When I read this book, I feel love, I feel the sea, and most importantly I feel at home. Namesake is the stunning sequel to Fable and Adrienne Young has awed me with her vivid words and heartbreaking scenes.
Title: Namesake
Series: Fable # 2
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pub. Date: March 16, 2021
Length : 368 pages
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy
Format: NetGalley Arc
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Book Synopsis
Trader. Fighter. Survivor.
With the Marigold ship free of her father, Fable and its crew were set to start over. That freedom is short-lived when she becomes a pawn in a notorious thug’s scheme. In order to get to her intended destination she must help him to secure a partnership with Holland, a powerful gem trader who is more than she seems.
As Fable descends deeper into a world of betrayal and deception she learns that her mother was keeping secrets, and those secrets are now putting the people Fable cares about in danger. If Fable is going to save them then she must risk everything, including the boy she loves and the home she has finally found.
Filled with action, emotion, and lyrical writing, New York Times bestselling author Adrienne Young returns with Namesake, the final book in the captivating Fable duology.
Book Review
Before I get into my book review for Namesake, I must commend the author- Adrienne Young for her excellent choice of book covers. Fable and its sequel Namesake, have truly arresting covers that are visually stunning and almost bewitching.
After reading Fable, I was extremely excited to learn about another book in the series and utterly heartbroken to learn this would only be a two-part series.
How would Adrienne compress such an intense story into one book I asked myself? Could she do justice to the spunky Fable and her epic tale?
After reading the first chapter it was evident to me that I should just shut my mouth and let Adrienne do the talking because the bombs were dropped from the very beginning and continued dropping right until the very last page!
Namesake was an absolute masterpiece that managed to give me everything I didn’t know I needed.
Adrienne Young takes readers on an adventure of a lifetime with her bold characters and vivid descriptions from the deep blue seas, to rowdy pubs and ship deck bawls. Namesake fully immersed me from the first page with its nonstop thrills and surprises. The power struggles throughout the novel were riveting and shockingly intense.
About halfway through my reading all I kept thinking was, “Holy mother of an epic plot twist!” I’ve seen people say books can be impactful, but honestly, Namesake transported my soul.
This was an emotionally gut-wrenching story of betrayal, revelations, love, friendship, and family. The revelations within Namesake floored me with the depth of emotion and I am not ashamed to admit the ending had me crying fat, ugly tears with both its beauty and simplicity.
I adored Fable in the first book and I loved that readers get the opportunity to see her growing up in Namesake. Stepping into adulthood for Fable means accepting there is more to life than survival. To sail the waters of the Narrow, she may have to sacrifice the very things she now begins to understand are important- family, friendship, and trust.
Fable has always been a loner and emotionally distant based on her abandonment by Saint and to see her finally on the verge of happiness and a place to belong only have it violently ripped away was unbearable. My heart bled for Wes and Fable who were always so close but never on the mark.
One theme echoed throughout the novel is that of “Family.”
I love that Namesake pushed the veil of family beyond the ties of blood to something richer and deeper and infinitely more beautiful. Families come in all shapes and sizes as evidence by the various iterations and representations throughout the novel from crewmates to lovers, old friends from the past, and even surprise relations.
As the novel progresses and things are brought to light, Fable can no longer fault the wrongs previously committed to her as she learns the truth about herself and her past. Saint and Fable have always had a tumultuous relationship and the beauty of certain moments where they bared their vulnerabilities to each other was heartwarming.
Thank you to NetGalley, Adrienne Young, and St. Martins Press for providing me with an arc of this incredible book. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.
Favorite Quotes
Helmsman. Dredger. Trader. Orphan. Father. Daughter
Fable-
“I’d been a fool. I’d let myself believe, even if it was just for a moment, that I was safe. That I’d found home and a family. And in the time it took to draw a single breath, it was all torn away.”
Fable
“You can’t be serious. Is there a bastard from here to the Narrows you’re not related to?”
“I loved him with the same fire that I hated him.”
“It was a series of tragically beautiful knots that bound us together.”
Fable-
“The most fragile hope I’d ever held was that somewhere in the flesh and bone of him, that my father had loved me. A part of me was terrified to find out if it was true, and an even bigger part knew that it would destroy me.”
“We were salt and sand and sea and storm. We were made in the Narrows.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author of SKY IN THE DEEP, THE GIRL THE SEA GAVE BACK & FABLE from Wednesday Books. Agent: Barbara Poelle, IGLA
Adrienne Young is a born and bred Texan turned California girl. She is a foodie with a deep love of history and travel and a shameless addiction to coffee. When she’s not writing, you can find her on her yoga mat, scouring antique fairs for old books, sipping wine over long dinners, or disappearing into her favorite art museums. She lives with her documentary filmmaker husband and their four little wildlings beneath the West Coast sun.
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Jessica Reads It 