Over Raging Tides is the first book in the Lady Pirates series, and going by this one, I can't wait to continue with this series. Grace has been a pirate since the age of seven, and is now Quartermaster and First Mate of Lady Luck, a pirate ship with an all-female crew. There is rivalry between her and Celia, the other woman who wanted the Quartermaster role. Grace's mother was taken from her when she was younger, by creatures of the sea that aren't friendly! Everyone presumes she is dead, including her love, the Captain of the ship. Things get interesting when Grace rescues two brothers from the Mordgris and brings them on-board. Her life changes and she sees things she never saw before.

 

This story was amazing and gripped me from the very start. The world building is amazing, and rich in history. The characters are well developed, although obviously some are more than others. One of my favourite characters is Sam, and I can't wait to see what she will do next. There were no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow, and the pacing was very smooth.

 

One word for you though - cliffhanger! This is the first book in the series so it does end with one almighty cliffhanger that will leave you wanting book two immediately. Unfortunately for me, it's not actually released yet, so I will have to wait oh-so-patiently!

 

For a clean, nautical adventure, with magic, mayhem, and a good dosing of rum, then I can highly recommend this book! Another corker by Jennifer Ellision.

 

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *

 

Merissa

Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

 

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Jennifer Ellision for granting me access to a copy of this book. I am truly grateful. It is an honor.

 

Grace Porter is the quartermaster and first mate of the Lady Luck, their ship. Her mother was taken by hideous and dreadful monsters called the Mordgris when she was young. She still believes that her mother is alive but hidden where the Mordgris lives. One day, their ship encounters a shipwreck, only to find not treasure but men, the last thing their crew wants to see. On the brink of being devoured by the Mordgris, Grace finds herself saving a boy and his brother and taking them in, which is against their rules. After this, a chain of events start, not just for Grace but also for the Luck.

 

I like the concept of switching the stereotype of men being the usual pirates. This generation is about change, and being different and unique, standing out. This book just makes the right amount of different because it beats certain stereotypes.

 

The fact that the origin of this concept was from watching a Pirates of the Caribbean movie adds a drop of awesomeness to the mix. Have you seen that cover? Amazing. Pure beauty.

 

Every chapter has something different and it relates to an article of the Lady Luck. The format was cool. I admired the writing style because it is comfortable and easy on the eyes, nothing too hard.

 

For me, I think that it lacks details or descriptions of the pirate world, just a little. I could imagine living the pirate life but something’s missing. As for the characters, most characters are molded great but the supporting could’ve had more “book time.” All of them are different in their own way and I want to be able to learn more about them because they all seem so interesting.

 

Some parts were predictable but some weren't what I expected. I felt bad about is the lack of pages. That ending left me wanting more. More action. More of the pirate-y life. It just screams a sequel. The book could’ve been much better if it was longer. Also... I need more moments of my ship.

 

This book would give you: (lady) pirates, sea monsters, betrayal, a strong-willed heroine, an adorable relationship of a captain and her first mate, crew of lighthearted and fierce lady pirates, a protective love between two brothers, a few moments of betrayal, a budding romance, and perhaps some treasure. If you’re up for all that and for a quick and fast-paced read, this book would be a good pick.

This story and I did not start off on the best footing, although I tried not to let that affect my opinion of it. When I first purchased it, All Romance Ebooks listed its word count as 184,420. Although I had never read anything by Wyatt before and had no experience with Devine Destinies, the book's description made it sound like a fun, fast-paced adventure, and $3.99 seemed like a nice price to pay for something of that length. You can imagine my shock when I opened up the file on my Nook and saw that it was only 44 pages. I contacted ARe, which tried and failed to get in touch with Devine Destinies and finally just corrected the word count on their product page using the info from the Devine Destinies site.

Although the description had seemed fine for a 184,420 word book, it seemed too busy for something that was only 18,442 words long. Sadly, my concern turned out to be justified. This could have been a much better work had every last bit of it been fleshed out more. Most of the characters were little more than a name, a job title, and a “good” or “bad” designation. You could tell the “bad” characters by their willingness to profit from slavery and their tendency to threaten to rape anything female. The “good” characters were, of course, anti-slavery and loyal to Hartwell, whose one vice was his absinthe addiction.

The shallow characterization was part of what allowed the story to move at such a brisk pace. Unfortunately, that brisk pace did not translate into “fun” and “exciting.” Even the action scenes were weak and unexciting. It didn't help that I realized pretty quickly that the publisher's description had basically told me the whole story. There were no surprises, other than the specific abilities Hartwell and his crew members gained. The story's structure left me feeling like I'd just read either an in-depth outline or the introduction to a longer work.

There were so many problems with this story.

• The insta-love between Hartwell and Mechatronic was eye roll-worthy, particularly when you consider that, for Hartwell, it began when he was holding Mechatronic's skeleton. That's not horrifying at all, no siree.
• When Hartwell's sister was first mentioned, I wondered what kind of idiot would bring his sister with him to hunt pirates. Then I realized that Susanna was basically only there so that she could prove the Bad Guys' badness by giving them someone to threaten with rape.
• All the villains are cartoon bad guys. All of them.
• There's a bit of head-hopping, particularly in the beginning of the story.
• The attempts at humor left me cold. Readers were expected to laugh as Hartwell's new crew members introduced themselves. Those crew members were: a stone-deaf sailor; a little person who listed his experience as gunnery crew and who therefore had difficulties with every aspect of his job; a huge, scary-looking cook who had a squeaky voice and no fighting ability; a girl pretending to be a boy, badly; and Lucky Pete, who was considered lucky because the cannibals didn't get a chance to cut off his penis, although they got just about everything else. Wyatt seemed to be going for an over-the-top, Janet Evanovich-style humor, and it fell completely flat for me. Part of the problem was that I felt uncomfortable about being expected to laugh at incredibly unfortunate individuals. Another part of the problem was that the attempt at wacky humor didn't seem to fit with what the story had been like up to that point.
• At one point, Ruby, a drunken serving woman who throws herself at Hartwell so that readers can laugh at her and Mechatronic has an opportunity to feel jealous, is held hostage. Except it's almost like she's not in the scene. She's barely mentioned as the two sides talk, no one seems concerned about her safety, and it's easy to forget she's even there.

 

This story maybe had potential, but it needed a lot more work before publication. I don't know what Devine Destinies does for their authors, but clearly editing isn't part of the package. While I don't remember seeing any typos, every other aspect of the story needed improvement. Even the formatting was shoddy.

Lady Mechatronic and the Steampunked Pirates appears to be the first story in a series of at least four works. I have absolutely no plans to read the rest of the series and will do my best to avoid any other works published by Devine Destinies.

 

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

A bit more complex (plot-wise) than I prefer my historical romance.

This story and I did not start off on the best footing, although I tried not to let that affect my opinion of it. When I first purchased it, All Romance Ebooks listed its word count as 184,420. Although I had never read anything by Wyatt before and had no experience with Devine Destinies, the book's description made it sound like a fun, fast-paced adventure, and $3.99 seemed like a nice price to pay for something of that length. You can imagine my shock when I opened up the file on my Nook and saw that it was only 44 pages. I contacted ARe, which tried and failed to get in touch with Devine Destinies and finally just corrected the word count on their product page using the info from the Devine Destinies site.Although the description had seemed fine for a 184,420 word book, it seemed too busy for something that was only 18,442 words long. Sadly, my concern turned out to be justified. This could have been a much better work had every last bit of it been fleshed out more. Most of the characters were little more than a name, a job title, and a “good” or “bad” designation. You could tell the “bad” characters by their willingness to profit from slavery and their tendency to threaten to rape anything female. The “good” characters were, of course, anti-slavery and loyal to Hartwell, whose one vice was his absinthe addiction.The shallow characterization was part of what allowed the story to move at such a brisk pace. Unfortunately, that brisk pace did not translate into “fun” and “exciting.” Even the action scenes were weak and unexciting. It didn't help that I realized pretty quickly that the publisher's description had basically told me the whole story. There were no surprises, other than the specific abilities Hartwell and his crew members gained. The story's structure left me feeling like I'd just read either an in-depth outline or the introduction to a longer work.There were so many problems with this story.- The insta-love between Hartwell and Mechatronic was eye roll-worthy, particularly when you consider that, for Hartwell, it began when he was holding Mechatronic's skeleton. That's not horrifying at all, no siree.- When Hartwell's sister was first mentioned, I wondered what kind of idiot would bring his sister with him to hunt pirates. Then I realized that Susanna was basically only there so that she could prove the Bad Guys' badness by giving them someone to threaten with rape.- All the villains are cartoon bad guys. All of them.- There's a bit of head-hopping, particularly in the beginning of the story.- The attempts at humor left me cold. Readers were expected to laugh as Hartwell's new crew members introduced themselves. Those crew members were: a stone-deaf sailor; a little person who listed his experience as gunnery crew and who therefore had difficulties with every aspect of his job; a huge, scary-looking cook who had a squeaky voice and no fighting ability; a girl pretending to be a boy, badly; and Lucky Pete, who was considered lucky because the cannibals didn't get a chance to cut off his penis, although they got just about everything else. Wyatt seemed to be going for an over-the-top, Janet Evanovich-style humor, and it fell completely flat for me. Part of the problem was that I felt uncomfortable about being expected to laugh at incredibly unfortunate individuals. Another part of the problem was that the attempt at wacky humor didn't seem to fit with what the story had been like up to that point.- At one point, Ruby, a drunken serving woman who throws herself at Hartwell so that readers can laugh at her and Mechatronic has an opportunity to feel jealous, is held hostage. Except it's almost like she's not in the scene. She's barely mentioned as the two sides talk, no one seems concerned about her safety, and it's easy to forget she's even there.This story maybe had potential, but it needed a lot more work before publication. I don't know what Devine Destinies does for their authors, but clearly editing isn't part of the package. While I don't remember seeing any typos, every other aspect of the story needed improvement. Even the formatting was shoddy.Lady Mechatronic and the Steampunked Pirates appears to be the first story in a series of at least four works. I have absolutely no plans to read the rest of the series and will do my best to avoid any other works published by Devine Destinies.(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)