Title: Namesake (Fable #2)
Author: Adrienne Young
Rating: ★★★½

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley!

Namesake is a decent sequel and does its job of wrapping up the loose ends, but that’s all it does. It pains me to admit I found this dull and underwhelming compared to Fable. A lot of the elements that made the predecessor so magical were missing and it really affected my enjoyment.

Namesake picks up almost immediately after the end of Fable. It’s very rare that we get a sequel released so soon after the first book, which was not only really appreciated by necessary in this case. Unfortunately, it took me quite a while to get back into the story and I failed to feel as engaged as early on as I did with Fable.

My biggest issue with Namesake was that it felt flat and tedious. Many of the aspects that made Fable sparkle were missing or subdued. This book is more focused on Fable and her personal growth/relationships, and so the crew of the Marigold are sadly absent for a majority of the time. Most of the story felt very contrived. While it did an excellent job of wrapping up loose ends introduced at the end of Fable, I couldn’t help but wonder if the story would have been better served by simply adding another 100 pages to the first and keeping it a standalone instead.

As a self-proclaimed Adrienne Young stan, nothing made me sadder than realizing Namesake simply does not stand up to Fable. The magic of the first book failed to translate into this sequel thus was underwhelming.