Rage of Krakens follows former knight Cai, living in exile after she was accused of witchcraft. Two years earlier, her warship was attacked by the King of Witches. Cai tried to defeat him but was injured in the fight and her ship and its entire crew was lost. Cai only remembers something in the water taking her to safety, an ancient beast deep in the water. Now, Cai is forced to watch over a prisoner, Roiven, the same King of Witches she fought before. Roiven has been enchanted to follow her every command but as things begin to change on the isle where they are both being kept, Cai starts to realize that the Empire she has devoted her life to is not what it seems. The two begin to trust each other, with Cai starting to come around to wanting to help the witches in the war, until Roiven makes a mistake, driving Cai away. Cai has to find the truth about her past and her connection to the Kraken in order to be the force the witches need to keep them from being destroyed by the very force she worked for her entire life.
The world-building in this book was so interesting, every aspect kept my attention and I loved the fact that the world we readers are first given changes over the course of the book. The book starts off on a warship with Cai, where we learn how the Empire runs their ships and what they sacrifice for power and that they are at war with the witches. Within pages we have a big attack on the ship, showing the threat that Cai lives with as a knight and what it means for her to defend her crew. This is only one side of the equation though, for as quick as we are given Cai in battle, as a respected knight, we are just as quickly given Cai in exile on an isle where she has been living for the last two years, seemingly forgotten by the Empire and her adopted father. The world has changed and readers learn the ins and outs of it alongside Cai as she learns them when the King of the Witches is assigned to her as a prisoner to guard. The magic system was the best part of this book, the way the witches used their power and how they bonded to a familiar, explaining it as their bond made the witch and their familiar a part of the same soul, which made their connections resonate so much more compared to how the Empire took power and used their magic for force. I loved seeing the different aspects of the witches as Cai started to interact with them over the course of the book. As the world changes, it also expanded in so many ways, making this world feel real and the battles in it high-stakes for the people in them.
I loved these characters. I'll admit, Cai had a habit of being quick to judge at the start but over the course of this adventure, she starts to recognize when she would need to think something over again and I loved seeing that kind of growth in a character that was so stubborn and strong from the start. Once Roiven enters the picture, I loved the banter between him and Cai, the way they butted heads and hated one another at the start and how the subtle shifts started between them as they began to trust each other. On his own, I loved how Roiven was devoted to his people and to his familiar, how he was willing to do all he could to keep the witches safe and how that, in turn, led to him wanting to help Cai and keep her safe. The cast was filled with so many interesting people, from the witches in hiding that Cai begins to interact with to the people she still cared for from the Empire and even the magical familiars we got to see on the page. I could see how difficult it was for Cai to take the strides necessary to change and yet as she worked to do more, her development was a driving force for the novel. Besides a few characters, nearly every person in this book was worth following and you know a book is great when you're ready to defend its cast of characters to the death.
As for the plot, I knew what we were going to expect with a development but the way it unfolded kept me enthralled with every reveal for Cai. As her connection to Roiven changes and her opinion on the war between the Empire and the Witches starts to expand, it filled me with both joy and a little bit of anger on behalf of Cai. Everything develops naturally, nothing felt extraneous, and by the end of the book, I was so happy with the journey the book took and the way things concluded for its characters. If Caruso ever decides to come back to this world, I would love to see more of these people. The good thing is that the book feels exactly as it should for a stand-alone adventure. All questions were given the answers they needed and the outlook for the future of the characters feel like they are where they need to be to be in a good place.
I loved this book in the end and I'm so grateful I had to opportunity to read and review it. I have my hardcover ordered and I'm waiting patiently for it to come home where I can put it on my shelf with other favorite reads.
Rating on my Scale: 10 Stars, obviously. I loved this book. I know a book is great when I lose time while reading it.
My thanks to Behind the Pages PA and Juliette Caruso for the eARC of this book.
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