is something Istrae is incapable of resisting.
Island Girl is the first book in a fresh epic fantasy series Strands of Existence with tones of adventure and a splash of romance. A whole new world with it’s own laws, intuitive magic, and religion
My review
I really enjoyed Island Girl. Aino has created an amazing new world that engulfed me in from the get go. I absolutely loved Istrae and Rime getting to know each other and I missed him greatly the second half of the book, when Istrae’s destiny brought her to the Temple. But in Rime’s absence Istrae went through several character developing moments.
The ending!!!! That was just… Plans that got fueled in the duration of this book will most certainly start unraveling in the next book. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.