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lovejasmine's review
Looks like I'm still on the hunt for a good sapphic pirate story ðŸ˜
I enjoyed this one much more at the start, but the pacing was so odd! For an enemies to lovers situation where one has kidnapped the other to deliver her to a violent, maniacal tyrant as his bride, the kidnappee wasn't nearly as upset as she should have been.
I was going to try and stick it out, but when the word love got thrown around at 37%? Too much, too soon - I'm out
I enjoyed this one much more at the start, but the pacing was so odd! For an enemies to lovers situation where one has kidnapped the other to deliver her to a violent, maniacal tyrant as his bride, the kidnappee wasn't nearly as upset as she should have been.
I was going to try and stick it out, but when the word love got thrown around at 37%? Too much, too soon - I'm out
docbrooke's review
4.0
Better written than most of the sapphic piracy tales that I've read, Riley West threads the balance of intrique with romance along a fine line. The characters are enjoyable and the world is complex enough that I think this book could be a precursor to a worthwhile series. A wholly enjoyable read!
pushingdessy's review
3.0
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Thank you to BookSirens and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was very excited to get an ARC for this book, and I'm grateful to have been considered. I loved the idea of a lesbian pirate romance and, while I'm not generally a fan of enemies to lovers, this story had a lot of potential to make the trope good. Despite the good quality of the writing and interesting premise, however, this book lacked the tension and complexity I was hoping for.
We have Queen Lucia of Moranth, who is dutifully trying to fix her father's wrongs even though she finds court life generally boring. Her horrible cousin wants to marry her and take over her kingdom, but Lucia is neither into men, nor willing to live under another tyrant's rule. As she prepares for war, she's kidnapped by the crew of The Medusa, a pirate ship, unbeknownst to their grieving Captain Alessandra. So far, so good. The characters are both likeable, with depth and motivations that make sense, and it has some nice supporting characters as well.
There's an initial dislike between the two women, and we know they should be enemies - but they never really are. They are immediately attracted to each other, and there's a little tension between them as they try to hold back (Alessandra) or use it for their own gains (Lucia), but that tension burns fast, and the women give in to a relationship. And while it's purely sexual at first, it turns way too fast into a serious romance, to the point that halfway through the book they already love each other and the plot has veered into the predictable twist.
This unfortunately made the story lose steam for me, even though it was full of smut and even some kink. For a book about pirates who kidnap a queen, this ended up being too wholesome to the point of cheesy. And I love wholesome, I'm not saying that a story about pirates should be about violence and tragedy! It just lacked proper tension to make me feel invested - and since the overarching plot wasn't resolved in this book, a lot of it ended up feeling like Alessandra and Lucia were playing house (and having sex). I felt like the book couldn't make up its mind about whether it was sexy, fun erotica or a fantasy adventure that happened to include romance - and that ended up working against both of those things, imo. For example, I also thought that it could have done with less POV characters, and less POV splits altogether, but that's because I was still unsure about the genre. Was it smutty romance? Keep it to two POVs! Was it a fantasy? Have several - but still with less middle-of-the-chapter splits!
Another reason this felt very low stakes/too wholesome for a fantasy was that the author seemed loath to make any living characters (except King Ramir) a bad guy, so it would turn out that someone did a betrayal, and the other characters would just give them a pat and all was forgiven. I think I understand the intent, and I appreciate it, but it felt like too much/too little risk for it too happen more than once.
That said, this would be a fun adventure for anyone looking for a low-stakes lesbian romance fantasy with plenty of spice.
Thank you to BookSirens and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was very excited to get an ARC for this book, and I'm grateful to have been considered. I loved the idea of a lesbian pirate romance and, while I'm not generally a fan of enemies to lovers, this story had a lot of potential to make the trope good. Despite the good quality of the writing and interesting premise, however, this book lacked the tension and complexity I was hoping for.
We have Queen Lucia of Moranth, who is dutifully trying to fix her father's wrongs even though she finds court life generally boring. Her horrible cousin wants to marry her and take over her kingdom, but Lucia is neither into men, nor willing to live under another tyrant's rule. As she prepares for war, she's kidnapped by the crew of The Medusa, a pirate ship, unbeknownst to their grieving Captain Alessandra. So far, so good. The characters are both likeable, with depth and motivations that make sense, and it has some nice supporting characters as well.
There's an initial dislike between the two women, and we know they should be enemies - but they never really are. They are immediately attracted to each other, and there's a little tension between them as they try to hold back (Alessandra) or use it for their own gains (Lucia), but that tension burns fast, and the women give in to a relationship. And while it's purely sexual at first, it turns way too fast into a serious romance, to the point that halfway through the book they already love each other and the plot has veered into the predictable twist.
This unfortunately made the story lose steam for me, even though it was full of smut and even some kink. For a book about pirates who kidnap a queen, this ended up being too wholesome to the point of cheesy. And I love wholesome, I'm not saying that a story about pirates should be about violence and tragedy! It just lacked proper tension to make me feel invested - and since the overarching plot wasn't resolved in this book, a lot of it ended up feeling like Alessandra and Lucia were playing house (and having sex). I felt like the book couldn't make up its mind about whether it was sexy, fun erotica or a fantasy adventure that happened to include romance - and that ended up working against both of those things, imo. For example, I also thought that it could have done with less POV characters, and less POV splits altogether, but that's because I was still unsure about the genre. Was it smutty romance? Keep it to two POVs! Was it a fantasy? Have several - but still with less middle-of-the-chapter splits!
Another reason this felt very low stakes/too wholesome for a fantasy was that the author seemed loath to make any living characters (except King Ramir) a bad guy, so it would turn out that someone did a betrayal, and the other characters would just give them a pat and all was forgiven. I think I understand the intent, and I appreciate it, but it felt like too much/too little risk for it too happen more than once.
That said, this would be a fun adventure for anyone looking for a low-stakes lesbian romance fantasy with plenty of spice.
tmjmack12's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
charley34's review
I didn’t feel like the characters had enough depth to them, the main characters both had interesting back stories but they just weren’t explored much. Also the development of the relationship between the main characters just wasn’t that interesting. I started to get bored with the writing style, it either jumped too quickly from one plot point to the next or dragged something out that could have been described in a few pages. The idea behind the story was great and I may come back to it but I just wasn’t feeling it enough to finish.
gabyyelton's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
thelostartofsecretkeeping's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
reginamea's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
probably_reading_right_now's review
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I think (hope) this will be a series, especially with how it ended though it felt like it could end there if the author decided to do that, it also left it open to a future book (or books) they would want to write. This was super well written I liked that the Queen wasn’t helpless like royals are so often portrayed. The characters are all endearing and funny to read and I enjoyed the romance between the two mains. Hopefully there’s more to this story because I’d love to see how they continue the story.
gracerichards11's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0