The story was alright. It was a bit too heavy on world building for my taste though. Some of the content was unnecessary.

2 Stars

Content: completely random doesn’t make sense s*x scene, killing, torture, violence, some language scattered throughout ( )

So...this book's not really about ships. But the cover is still pretty.

Teriana. Marcus. These are some powerful characters, with spunk, spirit, and spite. They won me over in the end, despite a narrative style built on bland, repetitive sentences. It was very hard to visualize most of the scenes, which in turn made it difficult to engage with the story.

( )

Having read Seafire by Natalie C. Parker, I was ready for another sea worthy adventure. Thus, I could not wait to check out this book. Sadly, for me this book was just "fine". I did get the sea adventure but it was not just about the sea. There were politics in place as well. While, I did not mind that, it actually came down to the characters.

I agree with other readers that Teriana came off as a bit more childish then seventeen. In addition, I would have expected someone like her who seemed like a sea captain to be more like an adult. Whereas, Marcus was the more mature one in the story. These two were the main voices of this book.

This was a fast read but at the same time a slow one. Fast and slow because the chapters were short but I felt like nothing really thrilling was happening. The latter half of the story is better. I might read the next book just to see what happens further in this series. ( )

3.75 Stars Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher/author for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Pirates (yay!) that are women (Yay!) of color (YAY!) with LGBT+ representation (YAY!!!)! What’s not to like?

Let me tell you:

There’s not a whole lot of “pirating”. The beginning is a whole lot of exposition, albeit interesting and important exposition.
And the rest is adventure-lite. The whole thing seems like a YA introduction to more adult trashy romance novels. There’s nothing wrong with trashy romance novels, it’s just not my thing. I'm really hoping future books have more swashbuckling and less unbuckling.
The LGBTQ+ representation is within minor characters. It is there, and it’s not buried (something to like), but other than 2 openly gay soldiers, it’s something that’s glossed over: “A good portion of his men preferred the companionship of each other...” or something that’s implied: “Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t suspected how deep (spoiler) feelings ran for his (spoiler)...”
Star crossed lovers; the whole “I hate you, I love you, I hate myself because I love you” thing. It’s well done in this book, but it’s just… so… I don’t know. Maybe I’m just getting old and can’t appreciate that kind of “love” anymore.
And a particular sticking point will hopefully be resolved in the next book.

What is there to like?
Teriana is a tough chick. She sacrifices a lot to save her people. She’s condemned herself, gone against her faith and all she’s ever believed, and lost things that were most important to her in an effort to save her people.
Marcus is plenty likable. He’s a typical tortured soul; a brooding emo boy trapped in the body of a Ken doll. He has faults, and weaknesses and is really made to feel like a person (and not just fodder for teenage fantasies).
Referring back to my trashy romance intro statement, I will say there were more burning cheeks than burning loins. The romantic build up seems fast, but considering this all takes place over a significant amount of time, it’s not ridiculously quick. It’s not quite insta-love, so that’s a plus.
The story itself is entertaining. I will absolutely be picking up the next one, if for no other reason than to resolve that sticking point mentioned earlier.
I like this book a lot. It wasn’t quite what I expected, or what I was looking for when I started it, but I enjoyed my time with it. ( )