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So glad this is the first in a series and not a stand-alone. Really enjoyed it. More, please!
Thanks to Goodreads for letting me read and review this book I received from one of their giveaways. This is my own honest opinion and thoughts on the book.
I was surprised and excited to win one of the Goodreads giveaways because I've never won one before and I was especially interested in reading and reviewing this book.
This is a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo that is gender-bent with murder, mystery, and deceit. I haven't read The Count of Monte Cristo recently but I remember the basics and most of the story. I didn't even think about The Count of Monte Cristo at all while I was reading this except once or twice when I stopped my reading and remembered this was a retelling and sat down to think and compare things a bit and saw that it was a gender-bent retelling of the story.
I think I like this alright, but then again I like the Count of Monte Cristo too - they each have their positives and negatives to how the versions of the same story are told. I like Amaya as The Count/Countess of Monte Cristo role and Cayo - I love the two of them together.
It's very much a revenge story and Amaya has a hard time moving on and letting go of things in her past in regards to her mother and all the time she was stuck on the ship serving the idiot captain as Silverfish. Both Cayo and Amaya have a lot of secrets and things they find out in regards to their families that are hard to deal with and have to come to terms with eventually.
It isn't a fantasy read if you're expecting that, it's more of a contemporary retelling with pirates, ships, the sea, a port town and the like also with the battle between classes of poor and rich that is brought out in these types of stories a lot.
After Silverfish/Amaya gets free from the Captain, she teams up with the mysterious stranger, Boon that she saves and they make and enact a plan of revenge on Cayo's father to bring him down and along the way Amaya and Cayo begin to care for each other and that makes things complicated then the truth comes out with some unearthed secrets and they find out what Cayo's father has done, Cayo finds out who Amaya is and about Boon and their plan of revenge then Amaya finds Roach, one of her friends from the ship she serves on, who disappears when she teams up with Boon and they board a ship to head to another place to see if they can help Cayo's sister, who is very sick.
It, of course, ends as they are going to sail away to try to see if they can help Cayo's sister and with unanswered questions and things falling apart on a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm undecided if I will read the next one or not, but this was a bit of a letdown from the hype it received and what I was hoping for and expecting to read.
If you're curious then check it out, it may be that it just wasn't as much my type of thing.
I was surprised and excited to win one of the Goodreads giveaways because I've never won one before and I was especially interested in reading and reviewing this book.
This is a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo that is gender-bent with murder, mystery, and deceit. I haven't read The Count of Monte Cristo recently but I remember the basics and most of the story. I didn't even think about The Count of Monte Cristo at all while I was reading this except once or twice when I stopped my reading and remembered this was a retelling and sat down to think and compare things a bit and saw that it was a gender-bent retelling of the story.
I think I like this alright, but then again I like the Count of Monte Cristo too - they each have their positives and negatives to how the versions of the same story are told. I like Amaya as The Count/Countess of Monte Cristo role and Cayo - I love the two of them together.
It's very much a revenge story and Amaya has a hard time moving on and letting go of things in her past in regards to her mother and all the time she was stuck on the ship serving the idiot captain as Silverfish. Both Cayo and Amaya have a lot of secrets and things they find out in regards to their families that are hard to deal with and have to come to terms with eventually.
It isn't a fantasy read if you're expecting that, it's more of a contemporary retelling with pirates, ships, the sea, a port town and the like also with the battle between classes of poor and rich that is brought out in these types of stories a lot.
After Silverfish/Amaya gets free from the Captain, she teams up with the mysterious stranger, Boon that she saves and they make and enact a plan of revenge on Cayo's father to bring him down and along the way Amaya and Cayo begin to care for each other and that makes things complicated then the truth comes out with some unearthed secrets and they find out what Cayo's father has done, Cayo finds out who Amaya is and about Boon and their plan of revenge then Amaya finds Roach, one of her friends from the ship she serves on, who disappears when she teams up with Boon and they board a ship to head to another place to see if they can help Cayo's sister, who is very sick.
It, of course, ends as they are going to sail away to try to see if they can help Cayo's sister and with unanswered questions and things falling apart on a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm undecided if I will read the next one or not, but this was a bit of a letdown from the hype it received and what I was hoping for and expecting to read.
If you're curious then check it out, it may be that it just wasn't as much my type of thing.
I really liked the plotline of this and all the twists and turns within it. The chemistry between Amaya and Cayo was there from the beginning and I liked how it evolves and changes. All of the water bugs were amazing and my heart definitely broke for them. My absolute favorite character was Cayo because he loves his sister so much that he changed his life for her and will do everything to save her life.
Overall I thought it was a fantastic story and I cannot wait to read the sequel.
Overall I thought it was a fantastic story and I cannot wait to read the sequel.
5 stars
The characters are always the most important part of any book for me, and this book's characters definitely didn't disappoint. Both Cayo and Amaya feel like complex people from page one and there is not a single simple thing about them and their characterization. Right from when you first meet them, you can tell that there's more to their stories than meets the eye and I loved that so much about them. Their motivations, backstories, and relationships were also really well-crafted and complex and I loved it so much!! Both of them have so many layers to their character and we truly love to see it!!! I adore both of them with my entire being and I absolutely cannot wait to see what they get up to in the second book.
The plot of this book was also on another level!! Usually, I don't care about the plot of the book nearly as much as I care about the characters, but in this one, I was invested. I may have also screamed at the book multiple times while reading, but we don't speak of that. It's sort of a mystery plot and I was very invested in it and determined to guess the plot twist before it came, which didn't end up happening and I ended up being very shocked by it!! It was very good!! Also?? The pacing in this book is incredibly well-done. It pulled me in right from page one and did not let go for a second after because there was always something interesting happening. Whenever I picked this book up, I would end up binging 100+ pages at a time because I could not put it down.
This book also truly said "Fuck rich people everywhere!" and I have to respect that. There was some really good discussion on how the upper class is willing to do anything to hold on to their wealth and power and how it consistently throws the middle and lower class under the bus and it was just,, *chef's kiss*! I absolutely adored the politics of this world and I cannot wait to see how they are expanded upon in book two!!
Last but not least, I absolutely fell in love with the setting from page one. The setting is not something that I usually talk about in books because it isn't often something that affects my reading experience, but in this case, it was so good!! It was very atmospheric and I felt immediately transported to the seaside town by all the gorgeous descriptions of it. Because I read an arc, I didn't have a map in my copy of this book, but I would very much like one.
I am now wondering which demon I have to sell my soul to in order to acquire the second book as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: I won an ARC of this book in a giveaway, but this in no way impacted my review.
~~~
everything about this book is amazing, but most importantly,,, Cayo and Amaya own my heart
in conclusion,
They had all been ravaged by the generation that had come before them, told to feast on scraps and to be thankful for it.
The characters are always the most important part of any book for me, and this book's characters definitely didn't disappoint. Both Cayo and Amaya feel like complex people from page one and there is not a single simple thing about them and their characterization. Right from when you first meet them, you can tell that there's more to their stories than meets the eye and I loved that so much about them. Their motivations, backstories, and relationships were also really well-crafted and complex and I loved it so much!! Both of them have so many layers to their character and we truly love to see it!!! I adore both of them with my entire being and I absolutely cannot wait to see what they get up to in the second book.
The plot of this book was also on another level!! Usually, I don't care about the plot of the book nearly as much as I care about the characters, but in this one, I was invested. I may have also screamed at the book multiple times while reading, but we don't speak of that. It's sort of a mystery plot and I was very invested in it and determined to guess the plot twist before it came, which didn't end up happening and I ended up being very shocked by it!! It was very good!! Also?? The pacing in this book is incredibly well-done. It pulled me in right from page one and did not let go for a second after because there was always something interesting happening. Whenever I picked this book up, I would end up binging 100+ pages at a time because I could not put it down.
This book also truly said "Fuck rich people everywhere!" and I have to respect that. There was some really good discussion on how the upper class is willing to do anything to hold on to their wealth and power and how it consistently throws the middle and lower class under the bus and it was just,, *chef's kiss*! I absolutely adored the politics of this world and I cannot wait to see how they are expanded upon in book two!!
Last but not least, I absolutely fell in love with the setting from page one. The setting is not something that I usually talk about in books because it isn't often something that affects my reading experience, but in this case, it was so good!! It was very atmospheric and I felt immediately transported to the seaside town by all the gorgeous descriptions of it. Because I read an arc, I didn't have a map in my copy of this book, but I would very much like one.
I am now wondering which demon I have to sell my soul to in order to acquire the second book as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: I won an ARC of this book in a giveaway, but this in no way impacted my review.
~~~
everything about this book is amazing, but most importantly,,, Cayo and Amaya own my heart
in conclusion,
5/17/2021
Enjoyed this just as much the second time around! Can’t wait to read the conclusion.
1/29/2020
Wow. This is actually like a really high 4.5 for me.
I absolutely adored this story.
I loved Amaya and Cayo's characters, and how realistic they were to me.
Amaya is out for revenge and she takes on many personas to figure out how to make that happen.
Cayo has only known a life of extravagance, gambling, kissing boys and girls at casinos, up until now, when his world starts to fall apart.
Having never read The Count of Monte Cristo I went into this fully not knowing what to expect, and now, well, I'll be picking up a copy so I can consume the novel that this one was based off.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves intrigue, many threads being woven in an amazing way, and realistic characters with real issues and insecurities. I loved this so much.
Enjoyed this just as much the second time around! Can’t wait to read the conclusion.
1/29/2020
Wow. This is actually like a really high 4.5 for me.
I absolutely adored this story.
I loved Amaya and Cayo's characters, and how realistic they were to me.
Amaya is out for revenge and she takes on many personas to figure out how to make that happen.
Cayo has only known a life of extravagance, gambling, kissing boys and girls at casinos, up until now, when his world starts to fall apart.
Having never read The Count of Monte Cristo I went into this fully not knowing what to expect, and now, well, I'll be picking up a copy so I can consume the novel that this one was based off.
I highly recommend this to anyone who loves intrigue, many threads being woven in an amazing way, and realistic characters with real issues and insecurities. I loved this so much.
This story is a gender swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. I’ve never read that book, but I really enjoyed this story.
The narrative switches between Amaya, a prisoner on a ship, and Cayo, the son of a businessman in the main city. Amaya escapes her captivity, and she tries to take down the men who were keeping her prisoner. Cayo also does his own investigation to figure out who is making counterfeit money in their city.
I liked the pacing of this book. There were some small reveals every couple of chapters. I was surprised at the twists that happened. I also liked the main characters. They had good chemistry with each other. I’m curious to see where the story goes next.
Thank you Disney Book Group for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The narrative switches between Amaya, a prisoner on a ship, and Cayo, the son of a businessman in the main city. Amaya escapes her captivity, and she tries to take down the men who were keeping her prisoner. Cayo also does his own investigation to figure out who is making counterfeit money in their city.
I liked the pacing of this book. There were some small reveals every couple of chapters. I was surprised at the twists that happened. I also liked the main characters. They had good chemistry with each other. I’m curious to see where the story goes next.
Thank you Disney Book Group for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was a little unsure about this at first because this book is only 330 pages - not a lot, considering most YA fantasy out there is usually at least 400ish. Considering that, the story only really picked up around page 80 or so, which in my opinion is quite late for that length.
Howeverrr, after that, I was so hooked, and I can't find any other faults. So much intrigue, so many twists, turns, and a complexity to the plot I didn't expect.
Howeverrr, after that, I was so hooked, and I can't find any other faults. So much intrigue, so many twists, turns, and a complexity to the plot I didn't expect.
The stakes in this are relatively low and I struggled to maintain my attention.
