Arr! A hearty Thank Ye to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Now, on we go!

Having recently read “Daughter of the Pirate King” by Tricia Levenseller I cautioned myself before digging into “Over Raging Tides”.

“Jaime” I whispered (I only speak to myself in hushed tones. It draws just the right amount of attention), “You just read a book about female pirates. Don’t you think that it might be overkill? That you might tire of reading about the swashbuckling, grog-filled, treasure hunting adventures of a posse of cussing, devil-may-care ladies who don’t need no man to get shit done?”

NO.
The answer will always be No.

I will never get bored of pirate tales, especially if it’s badass lady pirates and especially if there’s a treasure hunt involved. “Over Raging Tides” is a decent book. It’s exciting and it’s fun. It’s biggest issue is that it feels like a sequel. The story unfolds in what feels like mid-adventure and the reader is left with too many questions right from the get go, heave ho.

For starters, we have our lovely, very nondescript main character Grace Porter, Quartermaster of the all-female pirate ship The Lady Luck. Grace has a back story and it involves her being chased by these creatures called the Mordgris which I’m pretty sure are the bastard children of the mermaids from Harry Potter and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Not sure! The Mordgris are there from the story’s start and we never do get any explanation as to their fixation with Grace. Eh, I’m sure it will be in the sequel! But yeah, this book was a quick read – maybe 3.5 hours. I would have preferred a more fleshed out story with an expanded beginning and less of a cliffhanger ending.

As for the characters. I liked the characters Ellision has created. Love would be taking it too far. Grace is just OK. She’s our main character, though, and I wanted to love her. I think in some ways she suffers from being outshined by some of her fellow shipmates. Grace’s love interest – Leo – well he kind of sucks. He’s whiny and wishy-washy and just not very alluring. Throughout the book he also touches Grace in ways I think are there to titillate the reader but they just seem out of place and forced. The whole romance is forced really. Captain Ilene is pretty interesting. I wouldn’t mind hearing more of her back story. Sam? Grace’s best friend on the ship? Well, Sam is FANTASTIC! Sam should have been the main character! Seriously, if the book centered around her adventures of trying to break free from The Lady Luck and captain her own ship, then I would be all over it.

So the book suffers from having a dull main character with a dull romance between two people who might be bipolar and who have zero chemistry. And Leo confirms my dislike of him with something he pulls towards the end of the book. If you want the spoiler, check out my review on Goodreads (I’m able to hide it on there).

And that’s it. “Over Raging Tides” ends before the real treasure hunt begins and while I enjoyed the read I’m not sure I’m going to wait around for a sequel to find out what happens next. If you’re really looking for an all-female pirating adventure then, sure, this might be worth your time. The truth, however, is that this story doesn’t cover any new ground and swapping genders doesn’t do enough to refresh and renew a tale that has been done before.

Over Raging Tides
by Jennifer Ellision
Kindle Edition
Published: March 20, 2018
Pages: 238