The Watermight Thief

The Fire Queen's Apprentice, Book 1

By: Jordan Rivet

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

Welcome to Pendark, a city of murky canals, brutal gladiator fights, and sorcerers who feud over access to the silvery magical substance known as Watermight.

Tamri is a scrappy magic thief who’s trying to get her grandmother out of this festering swamp of a city. But when a quick score involving a dragon goes wrong, she’s shipped off to a distant mountaintop kingdom where the legendary Fire Queen is starting a school for magic wielders.

Tamri's not just going there to learn. The King of Pendark suspects the Fire Queen is up to something more dangerous than training young wielders, and he orders Tamri to find out the truth. If she fails, neither she nor her grandmother will survive the school year.

©2019 Jordan Rivet (P)2019 Jordan Rivet

Lightning is a jealous mistress

This book starts off with Tamri stealing watermight and a dragon. She is immediately caught and wrapped up in a tangle of mess. While Sel, the Princess of Vertigonia, ends up interceding on her behalf where Tamri ends up in her lands to study at a magic school run by the Fire Queen. The King of Pendark doesn’t trust the Fire Queen and uses this opportunity to spy on her. Holding Tamri to an unbreakable oath with her grandmother as leverage, Tamri has no choice but to spy. Meanwhile, Sel is to travel to Sool to meet her fiance who she finds out has been missing.

I honestly was not expecting to like this book so much. The description seemed like a generic fantasy novel but I love my fantasy so I decided to give it a try. This was anything but a generic fantasy tale. I did not read her first set of novels, but not once did I feel lost in this world. I wish I had a little more background of the war that took place but it didn’t dampen the story at all. Everything was paced so well and I truly enjoyed each part of the story. It was surprising that the two points of view were given. Based on the description I was only expecting Tamri’s story but I really enjoyed Sel’s part of the book as well. Both of them on separate adventures but eventually everything blends together. Each storyline had my full interest and I never wanted one over the other.

Along with both interesting storylines, each character was interesting. I loved Tamri’s loyalty to her grandmother. Even though she knows the King of Pendark is an evil guy, she will do what she must. Along her time in Vertigonia, she comes to appreciate the friends she makes and the school there as well. I thought the oath was very clever because usually I have issues with miscommunication but she literally couldn’t tell the royal family of the King’s plan even if she wanted to. Sel was also very enjoyable. She was so smart and I liked the way the royal family was very good. It was also nice to see an arranged marriage, who Sel arranged for herself, work out! All of these things really made it easy to connect to the characters. I cannot wait to see what happens next in this series with these girls.

Overall, this was a fantastic book. With so many different elements to the story and an interesting magical system, I was never bored. The secrecy and discoveries were all paced out so well that I wanted to keep continuing the novel. I highly recommend this book for those who love elemental magic with strong main characters.

Caitlin Kelly was meant to narrate this story. I’ve listened to one other book by her, but she was perfect. I really enjoyed listening to her bring both of these characters to life. She made it very easy to distinguish which point of view and the different importance of each scene. This is an audiobook I would recommend if you were planning on reading this book.

Absolutely Rivet-ing!

This story took me surprise! Not only was it refreshingly original, the narraration was simply fantastic! ❤ I highly suggest this book!!

A great book with a annoying problem

First off, I listened to the Fire and Steel series before listening to this book. The 5 book series was great, and this book has plenty of returning characters. I really enjoyed it for that fact. That being said, you don't need to have experienced them to love The Watermight Thief.

Jordan does an excellent job in this book (as usual). Her characters are her strong suit, in my opinion, and the new protagonist, Tamri, was no exception. She has believable depth and complexity to her emotion.

Sometimes I wish Jordan would show her world and characters more than she would tell about them. For me, this is especially true with her world building, but she did grant a request in this book that I had been saying since book 2.

The annoying problem is a bit of a spoiler.

a couple of SPOILERS.

The world building that i was speaking of were Thunderbirds. Jordan had characters referring to Thunderbirds left and right, and she finally showed them. It was only brought out when the plot demanded them, but sure, whatever. I wish that I would see more of her unique world, rather than just hear about Zur-Wasps and various types of bears.

The annoying problem that I had with the book: the main character gets forced into a water oath. This oath is forcing Tamri to spy and report back to the person who did this to her, and she cannot speak about the oath at all, or she will break the oath and die.

This sets up a plot where no one can figure Tamri out, and they have horrible and simple communication issues the entire book. This was not the worst version of something like this that I have seen, but it got very tiring quickly. I kept hoping Tamri would find a clever way around her oath, but Jordan never took that route.

I give The Watermight Thief a 4/5

Fantastic!

First, the narrator does a fantastic job of switching between voices. The story aside,her vocals we're pleasant, captivating, and enjoyable to listen to. She really brought the characters to life!

Second, I have not read the other series that takes place in this world, however, I can say that this book is very enjoyable and understandable without reading the other series. I thoroughly enjoyed the world this book is set in and that the magic aspect of the story is done differently than the average story containing magic and it works incredibly! I do not want to give away any spoliers, so I will just say that I am looking forward to the next book so I can see how the characters hand what comes next and how the relationships develop, the hard part will be waiting!!!

Fun YA magical dragon romp!

This is the story of two women, Tamri and Selivia. Tamri is a gutter urchin in the city of Pendark, who uses her ability to wield Watermight to steal it and sell it to the highest bidder. She does this primarily to make money to take care of her ailing grandmother. But one day, she gets roped into being a spy for the King of Pendark, and sent to gather information in the mountain kingdom where the Fire Queen runs a school for students to learn to use the magical substances, Watermight, Fire, and Air.

Selivia is the sister-in-law to the Fire Queen, and is on her way to a neighboring kingdom as she is betrothed to a nobleman there. Their betrothal is hopefully going to strengthen the alliance between those countries. But when she gets there, she finds out that her betrothed has gone missing. Selivia investigates his disappearance, which is likely due to his latest research on magical substances. Seems he may have gotten himself into some shenanigans.

This book apparently takes place after the events of a different series by this author, and it should be said that I have not read that series at all end yet had no trouble getting enjoyment from this book. This was a dragon-filled YA romp through several different lands. I started out not completely convinced that I was going to like it. Mainly because I didn’t start out really liking Tamri as a character, but it also took me a while to get really into the story. I did get there, though. This one got markedly more interesting as it went along, and as Tamri grew as a character, I was more and more on board. I listened to the last half of this one in one sitting, to put that in a bit of perspective.

The magic system is somewhat similar to Avatar’s idea of bending, though people are able to wield more than one element and require a specific magical substance to do anything. Each region in this world has a source of at least one of the magical substances, and so it is more likely that people from that region will learn what is the most available. Tamri starts out being quite talented with Watermight, as that is what there is abundant in Pendark, and yet learns to somewhat control Fire while at the Queen’s school where Fire is more abundant. There is consequence to not learning both at once from the beginning though. Because she is already so proficient with Watermight, it hurts Tamri to wield Fire, and she struggles to find ways to overcome this weakness. I enjoyed that the magic system had this complexity, consequences for its use and so on.

There is a bit of romance in store for each of the main characters, and I will admit that I was absolutely on board for both of them. The relationships were quite cute at times, and fleshed out really well, and as the book went on and I started to like the characters more and more, I cheered for them to end up happy in the end. The romance between Tamri and her beau felt a little rushed at times, considering his circumstances with other characters, but ultimately I cheered for the two of them.

As this was an audiobook, I have to say that the narrator, Caitlin Kelly did a pretty great job. She has a great tone of voice for narrating teenage/early twenties female characters, and I found that she made Tamri and Selivia seem more real to me. There are a few accents sprinkled here and there as well, which gave it a bit of depth that I probably wouldn’t have experienced in the print version.

So, all told, I thought this was a well-written and enjoyable YA romp, with a slower start, but plenty of action, intrigue, magic, romance, and dragons overall. After that ending, I’m interested to see where this series goes!

Great story!

I was given a copy for an honest review of the book..
I really enjoyed this story and look forward to seeing where the author takes it next. I love magic, dragons, romance, and the spying. I think it could have been a little edgier, but I feel like this is a great read that won't leave you with an awful hangover.

An Epic Series!

You have no idea how excited I was to figure out that this series was a follow up series to this author's Fire and Steel series. I didn't know how much I missed all these characters until I stepped back into this world.

While this book is a follow up series to a previous series, it could still be read without reading the other series, though it would spoil the ending of that series and some of the characters might not have quite the meaning to the reader as they do if you read the other series first.

Five years after the ending of the previous series, we get to see where Siv, Dara, and the rest have ended up and how they are doing. The main characters in this book are a new character Tamri from Pendark and Princess Celivia (no idea how to spell since I have listened to the audiobooks of both series). Cel has a lot of unfinished business with Latch Brack, and I was so glad we are getting the conclusion of her story in this series.

The stakes are already so high in this book! The happy ending that they worked so hard to achieve is in peril. Can't wait for the next book!

Also, this book has the same narrator as the previous series, which also made it feel like stepping back into the same world and same characters. The narrator does an amazing job! Caitlin Kelly is one of my favorite narrators, and I was so glad she was able to narrate this series since it keeps all the voices the same as the previous series.

10/5 stars

Ok, Jordan Rivet is AMAZING. She's definitely on my top 5 list of authors. I read this novel once about a year ago, adored it, and went back and read the Steel and Fire series. I think if you just want to read this story you totally can! I was never lost and still devoured it, but reading it the second time with all the context from the other series made it even more enjoyable! I actually stayed up all night to finish this one, and it was my second time! Rivet's writing is so beautiful in every way. The characters are thoughtful, and deep. They immediately force you to connect with them, whether good or bad, and you can't help but feeling for them and falling in love with them. It was amazing to be in a world I've grown to love so much, with magical elements that make you imagine you're there. All together I'd give this 10/5 stars.

The Watermight Thief

Dragons and magic, action and adventure... I loved it! A great start to what I hope will be a long series.

I was impressed with the original and well written story by Jordan Rivet. My interest was captured early on, and was held throughout.

The narration by Caitlin Kelly was well done and I would not hesitate to listen to more of her performances.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

Exciting fantasy adventure

Confession - this is the first book I've experienced by Jordan Rivet, and I absolutely loved it. I loved the pacing throughout the story. As an audio book, it took a few chapters to be fully comfortable with the switching perspectives; however, this didn't interrupt the flow of the story in any way. There are enough mysteries and surprises to keep you engaged throughout the story as well as leave you dying to have the next story in the series.

JK Rowling meets Trudi Canavan

I was introduced to this book by the author on a facebook page. After reading the synopsis I decided it was the kind of thing I would usually read and decided to give it a go. All I can say is, where is the sequel already? I've been in a reading funk for quite some ti.e and this managed to get me out of it. The characters are well thought out and well written, likeable where necessary, despicable where needed. The story itself has been done several times before. Underdog gets into trouble with higher powers, charms them all, has her biggest critic fall in love with her and eventually comes to save the day. It's been done so many times that it's now difficult to write a story which feels original, remains engaging and keeps me turning the pages. Somehow Jordan Rivet manages it. I find her style and story telling to be a mix of JK Rowling and Trudi Canavan, I believe fans of either author will like this book. Coming from me, this is high praise indeed as they're my two favourite writers. I truly hope the sequel is already in progress and can't wait to read it.

A great fantasy story

The Watermight Thief.

This was the first Jordan Rivet book that I have read, so I was not sure what to expect. I have to admit the cover is what caught my eye originally, it is absolutely stunning.

Once I started the book, I found it to be a really interesting story, in an intriguing world, which I would love to see a map of.
I listened to the audiobook version, which I have to say I really enjoyed. The narration is brilliant. Caitlin Kelly read it well. The characters were really interesting, I liked the contrast between the two narrative perspectives. Tamri and Selivia, one of which is a family orientated, poor thief from the swamps of Pendark, the other a princess. Both of which are strong female leads. Story wise I enjoyed it very much, and yes there are dragons, and dragon riders. Who could resist anything dragon? Need I say more.

I will have to read the prequel now, Steel and Stone, as I have heard that the characters, such as Selivia are in it. I would love to get a greater insight into them.

Overall a great read.