A review by kenzieburns
Tempest, Take Me Home by Charlie Knight

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-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

3.0

Okay I very rarely give decimal ratings but this was such a cute cozy adventure that was right between 3 & 4 stars for me. I'll admit, I was a bit thrown when one of the first scenes in the book was extra spicy as I'm not usually a big smut reader, but I ended up enjoying this book all the same. Tbh I really should have expected that from a book colloquially called "Butt Pirates," but hey, I'm not perfect. 

The representation in this book was top notch, next level, no notes. I loved how unabashedly themselves Eli was, and how confident Max was in complimentary ways. Their secure partnership was so refreshing and honestly inspiring to read, as I feel like adventure stories so frequently play into the "one has to give up what they love for the other to be happy" trope. It was also very interesting for me to read about the dynamics in their polycule with Tevin! I know this is (1) fiction and (2) only one example of the ways that polyamory can exist, but I really valued getting to see the dynamics and how everyone in the polycule both gave to and benefited from the relationship. 

Also, the disability rep!!! Knight gives voice to the frustrations of living with a physical disability without tokenizing Max in such a perfect way. They also don't shy away from calling out some pretty serious micro- and macro-agressions faced by those with disabilities on the daily. I was very happy to see
the bad guys get it in the end hehe
. It's also worth mentioning that the neurodiveegence of the characters is equally well-written, again not tokenizing or driving the plot, but just another normal identity trait that they characters live with and what makes them, well, them. With all the representation so well-written into the characters, it was so easy to love them all dearly, even when
I really wanted to punch Eli in the balls for like 50 pages towards the end...


The things I didn't like about this book are few, but in an effort to make an honest review, are still worth mentioning. There was really no use of symbolism or literary devices in this book that I could pick up on. I felt very much like everything was extremely spelled out for me, which at times made everything seem too simple. If not for the few very spicy scenes, I would say this could be a good YA novel, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for an adult audience I sometimes felt like having the characters' thoughts spell out everything made it a little too simplistic. Also, the pace of the book was a bit unproportional in my opinion. For example,
I don't think there needed to be 8 elements of the gods, as there wasn't really enough time to explore the adventure around finding each one
. Along the same lines, time seemed to pass so quickly in the book. Like, one scene would be one day and the next would be several day or even weeks later, and even though the jump in time was usually established quickly, it still felt very jarring. I feel that the author could have written more "bridging" text for each time we jumped forward, instead of just jumping directly into the character's thoughts at the new time and then throwing in there that time had passed. My last bit of criticism is in regards to the spice; it caught me off guard, yes, but my issue is that it wasn't dispersed throughout the book. There were two sexy scenes at the begining, and then really nothing else comparable for the rest of the novel, which just felt unbalanced to me. 

Overall, this was a really cute, cozy adventure with great representation and diversity of characters. The world-building was simple enough for the newest fantasy readers to enjoy, and the spicy scenes will satisfy smut-lovers everywhere. For me, the lovable characters are what really solidified this as a good book. I love Max, Eli, and the whole crew of Tempest and am so excited for everyone to get to meet them when this is published!
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