Avery Roe wants only to claim her birthright as the witch of Prince Island and to make the charms that have kept the island’s sailors safe at sea for generations, but instead she is held prisoner by her mother in a magic-free life of proper manners and respectability.
Avery thinks escape is just a matter of time, but when she has a harrowing nightmare, she can see what it means: She will be killed. She will be murdered. And she’s never been wrong before.
Desperate to change her future, Avery finds a surprising ally in Tane —a tattooed harpoon boy with magic of his own, who moves her in ways she never expected. But as time runs out to unlock her magic and save herself, Avery discovers that becoming a witch requires unimaginable sacrifice.
Avery walks the knife’s edge between choice and destiny in Kendall Kulper’s sweeping debut: the story of one girl’s fight to survive the rising storm of first love and family secrets. – Goodreads
I finished Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper last weekend, and I’ve been mulling over my thoughts on it ever since. It’s very hard to explain exactly how I feel about it, but I will say that it was GOOD. I got really into it, and felt exactly how Avery was feeling (and I LOVED her name), especially about her mother. Her mother DROVE ME CRAZY. I wished many times that I could reach through the book and smack her. At the same time though, since I’m not a teenager anymore, I feel like I could see where her mom was coming from in taking Avery from her grandmother’s, and why she did everything that she did. She still annoyed me though. I feel bad for Avery that her mother wasn’t honest with her about getting her magic until… well, I don’t want to spoil it for you so I’ll just leave it at that.
The story itself is suspenseful, and sometimes it moves quickly and sometimes slowly which I actually really loved because it kept me interested and intrigued. Once I picked it up, I HAD to know what was going to happen with Avery, and after Tane came along I HAD to know how his story would play out as well. I really loved Tane’s character and how he came to Prince Island, and the way that he helped Avery is exactly what she needed all along. It’s incredible how much one person can totally change your life, and that’s what they were for each other.
The only thing I really didn’t like was the ending. A certain plot twist occurs that, looking back on, I probably could have seen coming but it broke my heart nonetheless. I can’t say much more without giving it away, but I do wish that it had ended differently except the way everything ended up with Avery and her mom – that was actually one of my favorite parts of the book. Overall, I rated this book 4/5 on Goodreads and I definitely recommend it!
lifebetweenreads.com 