*Note: I was given this book by the author in exchange of an honest review.
Pembrim: The Hidden Alcove is a magical story filled with wonderful creatures and ever lasting friendships. It was written by Bree Lenehan, being her debut novel. Bree is an Australian radio personality, singer, and author.
Let's start with what I LIKED about this book. First of all, the world was ​​marvelous! With the majority of the story set underwater, we get to meet plenty of different creatures, each unique and mesmerizing. We have a whole village with different tribes, unlike us physically, but similar enough to being able to feel what we, humans, are able to: pain, hope...love. We're also introduced to this really cute beings called Spirit Companions, which the author herself compares to what dogs mean to us; they're ​​special creatures, whose sole existence depends on someone else entirely, loyal to the bone, with varied names and abilities to each one of them. Now, there's one thing I adored about this world building: the M'Deian language. I truly love it when authors include this sort of things in their stories, it just makes them even better for me, as if I was actually entering a whole new world.
Furthermore, the characters were great, specifically Seiko and Tesumi. When we're first introduced to them, we see them through Halia's eyes as enemies, but as we get to know them better and as Halia starts to become closer to them, especially to Seiko, we realize they mean well, and we also realize that while not everyone in the tribe truly accepts Halia, they won't harm her. Seiko is a sweet, caring, wise and lovable old female, who happens to be Halia's first friend in M'deia. Tesumi is a warrior, a member of the Hytor, who at first doesn't want to accept Halia, but always tries to protect her, at first out of duty and later out of friendship. I also enjoyed Yukomo's story, I think it was a cute bonus, he's young, innocent, honest and really brave.
Moreover, there's one theme I liked: forgiveness. The author created a very merciful ending with this very theme, not very realistic (we'll get to that in a moment...), but trying to get the protagonist to come to a solution for the main conflict of the story in a peaceful way was a sweet touch.
I think we, the audience, can see how thoroughly immersed the author was when creating the world through the language she uses, which makes me think she put a lot of effort into it.
Now. Let's dive into what I DIDN'T LIKE. I was not a fan of Bree's writing style, I don't know if it's just
me, but sometimes the imagery was a tad confusing and hard to follow; sometimes I felt like the change of scene was a little abrupt or I found myself a little lost and I had to reread the scene. Besides this, it had, in my opinion, a very slow beginning, it didn't really catch my attention until I was about 50 pages in.
Regarding the story, I did not like Halia, here's why: I don't think she's that smart, she often made choices I did not like, I think when certain questions had to be asked she didn't ask them, she let a lot of information just slide by, for example, there's a scene when a certain word is mentioned,
making reference to Luke, and at the time she didn't know the meaning of it, afterwards she is told the meaning of that word and she's just like... 'Mmm sounds familiar, where have I heard it b​​efore​? Doesn't matter' and she just forgets. When her background was explained to her she, again, didn't ask enough questions nor did she make the kind of questions I though she would.
I think the story was too optimistic and unrealistic. I am not a fan of instalove, which is something we
can see in this book (although it is addressed by the characters involved that they didn't know each other well enough and that they should start there before moving forward; although this is said in the last chapters). Halia was also too trusting, like she literally almost walked into a trap because of this, I mean being naive is not a crime, but it's just something I didn't like about her.
As a conclusion, this book entertained me, and I liked some of its characters, the world is very unique and creative, however the writing style and the aspects I mentioned above made me love neither the storyline nor the protagonist. I wish it had been more captivating. Taking all of the mentioned before into consideration I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. Pembrim: The Hidden Alcove, a story filled with innocence, fantastical creatures and some great characters. I'd recommend it to people who have just begun exploring fantasy novels, or who are looking for a light urban fantasy read.