Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this young adult fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

I had heard good things about this author's previous works.  Upon seeing the beautiful cover (can ye see the ship in the eyeball?) and finding out it was a sea yarn with pirates I was sure this would be awesome.  However, I read 70% before abandoning ship.  I seem to be in the minority with this one.

To be fair, the premise didn't really make sense to me from the very beginning,.  I wasn't sure why the father would just dump his daughter on an cutthroat island at thirteen without even a knife for protection.  How she survived the four years there was kinda glossed over.  But Fable is a fun character and I really did want an explanation for her father's betrayal.

I enjoyed the elements around Fable's diving abilities and gemstones.  I liked the structure of how the crew of the various ships were set up.  I thought a lot of the nautical elements were well done.  But really as I kept reading, the book just got more and more nonsensical.  The fun story elements are there but not fleshed out enough.  Everything just seemed so surface level.  And the hints of romance were annoying.  So why did I keep reading?  Well I just needed to know why Fable was dumped and what her inheritance was going to be.

Turns out the explanation is silly and the set-up for the rest of the novel didn't really make sense or sound appealing.  Plus the romance began to take more center stage and didn't buy it.  I wanted more diving, more swashbuckling, and more adventure.  But not much really happens during the middle of the book.  Fable's father just made no sense either.  While I have a soft spot for plucky girl characters, not all of Fable's choices made sense.  Also the other characters felt surface level too and I never really bonded with any of them.

I really would have loved to love this book but the elements were not mixed to me taste.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Wednesday Books!