Review: Sea of Broken Masks by Laura Greenwood

Sea of Broken Masks (City of Masked Mermaids #0.5)
by Laura Greenwood

My Rating: 4 stars

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

Blurb:
A world of masked balls, mermaids, and luxury hides more beneath the surface.

Expensive pearls, elaborate masks, and fancy gowns. Lucrezia Martinelli has more wealth than most merfolk in Sirencia and to hold onto it, she has to do one simple thing. Keep her father in power as the leader of the city.

With the upcoming election, she’s expected to cast her vote for her father while staying away from her childhood friend turned rival. Instead, she stumbles upon an unpleasant discovery that sheds new light upon her father and the city she calls home.

What’s hiding beneath the surface? There’s only one way for Lucrezia to find out and that’s to dive into the depths of the unknown. But is she brave enough to defy her family’s wishes?

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Sea of Broken Masks is part of the City of Masked Mermaids series and is a standalone mermaid romantasy with a friends to lovers queer m/f romance, a tense election, an underwater city, a pinch of steam, and a heroine who is determined to learn how to do better.

My Review

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

I was excited to hear about this new series as I like reading about mermaids and this series sounded really good. Sea of Broken Masks reads a bit like a prequel to the series and it also works as a standalone romance set in the world as it follows a different couple than the main series. This book follows Lucrezia and Giovanni in the lead up to the election for the next Doge for the city. Both their parents are running for the election. Zia and Gian can now vote for the first time and learn more about the election and the political landscape than they had expected.

This was such an interesting story. The plot line is pretty political with Zia and Gian learning more about the election and the corruption that is going on in their city and they get curious about a new young candidate with great ideas who wants to change things. It was interesting to see things progress and I could see the plot lines that would carry on in the rest of the series.

I liked reading about Zia and Gian. Neither is content to just go with what their parents want for them and they get more actively involved in the politics and figuring out what the various candidates want. I liked reading about them and their friends to lovers romance was very sweet. There’s a bit of heat later on as they confess their feelings. I liked seeing Zia realize she has feelings for Gian and figure out what to do about that and let him know.

I liked the setting for this book. The world is based on Venice of the 1700s, but then with a mermaid twist and I thought a city with canals made for a great setting for the mermaid element. I just recently watched a Youtube video of someone visiting Venice, so was able to visualize what this city looked like very well. I liked how the mermaid element was incorporated and look forward to see more of that in future books and learn more about the undercity. I liked there is a scene of Zia and Gian swimming together in their mermaids forms.

To summarize: This was a great read to introduce this new series. It’s set before the books in the main series as works as both a standalone and prequel. I liked reading about Zia and Gian and seeing them figure out what’s going on politically in their city. Both were interesting characters and I liked seeing them interact and their romance develop. This was such a sweet friends to lovers romance with a bit of heat toward the end. I also liked the world building and setting, it’s a fantasy world based on 1700s Venice. I thought it made for an interesting setting and I thought it worked well with the mermaid element and I look forward to learning more about the world.

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

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.