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Was on track to be a 5 star read and then the virtue signaling woke ideology came in and I'm just not into that.  Obviously this will be a favorite for many but not me.   

I was going to leave this alone but it's been bothering me so much.  the fact that the teenage girl is questioning herself seems very normal.  The different gender is brought up by the adult women. The thing that infuriated me was demeaning  natural women over transgendered.  Because of course a girl wouldn't mind marrying someone twice her age for money and protection. This was actually said in the book.  But now that its believed that she isnt a she, well that changes everything. So if the girl wasn't trangendered then force her to marry becuase of course she would be happy for the protection and money.    I'm so pissed off by this and insulted.  It was really a fun read until then.  I tried to keep going but my whole experience with the book was ruined. 

this was such a fun read. like pirates of the Caribbean on the page. I devoured every second of this book.

the world was written so well and vivid, the characters driving the story forward and making me want for more.
the banter between a certain character and Amina I was dying for.

I can't wait to see where the story goes next.

I had so much fun reading this.

7.5/10
A fun adventure romp with pirates and magical creatures that would be really enjoyable and then would dive into an annoying romance that really brought it down IMO. Will def read the sequels, really liked Amina, although a lot of the side characters blended together. The villain was nothing special, but I did like a lot of the magical elements in this story! The PotC inspiration was a little too blatant in some spots but didn't really impact my enjoyment.

There was a framing device in the story of present day Amina telling the story to a chronicler and I thought these sections were a bit cheesy and overdone, but they didn't show up too frequently.

I think if the sequel dialed up the grit by 25% and dialed down talking about demon's asses by 100%, it'll be a really awesome book.