Rachel Greenlaw

Mira is part of a gang of villagers on a remote island who deliberately wreck ships to supplement their meagre existence. Mira's job is to help rescue survivors - she is tied onto a rope chain of villagers and swims out to the wrecked boat. On one such night, a wreck crashes and she discovers a boy still alive on board. The others in the village want to leave him but she saves his life and they all reap a great haul of glass beads from the ship which are worth a fortune. Unfortunately, the next day, the Watch ( the country's overlords) arrive and take her father and friend prisoner and threaten to execute them if the treasure is not forthcoming as well as the names of everyone who took part in 9 days. Mira decides to go with shipwreck survivor following some coordinates left by her late mother that may help her win riches to free her father. But is the stranger who he says he is? And what of the strange new man she meets at the first island they visit....

Set up for a sequel. For fans of Daughter of a Pirate King but not as good. Hopefully it will get a bit better in the second one....… (more)

Mira and others in her village live in hardscrabble times and conditions, The climate is unwelcoming to crops and the people who rule are greedy and ruthless. Her mother died in the sea, doing what Mira does as her replacement, one of seven working a line from shore to wrecked vessels, some drawn to treacherous rocks by she and the others on shore. She's never been uncomfortable in the water. Every time she asks her father to see what's in the chest left after Mom died, he puts her off. Then during a mission to see what is in a freshly wrecked vessel, they spring a trap and her father is taken prisoner, to be hanged in nine days.
Desperate to save him, Mira and a mysterious young man she rescued during another shipwreck, take a small boat at night to another island. She hoping to sell glass beads for enough to bribe the warden and get her father released. The young man's motives are a bit murky. When he 'manages' to secure passage on a vessel that she hopes can take her to the location she discovered after opening the sealed chest once her father was taken prisoner, it's the beginning of a voyage full of mystery, revelations about her mother and herself, plus instances of betrayal, grief, and eventual servitude to a most mysterious man. I'm quite interested in where the sequel takes readers.… (more)

This was a really enjoyable Christmas read covering the story of Eva who has reached a crisis point in her life, following a period of grief and hiding herself away in other things. Suddenly over a Christmas away her gran re-appears to her and this is the cue for ghostly intervention.

I felt this was a very cleverly put together book that gave the right amount of time to introducing us to Eva’s life, the ghostly interventions and what happened following this intervention. Eva, and the reader, definitely goes on a rollercoaster of emotions seeing her life crisis from different viewpoints, and there are some hard hitting punches thrown in there too. I love the plotting of the book and the characters were cleverly written so that you ended up caring about all of them.

I loved the ending to the book and some of the messages that it delivered, as well as seeing the changes in Eva, it do be aware this isn’t all sunshine and roses.

I would definitely recommend this book, and would be keen to read more books by this author.… (more)