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vinreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
5.0
Wow. My eyes are sore, from all the crying I did. This book was a swashbuckling, romantic, adventurous fantasy and a practically perfect YA. I was enraptured every moment of the book, and it ticked off so many of my boxes when it comes to what I look for in a book. I was stunned, hopeful, pensive, brooding, shocked, and elated all at different points. There were twists and turns I didn't see coming, and some I had hoped were true, and then absolutely giddy that they were. There were pirates, and magical women, sirens, and villains and villainesses galore. Even though the pace was relatively slow for a pirate fantasy romance, I enjoyed every bit of time spent reading it, and it didn't drag like I suspected it might in the first few pages. This will be one I think of often, and reread just as much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, and Death of parent
mari1532's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
#TheDiverseBaseline (learn more at: https://thediversebaseline.carrd.co created by @bookish.millennial & @themargherita.s (on instagram))
I listened to this audiobook through my library.
Brief Summary: Rosalinda is trapped due to a magical gift she did not ask for and can barely control. Taken as a child she is now on the cusp of being sold to the highest bidder for her abilities. However, she has a plan to escape. However, her watcher Doña Lucia has other plans. As Rosalinda tries to fight the clock to leave Sinner's Isle before she is bought she has a chance encounter with a pirate, Marino.
Marino is down on his luck because his ship has been captured and he barely escaped with his life. Yet, his quest for revenge is thrown off course when he meets Rosalinda. As Marino navigates his desire for revenge and his confusing feelings for the witch he has to race the clock to ensure that he can get everyone he cares for off Sinner's Isle before it's too late.
Thoughts: I loved this book so much. All of the characters were well-written and entertaining with enough depth that it made them dynamic characters without bogging the story down in backstories. I enjoyed Montoya's writing and I hope that this is just the start of a series, not a stand-alone!
Rosalinda was such a dynamic and complicated character. Her relationship with her powers and how she begins to deal with her trauma of being kidnapped throughout the book was treated with care and helped understand her motivations throughout the book.
I also loved the relationships that Rosalinda has with the other witches on the island. Some of the relationships are straightforward, as with her best friend. And others are more complicated by the pressures of Sinner's Isle. Also, Doña Lucia was a great villain. She was truly awful and the way that Montoya wrote her in such an interesting way because in some ways you see how she is just upholding the system in which she finds herself. After all, she cannot escape, but she does nothing within her power to implement any changes. I really disliked her.
Marino was such a great hero. He was a perfect mix of brooding and quirky. Montoya does an excellent job of writing a love story where both partners are equal in the relationship and have to work together and survive. And there were several scenes where Rosalinda and Marino interacted that made me laugh out loud even though the point in the plot was tense.
My only wish is that there was a little more steam throughout the book. It felt that it was missing a bit throughout the book. It did not need a lot, but just a bit more would have heightened some of the scenes.
This is a great romance book with intrigue and adventure. I would highly recommend it.
I listened to this audiobook through my library.
Brief Summary: Rosalinda is trapped due to a magical gift she did not ask for and can barely control. Taken as a child she is now on the cusp of being sold to the highest bidder for her abilities. However, she has a plan to escape. However, her watcher Doña Lucia has other plans. As Rosalinda tries to fight the clock to leave Sinner's Isle before she is bought she has a chance encounter with a pirate, Marino.
Marino is down on his luck because his ship has been captured and he barely escaped with his life. Yet, his quest for revenge is thrown off course when he meets Rosalinda. As Marino navigates his desire for revenge and his confusing feelings for the witch he has to race the clock to ensure that he can get everyone he cares for off Sinner's Isle before it's too late.
Thoughts: I loved this book so much. All of the characters were well-written and entertaining with enough depth that it made them dynamic characters without bogging the story down in backstories. I enjoyed Montoya's writing and I hope that this is just the start of a series, not a stand-alone!
Rosalinda was such a dynamic and complicated character. Her relationship with her powers and how she begins to deal with her trauma of being kidnapped throughout the book was treated with care and helped understand her motivations throughout the book.
I also loved the relationships that Rosalinda has with the other witches on the island. Some of the relationships are straightforward, as with her best friend. And others are more complicated by the pressures of Sinner's Isle. Also, Doña Lucia was a great villain. She was truly awful and the way that Montoya wrote her in such an interesting way because in some ways you see how she is just upholding the system in which she finds herself. After all, she cannot escape, but she does nothing within her power to implement any changes. I really disliked her.
Marino was such a great hero. He was a perfect mix of brooding and quirky. Montoya does an excellent job of writing a love story where both partners are equal in the relationship and have to work together and survive. And there were several scenes where Rosalinda and Marino interacted that made me laugh out loud even though the point in the plot was tense.
My only wish is that there was a little more steam throughout the book. It felt that it was missing a bit throughout the book. It did not need a lot, but just a bit more would have heightened some of the scenes.
This is a great romance book with intrigue and adventure. I would highly recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
warlocksarecool21's review against another edition
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I had been really excited to read this but it ended up being rather disappointing. The premise of the book sounded really fun, pirates and witches trying to escape from an oppressive system but it was not executed very well. I think it had a lot of potential, the ideas were there but it needed a lot more development imo.
What I liked:
-A cast of Latine characters and elements from Latine & Caribbean culture
-the basis of the magic system and world, but it felt really shallow, I wanted more exploration of it.
-The general plot but it also needed more development, it felt very rushed.
….And that was about it. Now for why this didn’t work for me. There were some great ideas but everything felt so rushed and hollow. It almost seemed like the author was trying to do too much and the book suffered for it. It either needed to be longer or things needed to be taken out. I thought the plot about the Majestics trying to gain independence, the court intrigue and the King’s plotline to all be very interesting but so little time was spent on it, it felt like an afterthought.
The writing itself felt very simple and juvenile. There was a lot of telling instead of showing and I found myself confused as to what was happening several times in the book. Because of this, the characters felt very flat and shallow. Neither of the lead characters had much development or personal growth. Both Mariano and Rosa felt like cut-outs of other characters I’ve seen before but not much work to make them interesting or original. The soulmate nonsense between them was so irritating as well. They had a handful of conversations the whole book, no chemistry and they knew nothing about each other but because it was fated their love you were just supposed to accept that they were together and no actual work was done to make you care about it.
The last thing I’ll say that didn’t really fit anywhere else was that there was a lot of mildly misogynistic comments throughout the book (that weren’t intended to be I think) in Mariano’s chapters. Nothing particularly harmful, but a lot of negative language about women that made me uncomfortable and wasn’t unpacked. There was also a scene with Santi, Mariano’s friend, that made me uncomfortable because I couldn’t figure the author’s intentions with it.Basically, it’s the scene where Santi has to wear a dress to sneak around the island and some of Mariano’s comments made me a little apprehensive because I couldn’t tell if that scene and his comments were meant to be transphobic? I hope I’m just overthinking it but I was concerned by it.
Anyways, I’ve spent too much time thinking about this book and I want to be done with this review. It had potential but needed a lot more work. Hopefully any future books will be stronger.
What I liked:
-A cast of Latine characters and elements from Latine & Caribbean culture
-the basis of the magic system and world, but it felt really shallow, I wanted more exploration of it.
-The general plot but it also needed more development, it felt very rushed.
….And that was about it. Now for why this didn’t work for me. There were some great ideas but everything felt so rushed and hollow. It almost seemed like the author was trying to do too much and the book suffered for it. It either needed to be longer or things needed to be taken out. I thought the plot about the Majestics trying to gain independence, the court intrigue and the King’s plotline to all be very interesting but so little time was spent on it, it felt like an afterthought.
The writing itself felt very simple and juvenile. There was a lot of telling instead of showing and I found myself confused as to what was happening several times in the book. Because of this, the characters felt very flat and shallow. Neither of the lead characters had much development or personal growth. Both Mariano and Rosa felt like cut-outs of other characters I’ve seen before but not much work to make them interesting or original. The soulmate nonsense between them was so irritating as well. They had a handful of conversations the whole book, no chemistry and they knew nothing about each other but because it was fated their love you were just supposed to accept that they were together and no actual work was done to make you care about it.
The last thing I’ll say that didn’t really fit anywhere else was that there was a lot of mildly misogynistic comments throughout the book (that weren’t intended to be I think) in Mariano’s chapters. Nothing particularly harmful, but a lot of negative language about women that made me uncomfortable and wasn’t unpacked. There was also a scene with Santi, Mariano’s friend, that made me uncomfortable because I couldn’t figure the author’s intentions with it.
Anyways, I’ve spent too much time thinking about this book and I want to be done with this review. It had potential but needed a lot more work. Hopefully any future books will be stronger.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny and Violence
Minor: Transphobia
wabbitrabbit's review against another edition
Maybe I’m too old, but I just can’t stand tell-not-show women’s oppression in my fantasy books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, and Trafficking
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Rape