Illustrated by NJ Barna
4 stars
A hopeless romantic with literal porcelain skin. A disgraced orc pirate who can’t control her anger. A secret society bent on bringing back the absent gods. There is so much at play here.
Quick pace. Dynamic artwork. Plenty of action and adventure. A bit of romance. Definitely a fun story with great visuals. Kind of a mixture of Our Flag Means Death and Legends & Lattes.
What really makes this book shine is its characters. I fell in love with every single one of the Girona’s crew. From Cutter, the parent we all want in our lives, to sweet little chaos monster Jazri, to the fabulous Ketch who gets under everyone’s skin. The found family dynamic and the way they all care about each other even when they annoy the heck out of each other was so sweet and adorable and I loved it.
Wonderful themes of finding your own strength and not changing who you are to make someone love you. As someone who doesn’t really like romance, I liked that this one has romantic elements without being over the top. It’s sweet and just overall a good time.
Honestly, it was just fun to visit this world and hang out with some fantastic characters. Wouldn’t mind revisiting them again. A whirlwind of a read.