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Sea of Broken Glass
Banished from their small, floating village for forbidden magic, can two sisters work together before the harsh crystalline wilderness kills them—or they kill each other?
Elodie—desperate to become the village’s next priestess—hopes to atone for their mother’s magical destruction, still haunting her family after twenty years. Loxy, her younger sister, wants nothing more than to find their mother, banished long ago for the same magic Loxy now hides. Though they are bound by blood, the sisters live in constant contention, always arguing about Loxy’s magic and the danger it poses to their lives in the village.But when a meteor shower full of divine power grants Elodie magic of her own and gives Loxy new power, the two are cast out of their isolated, floating village, just like their mother before them, and into the crystalline wilderness full of dangerous beasts, deadly landscapes, and vicious people. They are destitute and alone when a voice calls to them, one steeped in the very source of their magic… along with a mysterious person who claims they know how to fix everything. With nowhere else to go, Loxy embraces the help and sets out to find the mother she’s certain still lives, and Elodie reluctantly follows.
But with every step, each sister’s hopes for the future deepen the rift between them. When they are finally confronted with the answers to all their questions, the sisters must learn to work together or lose each other—and perhaps their very humanity—forever.
Sea of Broken Glass is an adult fantasy starring two LGBT+ sisters and is filled with an exploration of family dynamics, deconstruction, and the restoration of things that are broken.
Elodie—desperate to become the village’s next priestess—hopes to atone for their mother’s magical destruction, still haunting her family after twenty years. Loxy, her younger sister, wants nothing more than to find their mother, banished long ago for the same magic Loxy now hides. Though they are bound by blood, the sisters live in constant contention, always arguing about Loxy’s magic and the danger it poses to their lives in the village.But when a meteor shower full of divine power grants Elodie magic of her own and gives Loxy new power, the two are cast out of their isolated, floating village, just like their mother before them, and into the crystalline wilderness full of dangerous beasts, deadly landscapes, and vicious people. They are destitute and alone when a voice calls to them, one steeped in the very source of their magic… along with a mysterious person who claims they know how to fix everything. With nowhere else to go, Loxy embraces the help and sets out to find the mother she’s certain still lives, and Elodie reluctantly follows.
But with every step, each sister’s hopes for the future deepen the rift between them. When they are finally confronted with the answers to all their questions, the sisters must learn to work together or lose each other—and perhaps their very humanity—forever.
Sea of Broken Glass is an adult fantasy starring two LGBT+ sisters and is filled with an exploration of family dynamics, deconstruction, and the restoration of things that are broken.
451 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 4, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 5, 2024
Groans: SISTERS!!!
This was abt a 3.5ish read for me, but I’m rounding up instead of my usual round down bc it’s a debut that i want to support, and I want to see more stories like this. SISTERS AS THE FOCUS!!! ugh. I am so happy. Overall, I had a good time with this—the sisters fraught relationship was a great hook for the story and i liked their dynamic; the magic and world building was interesting and engaging, and I love me a complicated goddess/some religious theology/trauma. The hints of queerness (ace & sapphic rep) being there were lovely, and I also loved that they weren’t the focus, the sisters were. I personally love a romance, but I also realllllllly love and wish there were more stories actually focused on familial and platonic bonds more often, especially in things like fantasy and scifi. I think, the reason this one didn’t grab me in a chokehold is that there was something that felt a little young (according to the notes at the end, it was originally YA, and I think that is slightly felt lingering in the tone and some of the sisters interactions) and near the end, it got juuuuust a little bit too heavy handed for my personal tastes, but the bones of it was a relationship i enjoyed, and a really interesting world, and I’d love to see more stories like this one.
This was abt a 3.5ish read for me, but I’m rounding up instead of my usual round down bc it’s a debut that i want to support, and I want to see more stories like this. SISTERS AS THE FOCUS!!! ugh. I am so happy. Overall, I had a good time with this—the sisters fraught relationship was a great hook for the story and i liked their dynamic; the magic and world building was interesting and engaging, and I love me a complicated goddess/some religious theology/trauma. The hints of queerness (ace & sapphic rep) being there were lovely, and I also loved that they weren’t the focus, the sisters were. I personally love a romance, but I also realllllllly love and wish there were more stories actually focused on familial and platonic bonds more often, especially in things like fantasy and scifi. I think, the reason this one didn’t grab me in a chokehold is that there was something that felt a little young (according to the notes at the end, it was originally YA, and I think that is slightly felt lingering in the tone and some of the sisters interactions) and near the end, it got juuuuust a little bit too heavy handed for my personal tastes, but the bones of it was a relationship i enjoyed, and a really interesting world, and I’d love to see more stories like this one.
April 7, 2024
I was intrigued by this novel! I loved the powers related to crystals, salt, and the atmosphere and how both Loxy and Elodie had complicated feelings regarding their powers, religion, and their absent mother. The author used gorgeous descriptions to describe both the physical and the emotional. There were many times I wanted to tell off a character for being mean to the sisters and many times I wanted to hug them for what they experienced with the exile and Elodie coming to terms with her powers.
I adored the following elements and I think readers will too:
-focus on sister relationship
-survival
-questioning teachings
-healing from emotional trauma
-looking for a family member
-protagonists with powers
-strong female protagonists
-flawed yet relatable protagonists
I adored the following elements and I think readers will too:
-focus on sister relationship
-survival
-questioning teachings
-healing from emotional trauma
-looking for a family member
-protagonists with powers
-strong female protagonists
-flawed yet relatable protagonists
featured
January 27, 2025Elodie from Sea of Broken Glass is aromantic asexual!
https://www.tumblr.com/aspeccharacter...
https://www.tumblr.com/aspeccharacter...
June 13, 2026
3.5-ish stars, rounded up because I did quite enjoy most of the book, up until the last fifth or so, where unfortunately my enthusiasm deflated and I felt like it didn't stick the landing.
The story features two sisters on a quest to find their missing mother and figure out to do with their magic in a world where magic-users are seen with fear after they are banished from their home. The younger has had her magic for a long time and loves it; the older has only recently come into having it and very much does not. They meet a spirit (who they take an awfully long time to realize is actually the goddess of death/change they've been taught to fear all their life - the author makes this bleedingly obvious by giving her name as the first syllable of the goddess'), meet a neat crystal-dog hybrid, meet some helpful villagers, have a nice survival trek in the wilderness, and endure some scary adventure caverns, all while re-establishing their family bond. One of them does have a girlfriend at the beginning of the book, and the other is aroace; these are not very large components of the story, for those looking for that, but I appreciated the casual existence of queer people.
The ending started to falter for me when the two sisters Split The Party after a fight. I found the fight frustrating because the younger sister, Loxy, previously had some trepidations about her magic after accidentally hurting someone when she thought she was in control, and they have just found evidence that their mother murdered a bunch of people for a second time. Does either thought ever come up again to make her hesitate? Nope, she's hurt that her older sister, Elodie, suggests they stop looking for their mother after the evidence of mass murder and storms off on her own while thinking about a memory of their own lives. This is mostly framed by both sisters as Elodie abandoning Loxy. How long are they apart? Like a few days. Do they have separate adventures during that time or learn any big lessons? No. Is the journey to reunite important? It's almost entirely glossed over. The only real effect of this separation is that Elodie shows up to the climax 15 minutes later. It felt pretty pointless and made Loxy come across as immaturely stubborn and self-centered in a way that I was not sure was intentional. The writing also becomes much less subtle (Loxy talks about how the sea looked like shattered glass in a memory and then explicitly points out that this was just like how their relationship shattered that day - Elodie then later recalls this exact memory for some reason, even though it seems to not be very important from her perspective) and less refined. The author mentioned that this book went through a lot of drafts and moved between the YA and adult categories and different sub-genres, and I suspect that the last part never caught up to the earlier parts of the story (which are probably shown to others and re-read more often and where people tend to start with editing with the most energy).
The climax also disappointed, because the way to defeat the big bad is to... change up some face paint! I literally paused at this point and went back to see if I had missed a mention of face paint (which is a part of their religion) fulfilling a magic or ritual-magic role. I had not. I also personally wasn't a fan of 'good goddess actually EVIL, evil goddess actually GOOD' that the ending turned into. The author's note also mentions that she's an ex-evangelical and that the deconstruction elements of the story come from that. I don't share her background, but maybe it would be more appealing to those who do. I think I was also expecting that the relationship between the two goddesses (who are also called sisters) would mirror that between the two human sisters more instead of being so black and white.
After the climax, there's a very quick emotional wrap-up and an assurance of a happy ending, while I was sitting there thinking, there's no way that the reunion with girlfriend and dad are going to go well (and I want to see that messiness!). If the author published a sequel or epilogue story just about that reunion and their attempts to reconstruct their whole family, and maybe the full force of their mom being missing for most of their lives hitting the sisters after the emotional high, I'd be extremely into reading that.
All that being said - as I noted at the started, I did quite enjoy most of the story up until the ending. Elodie and Loxy's relationship is complicated from a lot of factors: Loxy's longstanding magic, Elodie's recent magic, their hometown and religion's attitude towards magic, the circumstances that put them on their quest, and Elodie's parentification with their mother's long absence from their lives. They love each other, but it's not an easy relationship, and that's shown in many ways through their journey. The journey itself includes a significant amount of attention paid to survival details earlier on, which are something I like.
The worldbuilding is also very beautiful. While the story doesn't go into much detail on what 'singing' is like (something I would have liked to have seen), it does get across a sense of connection to various elements. There's also a ton of crystals of all kinds featured in the story in many ways and entwined with living things, leading to a gorgeous mental image. I would read another story set in this universe for that alone. One of the types of magic is related to salt, which was interesting and different from other fantasy works I've seen. The characters also grow up in a village literally on top of the sea, which floats much of the year, which made for a nice setting to visualize.
I also liked that when the sisters enter another village far away from their own, they meet a priest who has a different interpretation of their religion. Elodie, who was in training to become a priestess, is taken aback by this. This was an interesting and important moment in her character development, and I also appreciated it since fantasy works often have flat versions of their fantasy religions, and it was nice to see a world with variation.
While I didn't enjoy the ending, I was disappointed to look up the author afterward and see that she hasn't published any other novels or standalone stories yet, because I liked enough of the book to want to try more of her work, while I hope to do in the future.
The story features two sisters on a quest to find their missing mother and figure out to do with their magic in a world where magic-users are seen with fear after they are banished from their home. The younger has had her magic for a long time and loves it; the older has only recently come into having it and very much does not. They meet a spirit (who they take an awfully long time to realize is actually the goddess of death/change they've been taught to fear all their life - the author makes this bleedingly obvious by giving her name as the first syllable of the goddess'), meet a neat crystal-dog hybrid, meet some helpful villagers, have a nice survival trek in the wilderness, and endure some scary adventure caverns, all while re-establishing their family bond. One of them does have a girlfriend at the beginning of the book, and the other is aroace; these are not very large components of the story, for those looking for that, but I appreciated the casual existence of queer people.
The ending started to falter for me when the two sisters Split The Party after a fight. I found the fight frustrating because the younger sister, Loxy, previously had some trepidations about her magic after accidentally hurting someone when she thought she was in control, and they have just found evidence that their mother murdered a bunch of people for a second time. Does either thought ever come up again to make her hesitate? Nope, she's hurt that her older sister, Elodie, suggests they stop looking for their mother after the evidence of mass murder and storms off on her own while thinking about a memory of their own lives. This is mostly framed by both sisters as Elodie abandoning Loxy. How long are they apart? Like a few days. Do they have separate adventures during that time or learn any big lessons? No. Is the journey to reunite important? It's almost entirely glossed over. The only real effect of this separation is that Elodie shows up to the climax 15 minutes later. It felt pretty pointless and made Loxy come across as immaturely stubborn and self-centered in a way that I was not sure was intentional. The writing also becomes much less subtle (Loxy talks about how the sea looked like shattered glass in a memory and then explicitly points out that this was just like how their relationship shattered that day - Elodie then later recalls this exact memory for some reason, even though it seems to not be very important from her perspective) and less refined. The author mentioned that this book went through a lot of drafts and moved between the YA and adult categories and different sub-genres, and I suspect that the last part never caught up to the earlier parts of the story (which are probably shown to others and re-read more often and where people tend to start with editing with the most energy).
The climax also disappointed, because the way to defeat the big bad is to... change up some face paint! I literally paused at this point and went back to see if I had missed a mention of face paint (which is a part of their religion) fulfilling a magic or ritual-magic role. I had not. I also personally wasn't a fan of 'good goddess actually EVIL, evil goddess actually GOOD' that the ending turned into. The author's note also mentions that she's an ex-evangelical and that the deconstruction elements of the story come from that. I don't share her background, but maybe it would be more appealing to those who do. I think I was also expecting that the relationship between the two goddesses (who are also called sisters) would mirror that between the two human sisters more instead of being so black and white.
After the climax, there's a very quick emotional wrap-up and an assurance of a happy ending, while I was sitting there thinking, there's no way that the reunion with girlfriend and dad are going to go well (and I want to see that messiness!). If the author published a sequel or epilogue story just about that reunion and their attempts to reconstruct their whole family, and maybe the full force of their mom being missing for most of their lives hitting the sisters after the emotional high, I'd be extremely into reading that.
All that being said - as I noted at the started, I did quite enjoy most of the story up until the ending. Elodie and Loxy's relationship is complicated from a lot of factors: Loxy's longstanding magic, Elodie's recent magic, their hometown and religion's attitude towards magic, the circumstances that put them on their quest, and Elodie's parentification with their mother's long absence from their lives. They love each other, but it's not an easy relationship, and that's shown in many ways through their journey. The journey itself includes a significant amount of attention paid to survival details earlier on, which are something I like.
The worldbuilding is also very beautiful. While the story doesn't go into much detail on what 'singing' is like (something I would have liked to have seen), it does get across a sense of connection to various elements. There's also a ton of crystals of all kinds featured in the story in many ways and entwined with living things, leading to a gorgeous mental image. I would read another story set in this universe for that alone. One of the types of magic is related to salt, which was interesting and different from other fantasy works I've seen. The characters also grow up in a village literally on top of the sea, which floats much of the year, which made for a nice setting to visualize.
I also liked that when the sisters enter another village far away from their own, they meet a priest who has a different interpretation of their religion. Elodie, who was in training to become a priestess, is taken aback by this. This was an interesting and important moment in her character development, and I also appreciated it since fantasy works often have flat versions of their fantasy religions, and it was nice to see a world with variation.
While I didn't enjoy the ending, I was disappointed to look up the author afterward and see that she hasn't published any other novels or standalone stories yet, because I liked enough of the book to want to try more of her work, while I hope to do in the future.
June 30, 2024
I really enjoyed reading this book! The story was really captivating and, the author, Jenna, does a really good job at creating the magical world based on crystals and other elements of nature.
The story follows Loxy and Elodie, two sisters, and their point of views through alternating chapters. Loxy has had magic pretty much all her life and then Elodie gets similar magic. This causes both of them to be banished from their village home. They embark on a thrilling journey in hopes of finding their mother, who was banished many years ago for having the same type of magic. Their journey is anything but smooth, from a stranger joining them on their journey, crystal wolves, and the unforgiving sea, to needing to rely on their magic to keep them alive and visiting different villages that hold secrets to their religious past. Both Loxy and Elodie discover more of who they are on their journey, both while together and apart.
I was hoping that the characters would have the epiphany about their “travel companion” sooner. It felt a little weird that they didn’t make the connection until closer to the end of the book. You, as the reader, make the connection pretty quickly and the characters just seem to almost play dumb. Because of this, my true rating is 4.5 stars, but we can’t do half stars on here, so I rounded down.
If you like adventurous, fast paced, LGBTQIA+ representation, magic, questioning religion and a story highlighting the importance of a sisterly bond, then The Sea of Broken Glass is for you!
The story follows Loxy and Elodie, two sisters, and their point of views through alternating chapters. Loxy has had magic pretty much all her life and then Elodie gets similar magic. This causes both of them to be banished from their village home. They embark on a thrilling journey in hopes of finding their mother, who was banished many years ago for having the same type of magic. Their journey is anything but smooth, from a stranger joining them on their journey, crystal wolves, and the unforgiving sea, to needing to rely on their magic to keep them alive and visiting different villages that hold secrets to their religious past. Both Loxy and Elodie discover more of who they are on their journey, both while together and apart.
I was hoping that the characters would have the epiphany about their “travel companion” sooner. It felt a little weird that they didn’t make the connection until closer to the end of the book. You, as the reader, make the connection pretty quickly and the characters just seem to almost play dumb. Because of this, my true rating is 4.5 stars, but we can’t do half stars on here, so I rounded down.
If you like adventurous, fast paced, LGBTQIA+ representation, magic, questioning religion and a story highlighting the importance of a sisterly bond, then The Sea of Broken Glass is for you!
June 26, 2024
This is a new author for me and I loved this story a lot. I really connected with the plot, the characters and I highly enjoyed the story. To say this story had two two sisters, Loxy and Elodie, who have an extremely complicated past would be an understatement.
Their lives being turned upside down and inside out as they struggle with who they are and their futures. They embark on a journey to understand themselves and find their place in the world. Their journey really resonated with me. I loved the adventure that kept me on the edge of your seat until the very end of the story.
I received a complimentary kindle version of this book and am voluntarily leaving my review.
Their lives being turned upside down and inside out as they struggle with who they are and their futures. They embark on a journey to understand themselves and find their place in the world. Their journey really resonated with me. I loved the adventure that kept me on the edge of your seat until the very end of the story.
I received a complimentary kindle version of this book and am voluntarily leaving my review.
June 10, 2024
This was an interesting read. The story is that of two sisters with a complicated past and a difficult relationship. It is about their lives being turned upside down as they struggle with who they are and who they could be, as they embark on a journey to discover and understand themselves, their entire belief systems and where they belong. It is a story full of strong emotions and adventure, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat.
July 8, 2024
I really enjoyed the sibling dynamics in this novel. The overall story worked well together and I was invested in what happened to the. It uses the magic element perfectly and enjoyed the overall story and character development. Jenna Pine has a great writing style and am excited to read the prequel and more.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 4, 2024
I loved reading Sea of Broken Glass by Jenna Pine it was an interesting read and hard to put down. I loved the plot as well as the cover I definitely recommend reading it you will not regret it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews