A sky pirates romantasy that ultimately fell short for me.
blurb:
The sky brought them together.
The storm could tear them apart.
While pirate ships and floating cities soar overhead, Amaya Sinclair’s feet are planted on the ground. But when a violent tragedy results in her abduction by a villainous Sky Lord, her once-clear path vanishes underfoot. In its place, she finds a beautiful, unforgiving world that challenges everything she believes about herself and her future.
William Lexington has spent over a decade carving out a space for himself among the clouds, at the cost of his identity and ideals. When a twist of fate lands Amaya on his airship, he writes her off as a pretty inconvenience-until he realizes she’s the only thing standing between his monstrous former mentor and a brutal new era.
Caught in a fight to live on their own terms, Amaya and Will’s growing connection calls every priority into question. As the enemy’s looming shadow darkens, their race to control forces best left untouched reveals that much more than their lives are at stake.
Welcome aboard the Maelstrom. Enjoy the view-and don’t get killed.
The Writing
This review contains minor spoilers
The prose is a bit flat, lacking in depth, and is basically all tell no show. I have definitely read worse and there is potential here, but it needed heavier edits.
This is a relatively minor example, but it illustrates why the writing frustrated me: we’re told the bar has a piano. The second time Amaya enters, she notices there’s no music playing and longs to play it… and then, a comment is made and suddenly she is playing the piano. Who could’ve guessed that would happen?! Shocking. Truly unforeseeable.
The overall writing style also felt very juvenile and better suited for YA. On top of that, the characters themselves came off as extremely immature, which only amplified the issue.
Around the 40% mark, the story really started to drag. Several chapters felt like pure filler, and I found myself completely disconnected from the characters. I ultimately DNF’d at 56%.
The Meat: Romance & Plot
The romance felt so unearned, cheesy, and a bit cringe.
Her artifact name: EAGLE EYE. Truly, I think the only worse name option would’ve been Hot Shot LOL.
The juvenile tone, combined with random bursts of gore and character decisions that felt arbitrary at best, is ultimately what made me tap out.
Like you just chopped that dudes hand off … and instead of finishing the job, we immediately pivot into a motorcycle chase. How is a man who just lost his hand suddenly chasing anyone on a motorcycle? Why wasn’t he killed when his hand was severed? I had multiple moments where I was just sitting there like ??????
And the romance didn’t help. It was very much:
ML: My crew—who I’ve known for years and love like family—is in danger…
Also ML: But wow, the FL—who I’ve known for maybe a few weeks—looks so good in that silk slip.
I just couldn’t take it anymore and ultimately decided to dnf.
The Potential
This is a debut novel with lots of potential, clearly the author knows how to write an entertaining story and lots of others seemed to enjoy this one. This just ended up not being for me. I would definitely love to revisit a book by this author after she’s written a few more.
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