What is up my little book nerds, it’s Monday, and it’s a gorgeous/horrible day (delete as appropriate), and I think it’s time I talked about some books that I really really REALLY should have talked about before. Thats right, in honour of Viper-thon being announced (you can check out my post here), and the imminent release of Vulture, I’m FINALLY talking about Viper and Venom, by the heartbreaker herself, Bex Hogan.
Viper and Venom both take place in the Isles of Storm & Sorrow series, so there will be some spoilers ahead. If you want to avoid them, go read the books (you won’t regret it) then come back and we can sob together. But, if you either don’t care or already know, feel free to forge ahead. Today is going to be a breakneck, not comprehensive recap and then review of Viper, and tomorrow will be Venom, so come back for that.
Viper tells the story of Marianne, daughter of the vicious and remorseless Adler, Viper of the King’s Navy. You see, the Viper was originally a role created to protect the seas around the Eastern Isles from bandits, invasion, and now whatever mystery befell the Western Islands. Except, somewhere along the way, he decided that it would be much better [read: more profitable] for him to become a bandit himself, raising his crew of loyal, highly trained Snakes to become the most feared crew on the seas. Feared by the wrong people, though, because the bandits run amok and merchant vessels dread the appearance of the Maiden’s Revenge, the Viper’s ship. Doesn’t sound like the easiest place to grow up, but Marianne manages it, but instead of wanting to kill, she wants to heal, desperate to reverse some of the evils wrought by her father.
The problem is, she’s destined to be the Viper herself, and the only way to get that job is to prove to her father that she has the stomach, the nerve, the sheer ruthlessness to complete the tests Adler sets out for her. And she won’t.
As the story unfolds, we find out about her relationship with the islands, the rest of the Snakes onboard the Maiden, her strange trainer/confidant/friend Grace, who is more than she appears and is willing to let on, and the long simmering love with Bronn (also known as, my sweet cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure), someone she’s known for her whole life and has a… complicated… past with. And then theres the whole matter of her being betrothed to Torin, Prince of the Eastern Isles (who’s actually in love with his best friend but they can’t be together because the king is homophobic (and also a MASSIVE douche) and theres a whole cluster of mess around that) in order to cement Adler’s authority over the seas. Honestly, there are so many weird love triangle parallelograms going on, its insane.
As Marianne becomes more and more sure of herself, she suffers some setbacks. The family she stays with after running away from her father are killed by him, to show her that she has no safe place to run, the whole island razed to the ground; she’s crippled by a fear of deep water (weird living on a ship but 1) I relate and 2) theres a very good reason, all linked to her complicated love, Bronn); the King is not who or what he appears, and issue slimy and sneaky, its like playing three simultaneous games of chess with an octopus while you’re hands are covered in hagfish slime.
By the end of Viper, we find out that Marianne has Royal Heritage, and is both heir to the throne of the Western Islands, and the potential to become a powerful Mage. You see, the Islands used to be linked, ruled by friends, until some terrible magical accident severed those ties, causing an invisible border between East and West, that no-one has crossed in a century, and for magic to be eradicated from the East. There’s magic, sea dragons, and Marianne finally becomes the Viper, even though she maybe doesn’t want to be. It’s amazing. The final showdown is just I N C R E D I B LE and I love it.
[Authors note: I said it would be a breakneck recap and it definitely was, but I missed out a lot, and STILL rambled for a few hundred words. At this point, you really should have just read the book. It’s not the touch longer…]
So, clearly, I loved this book. It was one of the first proofs I ever got from work, and I remember picking it up because it was pretty, forgetting about it for month, reading it, and hating myself for not reading it sooner. The characters are amazing, they grow and evolve and have all the flaws that real humans have, and sometimes really struggle to get over them, but also have the awareness of whats going on with themselves and the world around them to make positive changes. Bronn, who’s designed (I think) to be the surly love interest is my favourite. He’s so gruff and blustery but loves Marianne so much, even if he doesn’t necessarily admit it, that you can tell he’s actually just a teddy bear wearing the costume of a murderous pirate assassin. He’s like a reverse Five Nights at Freddy’s character; terrifying (yet intimidatingly hot) on the outside, and a giant marshmallow on the inside. I love him.
If you’re a fan of fantasy, pirates, if you’ve ever played the Assassins Creed games, you will enjoy this. There’s action, adventure, romance, magic, and more twists and turns than Rainbow Road. AND, it continues and gets even more twisty, dark, and complex in Venom, but thats a story for another day…
Have you read Viper? Let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter, and I’ll see you in the next one!
A Boy with a Book 
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