maybe i’ll pick this up again on the future but at this point it’s soo ridiculous and i feel lied to about the whole pirate thing like i just can’t do it

i didn’t like one single character in this book — olivia was like a caricature that just felt disingenuous to read about. colin was so generic and one dimensional that i cant even describe one facet of his personality. none of their motives made sense and neither of them seemed to develop as characters at all. 
the romance came out of no where and felt so forced it wasn’t even believable that these people would be attracted to each other. 
the premise of this book had so much potential and so much could’ve been done with it but instead this was just a let down for me. there were multiple plot points and character relationships that could’ve been explored but they either ended early or left undeveloped. the ending was rushed and i feel like the whole plot wasn’t even resolved properly???? like what the heck???

but the cover was pretty i guess.

pleasantly surprised since christina lauren books are hit or miss for me! super fun and easy read. the romance was a little underdeveloped for my tastes but the focus was really the treasure hunting so i would consider it more of a subplot! overall, fun, easy to read with an interesting premise that was great to watch unfold

the first half was painful to get through but once it picked up a little over half way through, it was good. 

natalie’s conflict with her culture and identity was really interesting, however, almost all of natalie’s growth happens off the page in the last 20 pages of the book which was disappointing. 

i also think the blurb of this book also marketed it more of a romance between natalie and george when it’s only a sub plot.

overall, despite the interesting themes, i think this would’ve been better had the characters been aged up a little. i just wasn't invested enough in any of them and all except natalie felt a little underdeveloped for me.