Gabriella's Reviews > The Sea Witch

I fired up my laptop in order to better take you, dear reader, on a journey.
While it is entirely unnecessary, I feel that I must first defend myself. (Though really people should feel that they can read what they like and no genre is less valid than another) A dear friend has accused me of having a sense of intellectual superiority, I accept this accusation with out contradiction. After a lifetime of gifted programs, honors societies, and academic validation; this is to be expected and I personally celebrate it. So you can imagine that I, a magna cum laude graduate and former Catholic school student, would feel some guilt over my tendency to enjoy the occasional steamy romance. Usually, the romance novels I enjoy are set in the 19th century and are a means of pure escapism, as well as, a way to soothe the dull ache that is ever present in my hopeless romantic heart as a result of being 22 and never having romantically held hands with someone. So now I'm sure you must understand, dear reader, why the same person whose "Read" shelf boasts titles among the ilk of Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice, and Beloved would enjoy the occasional romance romp would have found herself in this situation.
I was first made aware of the work of Katee Robert on the social media platform, TikTok (I'm more than sure you've heard of it). A young woman much like myself was all a titter over having found, "spicy Disney romances" and I had saved some of these novels as samples to my Kindle app on my iPhone (as I am in grad school and have very little money and therefore do not have an actual Kindle. It is sometimes a rather Dickensian existence I lead, dear reader). I had relegated these novels to the back burner and forgot them in favor of other works of literature until recently when I gave in to the temptation to read Robert's Neon Gods on the recommendation of a TikTok creator whose opinion I have come to respect over my time in her audience, because I was bored on my family vacation (the weather has been atrocious, dear reader). It was on this same family vacation (which I am still tediously on) that I awoke at the ungodly hour of 2:56 a.m. and found myself unable to return to Dreamland. Not wishing to cause a disturbance with my lamplight to read a different book, I chose the sample of The Sea Witch. Then, being intrigued, as I am a naturally curious person, I purchased the novel like I would an iced chai latte from Starbucks and read well into the morning.
You may have gathered from this review that I am a rather vestal individual so you can imagine that I found this book to be "a lil much." But nevertheless I found myself reading on (after all Amazon doesn't let you refund digital purchases once used and I'd already spent my 4.99 plus tax).
I could have almost gotten on board. The same bosom friend I referred to earlier and I adore poking fun at ourselves and bits of culture and art and we would have had a lark over the silly novel I'd chosen to read and I would have derived the necessary entertainment out of the experience. And of course, I'd found nothing about the world, plot, or characters unforgivable (save for an excess use of the word "clit" and the male lead's name which I found to have the look and sound of a digestive aid). This was of course until I'd read enough to find out that the characters for all their support of "sex just being sex" (which I respect and agree with immensely) the characters fall in love with each other. I found myself to be greatly annoyed at this somewhat predictable turn of events and therefore ceased to have fun. All in all I am out of sorts for the moment but will probably find myself reading another Katee Robert novel if I find myself in another such situation because my quarter life crisis has come with a healthy dose of insomnia, and (I'm only human after all) these books make me feel better about my lacking love life (I may be lonely but at least I'm not /that/ lonely). 1.5 stars.