Tag: pirates

Book Review: Capitana, by Cassandra James

Image belongs to HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books.

Title:  Capitana  
Author:  Cassandra James       
Genre: YA        
Rating:  4 out of 5

Ximena Reale has spent most of her life training at La Academia to join the Cazadores, seafaring hunters who track down pirates. But her future is uncertain, thanks to her parents’ questionable reputation. They were traitorous pirates, and though they were executed when Ximena and her sister were young, they permanently damaged the Reale name in the eyes of the Luzan Empire.

Ability alone won’t make Ximena a Cazadoro—or earn her the coveted Cazadoro cloak. So, when the legendary pirate Gasparilla returns and captures the Empire’s queen, Ximena offers to bring back the queen and the notorious pirate in exchange for a cloak. But there’s a catch: Only one cloak is available, and Ximena’s competition is Dante, an infuriating yet handsome classmate with mysterious motives.

With their futures on the line, Ximena and Dante set out on a dangerous quest across the high seas. But no matter how far Ximena sails, her family’s legacy haunts her, and her exposure to a world outside of la academia leads her to question the very laws she’s always fought to uphold. Is it possible she’s been on the wrong side all along?

I have mixed feelings about Ximena. She is so single/narrow-minded about pirates, the Law, and the Empire that she refuses to see anything that doesn’t agree with her worldview—to an extent that’s a little ridiculous. I like her determination, but her willing blindness, not so much. Despite this being billed as historical fiction, women seem to have full rights and opportunities, and they hold positions of power, so that’s a positive. I’d like to know more about the Empire and its oppression of people, as the generalities given in the story were a bit vague, but on the whole, I enjoyed this read. I couldn’t buy the Dante/love angle, though, because that came out of absolutely nowhere.

Cassandra James lives in Florida. Capitana is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Fable, by Adrienne Young

fable
Image belongs to Wednesday Books.

Title: Fable
Author: Adrienne Young
Genre:   4.5 out of 5
Rating: Fantasy, YA

As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.

But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.

I was intrigued by this from the very first page. Fable is clearly a better person than me, because if I’d been abandoned—basically to die—by my father four years ago, I wouldn’t have gone back looking for him like I cared. It did make her a strong person, though.  The parts on the sea were well-done and vivid, and the land-based settings were vivid and realistic.

I liked all the characters and their relationships were believable. There’s enough escalating tension here to keep me reading late into the night, and I can’t wait to find out what happens in the second book. I saw a post pointing out the similarity between West and The Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride and now I can’t unsee that…which isn’t a bad thing. I liked the adventure-filled atmosphere and the setting was fascinating.

Adrienne Young is a New York Times-bestselling author. Fable is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Wednesday Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: A Jewel Bright Sea, by Claire O’Dell

 

a jewel bright sea
Image belongs to Kensington Books/Rebel Base Books.

Title:   A Jewel Bright Sea
Author:   Claire O’Dell
Genre:   Fantasy
Rating:   4.0 out of 5

Anna Zhdanov is the daughter of a scholar. She’s also a bond servant. So when someone steals a jewel from the Emperor, her master tasks her with recovering it—and earning her freedom. But the wilds of Eddalyon are an island paradise, filled with enemies, pirates, and magic.

Soon Anna’s status as indolent noblewoman is called into question, and she finds herself held captive by the notorious pirate caption Andreas Koszenmarc, who’s also searching for the missing jewel. With the Emperor’s guard and another brigand at their heels, Anna must decide if she can trust Andreas—before both of them lose the jewel and their promised rewards.

I enjoyed A Jewel Bright Sea. Pirates and magic? I am definitely there for that. There was so much going on behind the scenes in this novel, and that sense of a bigger picture gave a lot of depth to the story. The reader just knew that there was an explanation for everything—even if they couldn’t figure out what that was just yet. Anna has lived a tough life, and she trusts no one, so deciding whether to trust Andreas is a big deal for her. I loved the worldbuilding here as well, as that made the story truly shine.

Claire O’Dell is an award-winning author. A Jewel Bright Sea is her newest novel, the first in the Mage and Empire series.

(Galley courtesy of Kensington Books/Rebel Base Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)