I can see why people enjoy this but it was not my thing at all. I hated how jumpy the timeline was and I didn’t care about any of the characters. The only one who wasn’t on a power trip was Sydney but even she was pretty boring.

There’s truly nothing wrong with the book but I couldn’t rate it higher with how much I disliked reading it.

Audiobook rating for Jeremy Arthur

The pirate fantasy that will give all others in the genre a run for their money.

Tempest is exactly what I’m looking for when picking up a pirate fantasy. It’s filled with scheming, questionable morals, survival above all else, and all encapsulated with the most lush and beautiful descriptions. Every single sentence drives you deeper into the world of the Lyrian Sea without ever being overbearing or distracting.

The dual timeline is admittedly something I was worried about and not excited for. It’s rarely done well and becomes a bit of an annoyance to have to jump back and forth constantly. To my surprise, the dual timeline is not only handled perfectly by Aveyard, but the story would have been lacking without it. Not once did I dread jumping to a Before or After chapter. I was equally excited to learn more about both versions of Cat and the mischief she was getting up to. The alternating chapters always had a seamless handoff with one subtly referring to an event that is then expanded upon in the next chapter.

This is a book I’ll be rereading as soon as I get my physical copy. I can’t wait for Tyrant and to see how Cat and Val’s story unfolds!

Note on the audiobook: the narrator is absolutely perfect for Cat but I desperately wanted this to be duet narration. The male characters unfortunately all sound the same which can get a bit confusing when jumping between before and after.

Thank you to Harper Voyager for the ALC in exchange for an honest review