Coe is one of less than five hundred people alive on the island of Tides. Every day, they must get in a formation and pray the water doesn't take them this time. For Coe, however, the tides aren't the only thing threatening her survival. With part of one of her arms missing and her small frame, she is seen as the weakest on the island, which is why Coe is shocked when she is summoned to the royal house to wait on Princess Star. Soon, secrets start piling up, and Coe will discover that everything she knows isn't what it seems.

DROWNED by Nichola Reilly is a captivating novel that you will have a hard time putting down. The life on the island is completely engrossing and the world building that derives from that is stunning. I love all the details from the formations to the jobs they have to the ship they build every once in a tide to send someone on an Explore. Coe is a wonderful main character that readers won't have any trouble connecting to. She's intelligent, but few hardly ever give her the chance to talk because they see her as weak. She doubts her own strength until she is tested again and again and has to find out just how strong she is.

The plot is intense, and some of the twists will make your head spin. There is some romance with Coe, Finn, and Tiam, but it is rarely ever what you think. Though there is great action beforehand, the action that takes place in about the last quarter of DROWNED is absolutely heart-pounding and unleashes so many new questions as well as some new answers.

Full of water, strength, love, and betrayal, Nichola Reilly crafts an unforgettable story that will leave you begging for the sequel. I completely love DROWNED and want to read it again and again.