I read this book before I found out about the controversy with this author. I would recommend anyone considering this book to research the author themselves to make an informed decision on if this is an author they wish to support.  I agreed to review this book before I was aware of the controversy.

I love pirates. I love academic stories. This book should have been all of my wildest dreams coming true. And while I did enjoy it while I was reading it, the second I finished it and started thinking deeper about it, it fell apart. 

The world-building is weak. There are mentions of religions and pirates and even a historical figure, but it’s not clear how all of those things fit together. Is there magic that can reincarnate someone? That never seems to be clear, even though the main character seems to think it’s possible. I was never certain why things worked the way they did.
The pirates are theoretically the good guys, but their systems seem just as rigid and cruel in some ways as the empire is. It’s supposed to be a democracy where people are equal and free, and yet they don’t seem any safer or free from inappropriate use of power. I also don’t know why the cazadores are the way they are or what life looks like for most people in this world. I couldn’t figure out how the government is run, which seems like a pretty important detail if we’re supposed to discover how bad this regime really is. 

Ximena is an intensely frustrating main character. She’s supposed to change her mind throughout the book, but it is so mind-numbingly slow. She sees example after example of the cazadores being awful and wrong and she flat-out refuses to change her mind. Her character arc of why she wants so badly to become a cazadore also falls flat when her backstory is revealed. It just doesn’t make sense. She’s so hopelessly stubborn until she has to change her mind for plot reasons. She also has a terrible attitude and is awful to people. She also doesn’t really have character growth. 

Similarly, the romance is weak. He’s a nepo baby bully who cares about nothing but somehow decides he’s wildly in love with her, in spite of her aforementioned stubbornness. I have no idea why these two change their mind about each other. I have no idea why Ximena doesn’t stick to her morals and turn him in over and over again. At least Dante shows slightly more of a nuanced character than Ximena even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

I also didn’t like some of the writing itself. The random Spanish felt like it was more for color than anything else. The timeline doesn’t completely make sense (how is she being bullied by Dante the whole time in the same classes if she’s skipping years constantly?) There were descriptions of things that didn’t entirely make sense. There were some issues with how disabilities were portrayed, and I was troubled by the only people who were not white being described as being uncivilized.

Generally, the characters were annoying and irredeemable. The world systems don’t make sense. The writing had some issues. Overall, this book could have used another few drafts before it was fully developed. I wish it had been as fun as the cover had made it look. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review of the book.