Review: The Frog Ward’s Journey by Laura Greenwood and Ariana Jade

The Frog Ward’s Journey (Purple Oak Oasis #6)
by Laura Greenwood and Ariana Jade

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: f/f

Blurb:
A journey across the sea will change everything.

As the niece of the captain, Ines loves nothing more than visiting new places alongside her trusty frog familiar. And with a mission to collect tea witches for Purple Oak underway, she has a reason to do just that.

Alone in the world and without anyone to rely on, Susie has been searching for a purpose and a way to use her mer powers. When a ship visiting her port reveals they need a mer to help them on their way, she sees the chance she’s been looking for.

As Ines and Susie bond on their journey across the sea, they realise there might be something more between them than just friendship.

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The Frog Ward’s Journey is a cozy fantasy romance with a sapphic romance, a frog ward who wishes they could save everyone, a mer looking for home, unusual magic, a pinch of steam, and a happy ever after.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really like this series with it’s cozy vibes and unique magic system and was looking forward to this next book in this series. I enjoyed this one, but a few things about it just made it less enjoyable than some of the previous books. I read this one in short sessions over the course of a week or two, while I usually finish these in a few days at most.

The Frog Ward’s Journey follows Ines who is related to the captain of the ship The Dolphin and has a high rank aboard the ship. While on shore she hires Susie, a mer, to work aboard the ship to help with the journey. Susie hasn’t had good luck when it comes to work and has been treated badly, while working aboard The Dolphin she gets to experience a much nicer work environment. And the two slowly fall in love.

There were several parts of this one that didn’t quite work for me. First off was the setting aboard the ship, which seemed like a nice change of pace, but instead i just missed the usual setting of Purple Oak Oasis. There is a small connection to it with Ines family being from there and some characters being aboard that are going back to Purple Oak Oasis. But I just missed the familiar setting and characters. I also didn’t really like the confined space this caused with the characters always being stuck on board and often close to many other people.

Besides that I just didn’t fully feel the romance between Ines and Susie. They don’t really have a lot of time to be just the two of them and a lot of their conversations are about the work and what’s going on. Add in the fact that Ines is basically Susie’s boss, which just felt a bit off. And I was wondering how that worked in this setting and whether that was frowned upon or not. And that just never really gets addressed, just a few brief mentions of how Ines usually doesn’t dates employees.

Now for what I did like. I liked both characters well enough and I especially liked Susie’s storyline of having been treated badly by previous employers and now getting to experience what it’s like working somewhere where she is valued and treated right. That was great to see and her slowly getting used to that and it just made me happy for her that things improved for her. I also liked Ines’ frog, he was cute. And the magic system in this series is so fun, this book had more about wards and a tea witch again, but also some weather witches and some mer. It was fun to read about the mer and see more of how they work as well as a bit about the weather witches.

To summarize: I enjoyed this book well enough, but not as much as previous books in this series. there were several things in this one that didn’t quite work for me and it took me longer to finish this book. The setting is not at Purple Oak Oasis as the previous books, but instead aboard a ship. This didn’t quite work for me and I missed the familiar setting and characters. I also didn’t fully feel the romance and didn’t like how Ines was Susie’s boss technically, it also never really gets addressed. I did like reading about the unique magic types in this series again and this book introduces weather witches and mer. I liked Ines’ frog, who was cute. And I liked Susie’s plot line with how she has been treated badly by previous employers and not has the chance to experience a much better job were she is valued. I look forward to the next book!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.