Sarah M. Cradit

First things first, I was seriously impressed with the interior of this book. The book is split into a few different sections and before each section was a gorgous piece of artwork that represented the coming chapters. This, my friends, is what Indie publishing can be.
Now, on to the story. I loved how much of a spitfire Yesenia was. She brought so much life to the story and handled her new environment very well. I also loved her influence on her husband. He was quite a pushover at the beginning of the story, but eventually stood up for himself and Yesenia.
Another aspect of the book that I liked was that the characters spoke with a bit of an accent, and that was portryated in the spelling of words. None of it was difficult to understand, and honestly, it was my favorite part.
As a fair warning, there are a lot of politics between the kingdoms in the beginning of the story. There were a lot of names and it was a lot to keep up with. I ended up having to skim that section, but it did not detract from the story at all.
I would recommend The Sylvan and the Sand for fans of Serpent & Dove and The Bridge Kingdom.

Tropes: forced marriage, enemies to lovers

Content: there were some *ahem* married scenes (easy to skip), attempted r*pe (stopped), Yesenia's past love wanted a relationship with her even though they were both married (she said no), mentions of Yesenia's previous romantic relationships, made up and real cursing

Note: Technically this is listed as YA, however due to the subject matter and content, I would call it NA.

4 Stars

*I received a copy of this book from the author. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.… (más)

1970 was an interesting read. It was chaotic with so many lines - so many characters to get to know and understand. The chaos within the family further drives the steady feeling of getting pulled under a current. I enjoyed getting to know each of the siblings - but I can't help but feel that if they had just sat down to talk to each other, talk honestly, that half the problems would be resolved instantly. Which would redact the book by half.

I am honestly intrigued by the whole family and can't wait to finish the series. Provided the following books can keep my interest.… (más)

With complex characters and beautiful world building this book is going to be a favorite for many YA fantasy readers! With being able to feel the emotions, the struggles, the heartbreak of the characters you can't help but become invested! Even though it is a fantasy novel I didn’t have any problems relating to the characters! This book was a great start to a new series! The world building in this book is absolutely beautiful! I think that each book in this series is going to be based on a different couple and normally I prefer urban fantasy but I can't wait to be able to revisit this amazing fantasy land again! Happy reading everyone!

Thank you Book of Matches Media and Sarah Cradit for my gifted copy and for having me on the tour!
… (más)