Review: Children of the Sea series by Virginia Kantra

Buy Them Now: Sea Witch (Book 1) || Sea Fever (Book 2) || Sea Lord (Book 3)

The Fangirl’s Review: This is a lush, sexy series set in the modern world with a mythological twist. I think I was most impressed by the intricate mythology that Kantra has created. The main characters in these three books are selkies, water elementals who can shapeshift between human form and seal form, and their world is slowly crumbling. Their numbers are dwindling and many of their kind have gone beneath the waves, abandoning their human forms and the world above. And unfortunately for them, the fire elementals are getting restless. There is an uneasy truce between demons and angels, air elementals, but some of the demons are unhappy with the balance of power and want to take more than their share. And the selkies are caught in the middle.

The first book, Sea Witch, follows Margred, a selkie who comes ashore on World’s End, Maine, to satisfy her desires. She comes upon Caleb, the island’s sheriff, and they have a one night stand, but Caleb finds himself wanting more. When Margred finds herself trapped on World’s End, pursued by a demon, she finds her life becoming more and more entwined with Caleb’s. I think this book is my favorite of the three, mainly because it’s fascinating to switch between Margred’s and Caleb’s points of view, which are very different. Margred is distinctly not human, though she learns quickly, and I loved the little incongruities in her perception of the world. Caleb is an Iraq war veteran, and I really appreciated the internal battle he wages throughout the book, trying to adjust to being out of a war zone and back in his childhood home.

I really can’t talk much about Sea Fever and Sea Lord without spoiling Sea Witch. I had fun figuring out the twists and connections, so I don’t want to spoil them for you! I will say that I’m impressed by how Kantra deals with surprise pregnancies in Sea Fever (realistically and tastefully; no surprise babies here, thank god!), and that while still good, Sea Lord is my least favorite of the three. It just doesn’t flow as well as the first two, and the romance isn’t quite as believable.

What makes this series work is how the mythical world of the selkies and other elementals crashes into the very real, modern world, and how the characters must fight to find a balance between the two. I love that the human characters don’t immediately believe the selkies and sometimes fight against what they’ve seen before their very eyes. It’s a very realistic, human way of thinking, and it makes these books so much better than if the humans had just shrugged and said, “Okay, you turn into a seal. Gotcha.”

This is a great paranormal romance series, and I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something other than more vampires and werewolves. I give Sea Witch an A, Sea Fever an A as well, and Sea Lord a B.