Bambbles Rambles

*sigh* I wanted to love this one. I wanted to love it despite this horrid cover. I wanted to love it because it was about chasing pirates and there was family drama and betrayal.

But I couldn't do it. I fooled myself for, oh, half the book before I couldn't hide my head in the sad anymore.

The Story:
I guess would should start off with something good. The plot was unique. Violet jumps on a ship on a whim to chase after the man who is chasing a notorious pirate captain who could be her missing brother. Okay, when I put it like that it sounds ridiculous, and it is. But it is the ridiculous in a good way sort of thing. If I take my dislike for how the characters were handled (hard to do) and just look at how the plot was executed it would be pretty good. It's pretty good because there were some sloppy parts and too much of the plot was hurt by weak characters. 

The Characters:
Oh hey, look! It's a MarySue! She does foolish things and gets rewarded (figuratively) for them. Like running into a hurricane! She does everything perfectly though she has never done it before. Seriously, this happens at LEAST twice that stand out, the first being she throws her FIRST dart, BLINDFOLDED at a map and succeeds in not only hitting the map (which would be believable) but hitting Lacao. I don't know much about Lacao other than a quick Google search tells me its an island in Chile. I don't care if it is the size of Canada, the odds of someone new at darts hitting it with their eyes closed is slim. 

So after that tangent... she's too damn perfect. I feel like she learned nothing, grew little to none and most importantly frustrates the hell out of me. She didn't start out this way. I didn't mind her in the beginning, but I must not have known better. And her damn perfectness messes with the plot because she is like the embodiment of a deux ex machina. 

Flint is one note and I know very little about him despite reading his book. Surprise. But I could have dealt with him, my rage is all for Violet.

The Romance:
The romance was bland for me, most likely because I hated Violet so much. It was still strange at times. Man, I just keep thinking on how many hopes I had for this and how sad that almost none of them were met. To be quite honest, I wanted to find more out about the plot so I clicked through the love scenes. Meh.

The Execution:
As we can see, it just didn't work for me. I read a decent plot and I want to remember it for what it could have been, which simultaneously makes me frustrated and sad. I did like how it set up for Lyon's book, which to my chagrin is not published yet. I want to read about him.. 

The Overview: 
Overall, not my favorite. It's the opposite of book three in the series. I liked those characters well enough but the plot was boring. This one had an interesting plot and characters that made me wanted to take up shooting.

So I'll reiterate the *sigh* and hope for the best with the next book...

Originally posted on GR in May 2012