This was a fun book at times, yet others it was too slow.

The characters are all great together and I enjoyed Avra's witch luck.

It had it's funny moments but the story took too long I was bored at certain points. At first the banter was fun but it just didn't stop and became annoying after a while.

Overall an ok read but not great.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I don't even know where to start with this book. Which seems to be a theme among other reviewers.

If you're like me and loved A Taste of Gold and Iron, and were so excited about a new Alexandra Rowland novel you could jump out of your skin, the announcement of this book probably sent you a little feral. Now, if you loved A Taste of Gold and Iron, you also need to know that this book is in a completely different category. While still set in the same universe and world, this book is unhinged comedy centring on a 34-35 year old field agent, Avra, with the behaviour of Pinocchio from Shrek and that tweet about squaring up to a larger man then saying 'I'm just a little birthday boy.'

The pirate Captain Teveri az-Haffar is a sassy, sarcastic and utterly determined character that is the focus of Avra's insane affections. Together the pair, and everyone else who sees him, fawn over Julian. Meanwhile Julian is....mysterious and a walking tease that leaves Avra making 'squee' noises throughout.

There is absolutely no part of this book you should take seriously. If you find yourself rolling your eyes at Avra, his ridiculous attempts at seducing Teveri, or Tev, and desperately trying to seduce Julian, you've got the right reaction. It is ridiculous. I mean, the man literally climbs a wardrobe and reacts like a cat going into a carrier when someone tries to get him down. There are repeated referrals to fighting alley possums that exploit Avra. It's just magically ridiculous.

So the story centres around Avra having stolen these secrets, he goes to Tev and has to work with them and their crew to decipher the secrets and sell to the highest bidder. Between this and his past as an agent, Avra ends up catching the attention of the new ambassador. It's the interactions between the two and a couple interactions with a few of the crew members that really leave wondering 'Is Avra really this childish, sexually desperate man-child with an overactive creative spirit or is it an act?' I'm still not totally sure myself.

Because it's set in the same universe (Chantiverse) as all of Alexandra's works to date, it adds more richness to the world we've come to love. In particular, Tev's coat and the poem, I just adored that. And please know if you start this book and wonder about this cake competition, the pay off on this is incredible. You can tell how much they had fun writing it, and honestly, that's something that shines throughout the book. It's just fun, ridiculous and genuinely perfect for anyone who loves queer pirates and is lamenting the cancellation of Our Flag Means Death.

Actual rating 3.8
Gotta be honest with you: it was not what I expected. Sure, it was fun, light and easy to read, but I found it lacked depth at times. I wished for more backstory, more insight into the other two main characters' feelings. Nothing another 100-150 pages couldn't have fixed.

The language was impeccable, fun and clever. There were blue dogs, and the side characters were really fleshed out (Granny Layla! Cat! My beloveds). The cake competiton was hilarious, easily the hightlight of the whole book.

Again, it just wasn't what I expected going in. But if you want a somewhat unhinged, lighthearted, quick story with lots of sex jokes, then this is for you!

Probably I'm just pissed that Avra didn't get enough cuddles. Sheesh.

I requested this ARC just because I liked a previous book by Alexandra Rowland and did not read the description so I went in with no expectations at all. When I saw that it had a countdown I panicked a bit because I am a mood reader but unlike a lot of fantasy books I felt dragged into the story from page one and that is to do with the unusual protagonist of the story. Where other heros growl and purr at their love interests, Arva screeches. To the point where a grown pirate starts to break down crying and twitching. He is a short, skinny man of 35 who climbs on top of wardrobes to pose alluringly, flirts aggressively and pathetically and is just overall the most ridiculous, hyperactive, hilarious little weasel on a sugar high who does not know when to shut up.
The story is set relatively shortly after A Taste of Gold and Iron but instead of the royals, we now follow a pirate crew who needs to get to shelter (and to the cake competition!) before the sea-serpent boinking season while trying to crack a state secret.
The captain of the ship is Arva's ex, Teveri, a very grumpy and disgruntled person. Their relationship is so dysfunctional that - and I find this rare in books - the third person in their little group was so absolutely necessary to balance those idiots or they would probably not have gotten a single thing done.
I loved the book so much and was in such a good mood while reading even though I've had quite an "off"week. Perfect book at the perfect time. I highlighted so many funny scenes and while with all the screeching and whining it should not be made into a film, I will go preorder a physical copy right now and am tempted to start an instant reread! The book is cheerful and low angst despite the treason plotline (and despite how dreadful all the cakes are, except for Mistress Navya's) and the ending is quite open, so a lot of space for either a sequel (yes, please!) or Imagination.

#RunningClosetotheWind #NetGalley #alexandrarowland #Arvahelvaci

When I read A Taste of Gold and Iron, about a year and a half ago now, I thought that such an amazing book - the kind that I will desperately and shamelessly thrust into the hands of anyone I know and a great many people I don't purely for the opportunity to have more people to talk about it with - was the kind of thing that a single author could only produce once in their career. Let me tell you, I have never been more glad to be wrong than I was reading Running Close to the Wind. In fact, I might go so far as to say that this book was even better. I am writing this review at two o'clock in the morning because I am dead certain that I cannot possibly sleep until I have shared how fantastic this book is with the world.

I cannot begin to express how much I loved every single character. Most of all Avra, who is possibly the whiniest, neediest and most annoying chaos gremlin that anyone's imagination could possibly produce (and I mean this in the most complimentary way possible). I oscillated between wanting to kiss the man and strangle him, often in the same sentence, and most of the other characters felt much the same way. He's horny as hell (everyone is), he has somehow managed for fifteen years not to get fired from a job that he possesses no discernible aptitude towards, he's so suspiciously lucky no one will ever play a game of chance against him but he's still luck-agnostic, and a professional hired by his own government to investigate him once told his superiors that there was not a single thought in his head. He is 5'4" and even if this had not been explicitly mentioned in the text, you could tell purely by the energy that radiates from him at all times. Imagine the ultimate sad wet cat of a character, but give him a sense of self-importance and absolutely no impulse control, and you will come close to conceptualising Avra Helvaçi.

And what can I say about Teveri? Wonderful character. Perpetually in a state of very understandable mild irritation towards Avra, even when they are considering having sex with him. Frequently much more than mildly irritated by Avra's existence, especially when he is making annoying noises for attention (also very understandable). They're the captain of a pirate ship that they claimed after everyone on it died from the plague. They are definitely insane and I love them for it. I would say that Avra is their number one enabler, because whatever crazy ideas they have on their mind, he probably has a worse one, so theirs seem quite reasonable given the options. They have neither the time nor the patience for anyone's bullshit, and their crew would probably follow them to the end of the earth, but every single crew member would be bitching about it the whole way there.

Oh and Julian, the monk. Everyone is attracted to him. It's a whole thing. It was a great running theme, and honestly got funnier the more people who met him and immediately agreed that he was hot. He utilises this, largely with gleeful abandon, though mostly manages to come across as very monkly about it whenever anyone other than Avra is paying attention. He swore a vow of celibacy to join a monastic order which requires its disciples to give up the thing that most occupies one's thoughts. He does sciency things despite seemingly not knowing all that much about sciency things, except relative to the rest of Teveri's crew. He once had a conversation about maybe killing some important people, and nearly got executed over it. After finding out that the holy site he originally left his monastery to seek is now an establishment that serves curry, he seemingly just decided to stick around, and you know what? Good for him.

Underlying all three of these characters, though, is something that I absolutely delight in seeing: the core beliefs that they live by, the things that they will not compromise. It was just so evident that so much thought had been put into these characters, who they are, their past, their principles, what led them to where they are now. Don't let the comedy deceive you. This book was crafted, masterfully, and I don't doubt that for every little detail that makes it onto the page, there are another ten behind it that exist for no purpose other than to shape who these people are.

I haven't even talked about the setting! The plot! The other characters! The cake competition! Honestly, I could wax lyrical about this book until the cows come home, and I still wouldn't be anywhere near running out of good things to say about it. To avoid spoiling too much, I will simply say this: if you watched Our Flag Means Death and thought "if only these pirates were even more disastrous as human beings," then you should be running to buy this book right now. If you want a book with a cast so queer that you will forget there could've been people that weren't, this is absolutely for you. If you want something that can make you forget about the world for a little while and potentially start snorting with laughter with great frequency, Running Close to the Wind is a book after your own heart, I promise you.

This is a book of shenanigans. The most wonderful kind of shenanigans, in that almost every single one of them will leave you doubled over with laughter, and yet they still manage to all tie back to the main plot, often in the most surprising ways. The story is definitely a comedy, but it's more than that, too. It's also about found family, being horny for monks who have taken vows of celibacy, and stealing from the government. (I am sort of kidding, but not really.) It balances hilarity with sincerity brilliantly, and rightfully takes its place among my all-time favourite books.

This was the most perfect and absurd book I've read in a long time. Rowland writing was delightful.! I loved it so much, cannot recommend enough

This book sounded so interesting and had so much potential imo, but I couldn't finish it because the arc was extremely poorly formatted. There were a lot of alphabets that were missing in words and the sentence structure was also off with random symbols thrown in between the words. I will definitely be buying a copy when the book comes out though because the little I was able to power through was hilarious AF and I really wanna read this book!

Nautical fantasy, especially involving pirates, is one of my favourite subgenres ever. Any book with pirates immediately peaks my interest, but when it's also compared to OFMD, one of my favourite comfort shows, I just really NEED to read it. I have read Rowland's previous novel set in the same fantastical world, and I admit I didn't like it much. But I'm always willing to give an author another chance, mostly because I WANT to read all the great books. So yes, my expectations going into "Running Close to the Wind" were a mixed bag, but I was hoping for greatness.

After having finished the last pages of this novel, well... I fear that Rowland just isn't the author for me. This new book has entirely different vibes and a completely different tone than "A Taste of Gold and Iron", its predecessor. I don't mind at all, I love it when very different kinds of stories are told in the very same world. And the world here does seem to be an interesting one - we don't learn that much about it, though. The world building is both scarce and superficial and infodumpy at the same time, and it's disappointing because there is so much interesting political intrigue hidden behind chapters and chapters of pure and utter sillyness. Because that's what this book is. Just silly.

Now, I love comedy in my fantasy. I enjoy more comedy-focused approaches to fantasy, too. But "Running Close to the Wind" offers nothing else beyond it, and its comedy is cringeworthy at best. It reads like a weird fantastical sketch comedy, with every situation, every plot point existing purely so that our main character can do something silly.
Speaking of said main character, Avra - I'm not sure I actually consider him a character at all. He is a caricature, he exists purely to be funny in a really really over the top, cringey way. He is not grounded in reality, his flaws are never truly explored. He is OBNOXIOUS. He doesn't act nor talk like an actual person, he doesn't have any depth nor complexity, and I was absolutely flabberghasted when the book told me he was supposed to be a 35 year old man. No grown up man, not even the silliest man alive, would act like him. He's childish and insufferable, and his supposed charm wears off after about 10 pages of having to endure his antics. He'd work maybe as a minor character, a comic relief that our main characters meet at some point, but he cannot carry a book.
Not that the other characters were any better. There are two more major characters in this - Avras on and off lover, the pirate captain Teveri, and the mysterious new part of their pirate crew, the very hot priest Julian. I could not take Teveri seriously at all, and I WANTED to love them because nonbinary pirate captain?? Hell yeah! But they didn't act like a captain and noone in their right mind would follow them. Their captain's log consisted mostly of dirty thoughts about Avra and Julian. Julian, who is just hot and intelligent and celibate but used to be a complete slut, which is why celibacy was the sacrifice required of him when he joined his religious order. The relationship between the three of them never actually conveys any kind of emotional depth, there's just nothing beyond lust. Whenever there seems to be an emotional development you can be sure the next silly scene is right around the corner negating any effect it might have immediately.
All they think about is how horny they are, like 80% of their dialogue is about sex. And nothing ever comes of it either, this isn't a spicy book. There are glimpses of an actual personality between all the sex jokes, visible only once the book decides to finally give us something resembling a plot, but whenever there was finally something interesting about either of them, it was immediately ruined by yet another silly scene filled with sex jokes. We get it, everyone is horny. Please stop, please give me ANYTHING else! The sex jokes aren't even funny, they get increasingly cringey and unbearable. The main joke is just how Avra and Tev keep completely objectifying Julian in the most uncomfortable ways. That's the humour level we're at.
There is also something to be said about how Avra is treated by most of the other characters. They are unnecessarily cruel and abusive, physically but especially emotionally, but it's funny because Avra is just so annoying and he's kinda into it, you get it??

The writing in this is alright, but Rowland relies way too much on (often unnecessary 'funny' filler) dialogue, and the pacing is completely off because of it. For its actual content, this book is way too long.

Mind you, I'm clearly in the minority here. There are a lot of reviewers who very much enjoyed this novel, so take my little opinion with a grain of salt. Still, from purely a craft perspective, this book has too many issues for me to recommend it to anyone. I skim read after the 50% mark only because I was hoping for it to get better, but quite frankly, I should have followed my instincts and dnf'ed this one. 1,5 stars maybe, because the very beginning is a little funny?

i don't know what i'm more happy about — that i got to read this ahead of its release or that i got to read this at all because the book is just. uhhhh. it's. i have EMOTIONS OKAY

this author has been on my radar for quite a while now, i have read three other books by them aside from this one and i suspect that RCW sort of nailed it down for me that i will read ANYTHING they write. i will eat it up and then word-vomit everywhere about how good it was. watch me.

my favourite thing about this particular book is how absolutely unserious and completely unhinged it is. i expected the world-building to be exquisite (alex's trademark, in my opinion), but the way it's intertwined with this absolute delight of the story, where the mc's inner monologue had me constantly look up at the ceiling and sigh with the knowledge that nothing will ever be as funny and good as this, is literal magic. it's horny and unapologetic about it. it knows how to get down and have some real fun!

avra's definitely the star of it all, as well as my life. such a marvellous creature, feral, with no fucking filter and zero inhibitions. i wish i could walk through life the way he can. the horniness of the book is largely (but not fully) his contribution. i love this man to bits.

the author also managed to sneak in some healthy relationship communication and a plot to undermine a whole fucking government. this one sentence should be enough to get you in, if you weren't interested already. this reads like cozy fantasy despite the stakes being actually somewhat high, there's no actual smut involved (not that i would mind tbh), but a very clear-cut throuple is in development which made me want to sob in jealousy for the next ten years.

i also want to say that this is something that my indie-loving friends will appreciate, i think. it has the type of queerness and authenticity i came to enjoy in that particular part of the book community, and i cannot wait for some of you to read this

I absolutely loved Running Close to the Wind!
This book was described as Six of Crows meets Our Flag Means Death and while I still haven't read Six of Crows... Our Flag Means Death is one of my favourite TV shows!
This made me super excited as well as made this book one of my most anticipated releases of this year!

I couldn't put this book down!
It was really well written and I really liked the writing style. Alexandra Rowland is definitely becoming a new favourite author.
The strongest part of the book and my favourite was definitely the characters.
I just really loved them all so much!

I highly recommend reading this book as it was amazing and everyone should definitely read it!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.
I would like to now spend some time screaming about this book. Because this book is everything to me.

I don’t know where to start. I thought A Taste of Gold and Iron was perfect but this?? This is even more perfect. This book had me smiling the whole way through, and laughing out loud far too often. It was written in such a slutty way without including actual smut, and that is my favourite.
I need more. I need more books written in this world, I need more of the fantastic character work this author delivers every single time. I humbly request more pathetic little raccoon men. I love Avra so much, what a sad pathetic-kitten of a man.
I also loved Julian, I loved Tev, I loved Cat, this book is just full of hilarious and endearing characters, and fun pirate hijinks, and Avra being an attention slut.

It ended far too soon. I’m actually reading this ARC while I’m sick, and honestly it’s cheered me up so much. Alexandra Rowland is an auto-buy author for me now, and I highly recommend their work.

I can only give this 5 starts, but please know that in my heart, I have given it 100/5⭐️, because that is the dramatic score dear Avra deserves

Pirates but make it gay and absolutely unhinged. Then take that, and make it horny and polyamorous. Congratulations, you now have Running Close to the Wind.

Avra, lucky poet and partially retired spy for Arast, accidentally stole the one trade secret most of Arast’s fortune is based on. He also accidentally reunited with Captain Tevari, a pirate with a ruthless reputation and his on-again off-again ex of the past fifteen years, who may or may not want him dead, or at the very least as far away from them as possible. To keep himself from being thrown overboard, Avra reveals to Teveri and their crew the secret he’s stolen, and together they devise a plan to sell it and make as much money off it as possible. Enters Julian, an extremely attractive monk bound by an unfortunate vow of celibacy, scholar extraordinaire and last essential piece to help them achieve their plan. Avra now has three problems on his hands: finding a way to sell the secret without being found out and killed by Arast, make up with Teveri, and convince Julian to abandon his vow of celibacy.

Forget everything you’ve just imagined about this book, forget the comparisons to Our Flag Means Death and Six of Crows, however accurate they may be, because whatever your expectations are about this book, it will blow them away. I went in with high expectations, both because of the promise of a heist like in Six of Crows, one of my favourite books ever, and because I loved A Taste of Iron and Gold, the first and only Alexandra Rowland book I’d read. Despite this, nothing had prepared me for the wild, unhinged ride that Running Close to the Wind proved to be.

Alexandra Rowland introduces us to fiery, vivid characters, whose personalities both clash and compliment one another’s. Avra could be an obnoxious and annoying character, what with his exuberant personality and endless supply of dirty jokes, but instead I found him most endearing, and it was incredibly easy to empathise with him and long for his happy ending. Similarly, Teveri’s personality could have driven me away. Instead, and partly thanks to Avra’s adoration of them, they were so easily lovable and relatable. And Julian’s wit and daunting complimented this pair so well, bringing nuance while playing into their games. This made for delicious relationships, and dynamics that had me cackling and squealing, and made me yearn for more development of their relationship, yearn to know what would happen and how it would end. From a writer’s point of view, I am admirative of Alexandra Rowland’s well-proven ability to play with a variety of characters and personalities, and render them all equally vivid and compelling, and to make readers fall for all kinds of relationships, from the calm one in A Taste of Gold and Iron to the fiery one in Running Close to the Wind.

Another thing I loved and admired was the balance between plot and character arc. This story is cleary character-led and the point of it is not so much what happens to the secret, although it is an important part of the story, as what growth the characters undergo. And grow they do. These arcs were mastered from start to end, and Alexandra Rowland found just how much of character arc and how much plot they could give us so that the story would neither feel plot-heavy nor character-heavy. This is no easy feat, but Alexandra Rowland mastered it seamlessly, and it merits some applause.

Overall, Running Close to the Wind is like no other book I’ve ever had to pleasure to read. It is wild and hilarious, and I don’t remember the last time a book made me laugh so much, but I’ll definitely remember that time. This story reads well and quickly, the worldbuilding blending it perfectly with the rest, even for those who haven’t read or don’t remember much about the worldbuilding of A Taste of Gold and Iron, set in the same world. Running Close to the Wind is a masterpiece of a story, lighthearted and yet treating serious topics without weighing down the atmosphere of the book. It is endlessly fun, surprisingly crude and dirty in its jokes, and vivid from beginning to end. Those who have loved Freya Marske’s books will most likely love this book as well, as will Alexandra Rowland’s fans and anyone interested in queer pirates. If you dislike sex-related jokes or crude language, refrain from reading this book, as it is riddled with such jokes and language—and it is what makes part of its charm.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for provinding me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are mine and unbiased.

Horniest book I've ever read. 5 stars.

This was a rip-roaring adventure and I absolutely ate it up. Not only was it laugh out loud hilarious, the writing style was also perfect for the story, though I had to get used to the non-stop sex jokes. Comparing it to OFMD and Six of Crows (both of which I love) was spot on, except this book was a lot hornier. However, this actually did not affect my enjoyment of the book as I felt the horny aspects weren't written in a gross/uncomfortable way like in so many other romances. I was also extremely impressed that the author managed to strike the perfect balance between writing character relationships and developing the plot.

I thought the storyline was brilliant - perfectly chaotic and whimsical. I loved the crew's little adventures and escapades, partly due to my love for pirate stories in general. Plus, the cake competition was one of my favourite aspects of the whole book and I need this to be a real-life event.

The characters were great as well. Tev was my favourite, but the main character, Avra, really grew on me. I hate that I'm writing this but the best way to describe his character would be if an annoying kid was also very horny and said 'reee' all the time. I adored the the concept of his good luck - usually characters are written to have terrible luck, so it was such a breath of fresh air to read about the opposite. Also, the relationships were amazing and there was great poly rep!

I read this as an ebook which had some strange formatting. For a bit I thought it was a stylistic choice, then realised that somehow all the 'Th's from any word starting with 'Th' were missing from my edition.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

I was sent an ARC copy of the book from Pam Macmillain via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I honestly don’t know where to start. This book left me so confused.

I laughed all the time while reading it and I couldn’t put it down for a sec (in fact, I finished it in less then two days). I found the story and its characters genuinely funny and I also believe that Alexandra Rowland has an exquisite writing style. I was sold when I learned that Running Close To The Wind was a perfect read for Our Flag Means Death and Six of Crows fans, and it actually is! The dialogue between characters and the phrasing of some sentences seemed like something I could easily find in an episode of OFMD. The same Avra reminded me of Stede (they both share the same sweetness and dumbness, I suppose). And the found family was immaculate, there were some moments where I just couldn’t stop myself from “awing” out loud.

Although, I couldn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to, and this breaks my heart. Running Close To The Wind its a character driven novel, that’s for sure. I usually don’t mind this narrative choice, it can be very interesting, but this time it felt like it was overshadowing the plot of the book. For the first half of the book I was caught up in what was happening, but after the initial enthusiasm I almost lost all the interest in what I was reading. I don’t know what happened. Avra is an extremely likeable character, and he’s POV was easy to follow. He’s hilarious and so unapologetically horny all the time. But, at some point, I started to get bored by his humor, which sometimes felt like too much.

Kudos for these elements tho:
- bisexual and non binary rep
- hot and manipulative priest (go Julian go)
- Tev’s agenda (legitimately one of the funniest thing in the whole book)
- Alexandra Rowland’s writing (which I’ve already mentioned, but that’s a necessary reminder)
- last but not least, PUPPETS

An energetic pirate romp billed as Our Flag Means Death meets Six Of Crows. I really wanted to like this book as I love both those comps but I couldn't get behind it. The book was one note: horny banter. The worldbuilding was excellent and the core plot was good, but it all felt secondary to the main characters thinking about, talking about and trying to have sex. They mostly lacked depth beyond their headline traits (mysterious hot priest, exasperated non-binary captain, bisexual trollop) and Avra in particular is intensely unlikeable with a narrative voice like a chipmunk on speed. Not one for me.

This is the funniest book i've ever read. The protagonist is a 35 years old who behave like an insufferable 12 years old, he's also extremely horny all the time. It's basically Our flag means death but more sexual and over the top

This was such a fun and funny adventurous fantasy book, the story felt unique and it was thoroughly enjoyable

Thanks to NetGalley for the at.

As a huge fan of A Taste of Gold and Iron, I was really excited to get my hands on Running Close to the Wind. I adored ATOGAI and it was one of my favourite reads (and rereads) of 2023. That said, I went in blind with this book and made sure I didn't read any reviews first, so I really didn't know what to expect with Running Close to the Wind.

It's very, very different to ATOGAI. The world is the same and it's really wonderful to see the perspective from someone outside the royal family, and see different places and cultures. The worldbuilding is, once again, huge and brilliant, with a keen depth of thought put into religions and customs.

Overall, the book really reminds me of Terry Pratchett. It's a strong fantasy-comedy crossover, that doesn't particularly take itself seriously. It's marvellously silly, with some quite deep moments in there as characters understand their motivations and choices but it fits in well within the story. The plot plays somewhat second fiddle to the characters, with their arcs mainly progressing the story and the plot being relatively minor in comparison. It works well for this book, but did kind of leave me wanting a little bit more.

Overall, an enjoyable book, but very different from Rowland's other work. It's lovely to see an author who can turn their hand to different styles and genres!

This was a hilarious joyous read. It was ridiculously over the top, it made me cackle with laughter, and it was a grateful escape from the real world for a bit.

I’m already familiar with Rowland’s A Taste of Gold and Iron, so I was very excited when this book was announced. The characters are all so distinct and outrageously funny. It was a breath of fresh air to read something that was hysterically over the top.

I loved the worldbuilding and the setting, something that Rowland excels at. The descriptions of the ship and the sea were lovely. I loved all the additional character we met, and the ending was just *chefs kiss*. A brilliantly written ending that made me giggle.

I highly recommend it - it left me cackling with laughter and I cannot wait to purchase this later in the year.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the ARC!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

This has been the most unique book I've read in a while. And while it has been a good change of pace for me, this book will be hit or miss for others. The tone is silly, goofy and slutty. While all characters follow the genre, the tone is mostly set by the main character, Avra Helvaçi. Other than being a self-acclaimed slut that frequently uses the words 'sexy' and 'reeee', he's also good at annoying others. The only reason why he hasn't gotten into serious trouble for his shenanigans is because he's known to be extremely lucky. People who know him call it his witch luck and know that they should not play cards with him.

He's a bit of a cat. He keeps whining when he doesn't get what he wants and he likes to flee on top of furniture. At the beginning of the story, he reunites with his old captain, who is tempted to throw him overboard. And at first, I agreed with them, but as I read on, I found myself wanting to read more and enjoyed the experience of rooting for Avra and his slutty plans.

Avra says that he wants things explained in simple language so he'll understand it, but oddly enough the word use of this work does not match that at all. The words 'incredulous', 'imminent', 'appallingly' and 'nefarious' have been used in just one paragraph. So where this is a silly read, I would not describe it as a simple read, especially for non-native English readers like me.

Lastly, there is this character named Julian. He's a lovely person and a good soul and also described as incredibly good-looking. And where he doesn't make it his personality, others do see it as a defining trait of him and objectify him. In the beginning, he's applauded to be good for improving the scenery and Avra states that he must have him. And where he doesn't seem to be bothered by it and it fits within the vibes of the story, it does seem best to give others a heads up, in case they don't like to read about that sort of thing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!