My Overall Rating: 4.5/7 (or 3.2/5)

Tropes: fish out of water, found family, piracy, nobility

Book Pros: main character is funny and likeable despite his arrogance. Chemistry between main characters is solid. Quick, beach read vibes. Low/no spice (YA). Some unpredictable twists.

Book Cons: lacks depth. MC personality overshadows everyone else. Low/no spice (YA). One very predictable twist.

Quotes: “Do somethin’ ’bout yer…” He waves a hand at me vaguely. “This.”
“What? What is ‘this’?” I ask, glancing down at myself, then lift my gaze to his once more. “You mean me?”
“Aye,” Renard confirms with a sharp laugh. “Do somethin’ ’bout that.”

“I know what love feels like now. I have felt it in the marrow of my bones, and I won’t settle for less ever again.”

IN-DEPTH REVIEW

CHARACTERS (4.5) This was a case where the MC was definitely the MAIN character. All the writer's effort seemed to go into writing and developing Kit and minimal effort was put into anyone else. I felt more affection for some side characters than I did the love interest of this story. Other reviews said this isn't a love story, and I have to agree if only for the fact that Captain Sharpe's character is so....under developed. He isn't mean, he he isn't particularly nice, he isn't strict, he isn't lenient, he's middle of the road with pretty much everything.

However, Kit is the shining star of this book. He is brash, impulsive, funny, and wears his heart on his sleeve. You cannot help but love him even if his words and actions are sometimes confounding.

WRITING & PROSE (4) This book is probably meant more for YA readers, so for that age group, I think it was adequate. It was more on the tell not show side. And at first I was very caught off guard by the borderline excessive use of emdash. I know that's a point of contention nowadays, but I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here. There were a few moments of poignancy, but overall the writing was relatively plain, but effective.

STORY & PACING (5) Solid pacing honestly, definitely involved some time skips but definitely never felt that anything was dragging. If anything, some things could have taken more time. Sometimes felt like I was being filled in on things that took place after the fact in a brief sentence or two, which felt a bit odd. But again, Kit is very likeable and makes it seem like he's filling in his bestie.

WORLDBUILDING (4) Story often relies heavily on that fact that it takes places in real places. Not much description of things other than "we're in Nassau". A great deal of the book takes place on board the ship, so the "world" is very limited despite being on the open seas. Kit moves mostly only from crew quarters, the deck, captain's quarters, and the kitchen. I could barely figure out in my head how large the ship was even supposed to be. Author spent more time describing people and their appearance than detailing any kind of world. It was adequate, but didn't pull you in.

INTRIGUE & ENGAGEMENT (5) There were a couple twists in this book, the first of which was wholly predictable, which was a bit annoying because Kit was SO oblivious to what was happening even though the author laid it out to both him and the reader what was going on. However, the other twists did surprise me. I never felt bored while reading, Kit's inner monologue is quite entertaining. But as a whole, I felt nothing in the book got the depth it deserved. Would have loved a deeper dive of a lot of plot points, but everything stays at a very surface level. Again, this could be because it's for YA, but still felt a tad disappointed.