Review: Flooded Secrets by Claudie Arseneault

Flooded Secrets (The Chronicles of Nerezia #2)
by Claudie Arseneault

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: no romance

Blurb:
Fate and friendship brought Horace, Rumi, and Aliyah together in Rumi’s Wandering Wagon of Wonderful Wares, a sentient self-propelling wagon. They seek the forest haunting Aliyah’s dream, hoping for answers about their past and their unique abilities—but for that, they need to traverse a world haunted by Fragments, dangerous shards that can possess travellers.

With the Fragments in the wilderness, banditry was the last danger Horace had expected on the road—but not even that could stop Keza Nesmit. Swift and deadly with a staff, Keza drops on the Wagon crew, claiming most of their provisions before vanishing back into the Tesrima Ridge. As if to compound their bad luck, the tunnel that serves as the only pass through the mountain is flooded and impassable.

Keza reappears, and she’s willing to show them the source of the flooding, a waterway blocked by Fragments, in the hopes that they can unblock it—and just like with the stolen food, she won’t answer any questions about her motives, no matter how friendly. Abrasive, confident, and eager to bicker, Keza makes for a thorny companion, but they’ll need to work together to free the pass and continue their travel.

As they unravel the Fragments’ blockage, so, too, do they chip away at Keza’s walls. But the cost of breaking both is far higher than anticipated, and Horace is about to learn that some secrets are better left untouched.

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Flooded Secrets is the seconded of nine novellas of a fantasy adventure blending cozy fantasy vibes and D&D style side-questing, imbued with an aspec-focused queernormative world and strong platonic bonds.

My Review

I enjoyed the first book and was looking forward to continue the story. It took a bit of time to get back into the story, but quickly I was hooked and eager to see how their adventure continues. In this book Horace, Rumi and Aliyah encounter a felnexi named Keza, who demands all their food. And being low on food isn’t their only problem when they find the pass they need to traverse blocked as it’s flooded. So they have to stop and resolve things.

I didn’t like Keza at first, but I think that’s intentional. I didn’t like her attitude and didn’t get why she wanted all their food, but the reasons for her behavior later on get explained and make so much sense. She also has a softer side as is shown in some later scenes and I warmed up to her a bit. I like Horace’s eagerness to make friends with her and how e welcomes her to their group quickly. I enjoyed reading more about these characters, Rumi helps out with some tinkering and Aliyah has some exciting scenes with her eldritch tree transformation. I like the found family theme.

I liked learning more about the felnexi species, who are humanoid cat-like creatures with ears, a tail and claws. There are some interesting scenes involving them. I also thought this book had a fun adventure vibe and reminded me a bit of D&D. I liked this vibe. This book had a some sad parts toward the end and I felt bad for Keza with what she went through. I liked seeing the group deal with the flooded pass and how they resolved it. And there is a new game they play as well, this time one with sticks that Keza introduces to them and reminded me of a game called Mikado that I played as a kid.

To summarize: I enjoyed this second book and reading about Horace, Rumi and Aliyah as they encounter a problem on their road to the sea. The pass is flooded and a felnexi called Keza demands all their food. I liked seeing how both of these got resolved. I didn’t like Keza at first, but as the story progressed I warmed up to her and her behavior makes more sense. I enjoyed reading more about these characters and I liked the adventurous fun vibes this book has. This one does have a sad part later on and I felt for Keza and what she went through. I look forward to the next one!

Links:
– Goodreads
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You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.