NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK Filled with all of the action, emotion, and lyrical writing that brought readers to Sky in the Deep, New York Times bestselling author Adrienne Young returns with Fable, the first book in this new captivating duology. Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. … dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men.
As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.
But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.
Fable takes you on a spectacular journey filled with romance, intrigue and adventure.
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I could taste the salt in the air and feel the waves beneath the Marigold. In a brutal world Fable shines as tenacious yet vulnerable, unafraid to do what she must to survive. This story caught me by the throat and refused to let go!
This book is as stunning as its cover – it’s breathtaking adventure on the open sea, and I loved every minute of it. It’s atmospheric and intense, the writing as beautiful as the unexpected love story and tangled family ties. It holds an ensemble cast real enough to jump off the pages and a wave-tossed world that’s incredibly easy to get sucked into. I already can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel!
I fell in love with this YA novel because Young is amazing at her world-building and character development, as well as hooking you from the start. I loved the magical realism of the storyline and the winsome, tough-on-the-outside-but-tender-inside heroine. Also, it features a great narrator in the audio version. I went straight to book 2, NAMESAKE, and am hoping there’s a third in the works!
I received an ebook copy from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and let me tell you, I was not disappointed! This is the first title I have read from Adrienne Young and will not be the last. I adored this book so much that I finished it in a day and today I preordered a signed copy! Action, adventure, and intrigue abound in this epic tale and while it does end with a cliff hanger I don’t care because the sequel will be out in March and I have a feeling it will be well worth the wait. This YA, pirate romance adventure is where it’s at!
I had low expectations because I didn’t enjoy Sky In the Deep, but Fable WOWed me. Young’s writing has grown a lot; what was once a weed is now a flower. The story was great but sometimes predictable. The world building and character development were fantastic. Still overly dedescriptive at parts but it didn’t drag down the pace that much. I must read book 2, especially after that cliffhanger!! A solid 4 stars and a favorite of the year.
Thank you to #netgalley for providing a copy to review.
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I physically read this for my original read, then listened the audio for my reread and the audio is so, so good! I am not an audiobook person normally, but I loved this one on audio.
I gave Fable a 3/5 after my first read, but I’m bumping it up to a 4/5. I had never read a book like this (about pirates/sailing) and I could not tell you a single thing about sailing and ships. This book was written in a way that assumes the reader knows terms relating to sailing, without any explanation. Do you necessarily NEED to know specific terms? Probably not, but I wanted to. Because of this, I didn’t get into the first part of the book because I was stopping to research things about sailing. I’ve read more pirate/sailing books since the first time I read this and learned the terms more, so I didn’t have that issues on my reread.
I do want to say that while romance is listed as one of the top genres on goodreads, the romance is very subtle. I am a romance reader, and found myself searching and waiting for it, only for it to not really happen. There are some moments, but I would suggest going into this expecting a fantasy with very minor romance, not going in thinking that it’s a fantasy romance novel.
I really enjoyed all of the characters and their development through the book. I look forward to reading Namesake and hopefully getting to see more of the Marigold crew. Even Saint has me super intrigued, and I’m curious about his level of involvement in Namesake.
Fable’s steady pace and atmospheric tone put the reader on a ship, sailing on a gripping adventure.
Excellent Protagonist
I was a bit apprehensive reading Fable. When I read The Girl the Sea Gave back by Young; I was not impressed. The characterization there was lackluster and did not captivate me in the slightest.
However, I am happy to note that that is not the case here. Fable is a fantastic character, fierce, strong, a survivor through and through. However, her experiences, while they harden her, do not strip her of her humanity and empathy.
Abandoned by her father after their ship is destroyed by a storm, taking her mothers’ life with it, Fable was told to survive, challenged by her father to survive. Moreover, she survived on land in the middle of the ocean disconnected from the mainland for four years. The disconnected bleeds into her narrative, making her a compelling protagonist.
Fable’s journey is all about finding a home, finding a place to belong, something to anchor her so that she is not sailing alone through the wind. Finally, Fable finds that family on the Marigold. Family is not always defined by blood but rather by those dearest to you, blood or not. Nevertheless, she is ruthless; she understands what it means to be at sea, that loving someone is dangerous, and the best way to keep it alive and the heart safe is to keep it secret behind all locked doors.
Captivating Story
Fable is not a fast-paced story. It certainly has pirate aspects, with the ship and trader vessels functioning like pirate ships. However, the story does not fly by. However, neither is it slow.
Fable flows at a steady pace and is more character-driven than anything else. The story is one of survival, love, and keeping love secret and safe amidst the torrents and storms. Moreover, that is how the story evolves. Fable is atmospheric; it moves like the waves on the sea, capturing the storms, capturing the taste and clarity of the sea air.
Young’s writing is lyrical as well; the way Fable reminisces of her mother, her father, her time at sea both before and after her father’s abandonment. This writing style was something I think lacked from The Girl the Sea Gave Back; the writing lacked personality and atmosphere. Fable does not.
Young imbues every page with such an intense atmosphere, and the steady pace just makes the novel so incredibly captivating.
Final Thoughts
Fable is a fantastic novel, captivating from beginning to end. A character-driven story that drives the plot forward in an engaging way.
Really good read, totally wasn’t expecting this book to be a pirate story but I’m glad it was! Super easy to read and getting attached to the characters was totally doable. I could have done with less of the lovey-dovey stuff with some of the characters and just had more action and world-building into the mix but overall I really enjoyed this read. My wife and I read it together side by side so it was a really neat and exciting experience to bounce ideas off each other and talk about what we liked about the book.
I’d read several reviews praising this book and finally got around to reading it after letting it languish in my kindle for months. Honestly, by the time I finished chapter 3, I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. As soon as I read the last page, I moved on to the second book in the duology.
The worldbuilding is rich but not overly laden with detail – there’s just enough to bring the setting to life. The story takes place on sailing ships. “Dredgers” harvest gems from the coral beds, and in this world, gems are the foundation of wealth and trade. While some get rich, dredgers like Fable, barely scrape by. It’s a brutal world for those without power, and no one gets a break.
Fable’s a survivor with a lot of emotional baggage, special talent, and fearless determination. But she’s all alone – abandoned by her father when her mother died. Then she finds a ship where she might have a chance to belong. And just when that dream seems to be coming true…
This book is a fast-paced adventure with memorable characters and a touch of romance. It’s a great set up for all the intrigue that unfolds in book 2 (which I already finished). Highly recommended to fantasy readers.
Cliffhanger Ahead
First off… can we talk about this cover?! This duology is just stunning to look at!!!
This is an entertaining story about a girl named Fable and her adventure to get back to her father. Fable is a fighter and a survivor, willing to stop at nothing as she finds a place for herself in the world.
Much of this story is like an onion, little pieces of the truth are pulled back slowly to reveal the true story that lays beneath.
This was a quick and easy read, though I did crave more from it. I wanted a bit more action, a touch more of the romance between Fable and West, and more emotion to the scenes with Saint. Overall, it was a slow burn but it was still enjoyable.
Loved this!
4.75 stars??? that’s such a weird rating i know, but this was just so close to five stars for me. the only reason i didn’t give it 5 is because it did take me a little bit to get into the story and i also was just confused by some of the boat terminology?? i had to google parts of boats because terms were being thrown around that i had no clue what they were. maybe i’m just dumb, who knows. THE REST OF THIS BOOK THOUGH. i love this genre of fantasy that contains ocean settings so much and this is definitely the best book i’ve read within it so far. i loved all the characters and how i got to see more information about them uncovered throughout the book, and i can’t wait to see more of them in namesake. i liked that the world was well developed but still very simple. a lot of fantasy books have such huge and intimidating maps that i have no chance of memorizing, but this book’s geography was super easy to understand. also being able to see fable after such a hard last few years truly find a place where she feels she belongs was so nice. the ending though?? that was so sick.
A little torn on how to rate.
It didn’t get good for me until around 70% and I wish it hadn’t taken THAT long to get interesting. I originally wasn’t planning on reading the next one in the series but this ends on a big cliffhanger and it got good enough that I’d like to find out what happens.
I think I really would’ve enjoyed reading in middle/high school.
A wonderful adventure for readers of all ages! If Captain Hook had a daughter with Ariel, Fable would be who I imagined. An exciting tale on the sea, with twists of mystery that will have you turning the page as fast as you can read. I was immediately drawn in and couldn’t be pulled away until I finished and I’ll be doing a re-read before the next one!
4.5
I absolutely love Fable and her adventures. Original writing made this book so wonderful, I could not put it down! I devoured it in one sitting.
I’ll definitely recommend this one without thinking twice.
Guys. WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO READ THIS.
Really. This book was amazing. I completely binge read it and can I be Fable when I grow up?
For real.
She was everything. I literally loved everything about her. She was strong and fierce and she did what she had to to survive.
This novel was a wild ride. Treasure and pirates and mysteries and fighting to survive and WEST. Literally just him. I could read scenes from these two ALL DAY LONG.
This book kept you on edge and full of hope and angst and it is one of those books that has you yelling at the pages because you just can’t hold it in.
It was perfection and I cannot wait to dive into Namesake because I know it will everything we need it to be and more.
I am ready to see Fable take the entire world down around her, for her and her crew.
What a great book! I had so much fun reading it!
That cliffhanger! This was one of the better pirate stories that I have read. It kept me engaged and had real characters with real problems that they were going through. It was well-written and I wanted to o know about the character’s back stories.
This was a good pick from Reese’s Book Club. I am thinking about getting the sequel at some point.
Loved the strong, badass 17 year old that is Fable. She is a great character. She has been living 4 years on an island for thieves that her father dropped her off at after her mother sank with their ship The Lark.
I loved her tenacity to do what she needs to do in order to get off the island and prove to her father that she is made for this life on the seas as a trader.
She enlists, more like practically coerces, the help of West to get off the island. She learns many things about West and his crew along the way and I loved the relationships that develop among them.
Dangerous adventure on the high seas, lost treasure, love and survival all make for storyline that ensured me from page one to the surprising ending.
So glad Namesake is already here for me to begin
Meh. It was ok.
Jesus this book got a lot of hype and I guess it really was one of the cases were everyone judged the book by it’s cover. lol The cover is stunning but I can’t say I loved this book.
It is VERY YOUNG adult, I guess I would even recommend it to middle schoolers if you ask me.
I struggled to read the entire first half of the book because it was simply WAY TOO BORING. The lack of dialogues, excessive description of things we really don’t care about, no action what so ever and nothing changed for a total of 200 PAGES! Literally, after page 200 things started to get slightly more interesting. The pace picked up slightly and a few interesting things happened but man, this was harder than it was supposed to be to get through. West is an annoying character, her father is an annoying character, the villain in this book is an annoying character, none of them are really convincing, except for West’s sister. Her relationship with Fable is the only one I enjoyed. Fable is ok, I see her as a good-hearted, hardworking teenager with some daddy issues.
Very very very slow paced, a lot of boring extensive descriptions of walls, streets and smells. The ending was meh, the whole thing was meh and I still can’t say if I liked this book or not. I don’t know if I will pick up namesake, it just feels like a chore at this point.
I might read namesake just so I can give a more informed review about this series, but for now I don’t have a lot of good things to say.
I really wanted to like this book. This wasn’t at all what I was expecting from the fuss people threw over this duology. 2/5. Like I said before, I would not recommend this book to anyone over the age of 16 to be honest. I think middle schoolers might enjoy it more.