Review: The Sea Spirit Festival by Claudie Arseneault

The Sea Spirit Festival (The Chronicles of Nerezia #3)
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, Keza, and Aliyah together in Rumi’s sentient self-propelling wagon. They seek the forest haunting Aliyah’s dream, hoping for answers about the elf’s past and unique abilities—but first, they need to traverse a world haunted by Fragments, dangerous shards that can possess travellers.

Their journey has brought them to Alleaze, a coastal city from which they hope to book passage across the ocean. But Alleaze’s regular life has stopped, giving way to the excitement of the Sea Spirit Festival, a weeks-long event. Forcefully grounded, the Wagon crew is more than happy to partake in the local festivities, brimming with games, seaside delicacies, and legends about the Bay.

But the Festival is more than one big celebration: it is a crucial time during which the Bay’s Spirit guides its residents to their new life path and chooses a Storm Catcher, a divine hero meant to revitalize the Spirit’s strength.

When the Festival winds down and no Storm Catcher has been chosen, panic washes over Alleaze and the Wagon crew finds itself embroiled in the subsequent chaos. In order to help Alleaze find its local hero and be allowed to sail out, they will need to confront the truth behind the legend of the Sea Spirit—and survive it.

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The Sea Spirit Festival is the third novella in a fantasy adventure blending the warmth of quieter gaming scenes with the stakes and action of high fantasy, all imbued with an aspec-focused queernormative world and strong platonic bonds.

My Review

I really like this series and when I was in a stressful time in my life I knew it was time to read the third book in this series. In The Sea Spirit Festival Horace and his friends arrive in the coastal city of Alleaze hoping to book passage onboard a ship, but the captain tells them to wait till after the festival. So they are forced to remain in the city and enjoy the festival.

This book has quite a lighthearted and fun vibe with the festival they are attending and I enjoyed seeing a bit of this coastal town and their culture and the way the sea spirit guides them. There is also a bit of a mystery surrounding the sea spirit as well as some mysterious figures called archivists that seem to show up during their journey now and then. The plot was engaging and I enjoyed reading this book.

I like reading about these characters, it was fun to see how their newest party member Keza fits in the group. And I liked seeing how Horace handled everything from the festival excitedly participated it, as well as eir meeting with the archivist and then the end how e helps Aliyah. All the members of this traveling part are interesting characters and they all have their chance to shine in the book and I like reading more about them and seeing them interact with each other.

The ending was exciting and I liked seeing how it all played out and how the characters set out for the next part of their journey after this. I also feel like we learn more about the mystery surrounding the Fragments with each book, but there is still a lot that is unclear.

To summarize: This was a fun and exciting third book in this series. This is such a lovely cozy fantasy series with an adventurous vibe. The characters are all interesting and likable and I enjoyed seeing how their newest party member Keza fits in with the group. The party has now arrived in a coastal town and have to wait till the festival has ended before they can book passage on a boat across the sea. I liked seeing them participate in the festival and find out more about this town and their culture. The ending was exciting and I liked seeing how their adventure in this town got wrapped up and how they start their next part of the journey. There’s a bit of an ongoing mystery surrounding the fragments and this book furthers that.

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

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.