For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again—a home.

My favorite moment in any book is when a character comes into her own and discovers her place in the world—something I think many of us continue to search for well past adolescence. So it’s no surprise that when I started reading The Girl the Sea Gave Back, I was drawn to Tova, the castaway seer at the heart of this book, who’s searching for a home to call her own.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back picks up ten years after the events of Sky in the Deep—Adrienne Young’s first novel—and follows two main characters: Halvard, a young man who grew up in peace and now leads his people through war, and Tova, a Truthtongue with the ability to read and interpret fates. When the Svell, Tova’s adoptive people, set their sights on war with the N?dhir, Halvard’s people, Tova must decide where her loyalties lie.

This book drew me in with its Nordic-inspired, magical setting, then kept me glued to the page with intense battle scenes and complex characters. But what I loved most was watching Tova grow from a placeless outcast into someone with a family and a home. Her story reminded me that you don’t have to be defined by where you came from or who you used to be, and I loved coming to that revelation alongside her. I recommend this novel for anyone looking for an atmospheric, action-packed read, with a touch of romance and fate-defying resilience.