Onto the story! The Drowned Woods is set in the Kingdoms of Wales, and our main character Mererid (‘Mer’) is the last living water diviner, able to manipulate water. She’s on the run from the Prince after previously being “his” water diviner, but one day her former father figure approaches her with an offer that would help her get revenge on the Prince. this was a solid 4 star read the entire book, up until i read the epilogue. it explains how this story is connected to ‘the bone houses’ and i gasped! its literally the most perfect thing, so im rounding up!

Beautiful lyrical fairytale prose with an opening that gripped me tightly and did not let me go until the very end. Emily Lloyd-Jones has outdone herself. The Drowned Woods was so beautiful, and is without a doubt my top book of the year so far. I will cherish this book forever, and am so glad to have stumbled across it on Netgalley (thanks to its gorgeous UK cover). Mer's able to fly under the radar working as a barmaid. That is until the day her old handler, Renfrew, the Prince's ex-Spy Master, approaches her with an opportunity to bring the Prince down.

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Full transparency, I hadn't even read The Bone Houses until this month. The reason I was so excited for The Drowned Woods was based on its synopsis alone. It sounded absolutely captivating to me. The Drowned Woods both was and was not what I expected it to be. It is an amazing story which draws you in immediately, told in this lyrical and outright beautiful way. This book isn’t written in what I would call the typical young adult fantasy kind of way. The writing feels a bit more like that you’d find in an adult high fantasy novel which was quite refreshing. While there is in fact a romance subplot, it is by no means the most important part of this book. It heightens the main plot in my opinion without taking over. This crew, I loved watching them all come together and as they set off on their quest, I knew this story was going to be a slam dunk for me. Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict – and eighteen-year-old Mererid ‘Mer’ is well-acquainted with both. As the last living water diviner, she can manipulate water with magic – a unique elemental power many would kill to possess.

Which is extremely ironic because Fane's gift is that he can kill without ever being wounded, and when he is recruited on the heist, his role is to play the muscle for hire. The Drowning Woods follows eighteen-year-old, Water Diviner Mererid "Mer" who has been running from the ruthless prince for years. One day, the prince's spymaster turns up with a proposition to take down the prince and get the vengeance she deserves. the ending. other than the very beginning, the last 15% of this story was the only part i felt engaged in. did the prince situation add up to any sense or plot reward? (-) no. it was underwhelming, and this book has much less to do with the prince than you’d expect. but i appreciated the “plot twist” (ehhh) and everything past that, especially the epilogue.Mer, Fane, the fae-cursed young man, and Trefor in particular were so well developed. I loved watching their relationship build into what it ultimately becomes. I really liked the main character Mer and her powers (she is essentially a superpower water bender). She was smart and resourceful, fierce but also kind. She had some great dialogue and I loved the interactions she had with all the other characters. There was a great mixture of characters with different skills and personalities that created a fun group dynamic. i>Thank you Little Brown and Netgalley for providing me an eARC of this book in return for an honest review. The relationship between the main characters - Mer, Renfrew, Fane, Gryf, Emrik - was so fun to read! I loved the banter and the camaraderie.