Compass and Blade- 2⭐️ 2.75🌶️

Fantasy

New adult

Oceanic based powers

Shipwrecks

Smugglers

🏳️‍🌈 side characters

Barely open door, on page romance

The book started out alright. I was compelled by the idea of shipwrecks and the crew that goes out to them. At first it reminded me of Fable by Adrienne Young. But where Fable turned seafaring and the Ocean into a tangible character….. Compass and Blade tried and fell just short. It’s almost like the idea was there, but the author was distracted and forgot to finish the thought. The other characters in the book were so close to being really well done. They just needed to be flushed out more. Given more weight. 

The tropes were troping. The plot was almost organized. The only through line I saw was the deadline to save the FMC’s dad. Everything else was like crammed in. There were just too many plot lines and characters that were introduced, then left unexplored or explained.

A f/f side character romance was hinted at in 2 sentences and then never mentioned again. It felt like checking a box. Either put it in and let it have space, or don’t even mention it.

I wanted to like this book. It just fell short in too many places. Maybe it should have been longer and given itself the space to expand?

At 80% I found myself just annoyed that I wasn’t sure what was going on with the romance aspect of this book, because it was so heavy at parts, but then obviously trope-y and cliche… leaning into the teen style of writing. I knew this was a standalone, but it was reading like it was a first book in a series.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Inkyard Press for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.