Thanks to NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group Razorbill and Natalie C. Parker, for the advance Sneak Peek reading of Seafire, for an honest review.
Female pirates. Total-kick-butt female pirates. Caledonia. Pisces. Anima. I don’t care – I will say it – total Girl Power. Nautical excitement. Action. So much action. Survival. Revenge. This teaser of Seafire by Natalie C. Parker, has it all. Already.
One of the true loves of being a librarian: students bright with the anticipation of waiting on a new, exciting book. Eager for it. Seafire will be one of those books.
Bring on the book.
Definitely OFtS….one for the shelves.
5/5 fallo

Caledonia Styx lives in Crapsack Waterworld, a post-apocalyptic flooded version of our world (referenced occasionally as the “old world”, flooded/destroyed as a result of some unknown calamity). Caledonia has the misfortune to live in an area controlled by Aric Athair, a vicious warlord and sir-not-appearing-in-this-book (since Seafire is the first in a planned trilogy, I’m sure we’ll meet him eventually). Anyway, Athair controls his war boys, called Bullets, by drugging them with something called Silt, made from some sort of weird hybrid poppy-flower-thing. Life in Athair’s territory sucks, so Caledonia’s mom, Rhona, and a bunch of other families have gotten together on the Styx family’s ship, the Ghost, to break through Athair’s blockade and head off to freedom elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the night the Ghost intends to escape, Caledonia and her best friend Pisces (they’re really big on the names from Greco Roman mythology in crapsack Waterworld) are sent ashore to gather some last minute supplies. Caledonia comes across a bullet called Lir, who asks for her help. It’s all bullshit, though - the second Caledonia gives away the location of the Ghost, Lir and his fellow bullets attack, slaughtering Caledonia and Pisces’s families and sinking the Ghost.

Pisces didn’t witness Lir’s treachery, though, and Caledonia, feeling responsible for the deaths of all those onboard the Ghost, keeps that bit where she gave away the position of the ship to herself. That makes sense, considering how guilty it feels, but later, as Caledonia refers to Pisces as her “sister”, the fact that she kept this bit of intel under wraps does become a tad annoying. Especially when Caledonia refuses, multiple times, to clarify why it is she does’t trust Bullets. She’s just like “nope, can’t trust Bullets” instead of “no, that one time I trusted a Bullet, he slaughtered our families.”

Anyway!

Four years after the deaths of their families, Caledonia and Pisces have raised and repaired the Ghost, renaming it the Mors Navis.

Over those four years, Caledonia, acting as captain, and Pisces, her first mate, have collected a crew composed entirely of girls and women, all of whom have no love for Aric Athair and his Bullet army. Caledonia and her crew basically go around the Bullet seas, making life hell for Athair’s people. During one such mission, Pisces is wounded and then captured, only to be rescued and returned to the Mors Navis by a Bullet who claims he wants to escape. Caledonia, who has literally zero reasons to trust Bullets, doesn’t trust him. Pisces points out, reasonably, that he saved her life when he could have left her to die. But Caledonia simply repeats her mantra of “no trusting Bullets” while refusing to elaborate.

Until the Bullet lets it slip that Donnally and Ares, Caledonia and Pisces’s brothers, respectively, survived the massacre on board the Ghost and were pressed into Athair’s drug-addled Bullet army. He knows what ship Donnally and Ares are on, and the route it takes to bring in conscripts (read: children stolen from their families, drugged, and forced into Athair’s army, refusal to comply met with extreme violence, in the usual fashion of a murderous tyrant).

Suddenly, Caledonia has reason to question her strict “don’t trust Bullets” policy. But it’s one of those Meek’s Cutoff situations: the Bullet could be a lying sack of shit and leading the Mors Navis into a trap. Or he could be telling the truth, leading Caledonia and Pisces to their long-lost brothers. What to do?

Well, it’d be a pretty short book if they just shot the Bullet, dumped his body in the ocean and moved on, wouldn’t it?

It took me a little longer to read Seafire than I intended - I’m a slow reader anyway, but while I was reading Seafire, I was also binging on Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series (which are fantastic by the way - highly recommend the audiobooks, Michael Page is an amazing audiobook narrator) so my focus may have been just a wee bit divided.

Seafire is definitely a highly enjoyable book, lots of nonstop action, but not a lot of resolution because it’s the first in an intended series. I highly recommend breezing through the book in one go, rather than endlessly picking it up and then putting it down again.

It's only a sneak peek, but I seriously love this book already! The start is very promising so hopefully the rest of the book keeps up this momentum.

The first two things that drew me into *Seafire* were the beautiful cover and the phrase, "Sisterhood is survival". Both of these told me this was going to a book to empower young girls, and I believe that to be true within this sample. Not only do we get to know Caledonia and her living situation, but we get to see some fierce and independent young girls fighting for a cause they believe in. Though it involves revenge, I think seeing the strong girls here will help young female readers to feel strong and capable.

I did find the main action sequence to be slightly longer than I usually enjoy. It was definitely exciting, but I was ready to move on after several pages of action.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the sample and found the ending to be quite the cliffhanger! I hope to be able to read this book fully one day.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin, for a chance to sample this awesome book!

There seem to be a lot of sea-related books coming out this year, books about mermaids and pirates, and while sometimes I get tired of reading the same sort of book, the same sort of setting, over and over again, this is a trend I can get behind!

As another reviewer said, Seafire starts with a bang, and—from what I can tell from the excerpt I read anyway—the bangs just keep on rolling. Caledonia and Pisces miraculously survive the murder of their entire family and the crew of the Ghost by the warlord Aric Athair. Four years later, Caledonia is captain of the newly rebuilt Ghost—now called the Mors Navis—and is seeking revenge and justice for the death of her family.

The entire crew of the Mors Navis is made up of women and girls, and the enemy—the Bullets—appear to be made up of mostly men. I'm fairly certain there will be some LGBTQ+ romances later in the story, and overall, I was glad that when in the prologue it appeared as if there was going to be an insta-romance, there ended up not being one instead.

I can't really say my exact feelings on this book, since I was only given the first four chapters or so of the story, but from the amount I read, I will definitely be coming back to this story once it's released. The all-girl crew felt a lot like an anime (in a good way), and I'm excited to see what's going to happen next after ending the story four chapters in and on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Although this was a preview, I loved how it jumped right into the action and delivered flawless tension. If you love pirates, adventure,danger, and a kicka$$ female character, SeaFire is for you.

Seafire has been getting a lot of buzz from the YA book bloggers I follow on Twitter and Goodreads so I was excited about the chance to read a sneak peak.

The book dives right into the action as we follow Caledonia, a pirate who is trying to take down the warlord who caused the deaths of her family and friends, and her crew on the Mors Navis. Seafire does a great job providing an overview of how the world works without bogging the prose down with details. Lots of characters are introduced in the first few chapters and I'm looking forward to learning more about the crew of the Mors Navis. The action scenes were full of tension and did a great job making me feel like I was really there. I was so sad that the excerpt ended in the midst of something exciting and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Seafire when it comes out on August 28!

A young girl and her family are looking for a place they can live in peace away from the tyrannical ways of Aric Athair and his Bullets. Having gathered other families onto their ship, Ghost, they are finally ready to make their move. Just as soon as they get enough food onboard to sustain them for a while. It is on a shortening that Caledonia, now the captain of the Ghost, renamed Mors Navis, is out for revenge and she has Aric and the Bullets in her sjghts!
I can't wait to read the rest of this book!

I received an advanced reader copy of a sneak peek in exchange for my honest review.

I kept hearing great things about this book so I was excited to read this sneak peek. It was a quick read that got me hooked. We are big fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in my house and this book has the same kind of feel. The main character Caledonia is a strong woman who I immediately connected with. This book is now 100% on my TBR list!
Big thank you to the publisher,Penguin Young Readers Group and Netgalley for this ARC.

Wish I could have tasted more of this story! What an attention grabber! The mighty sea calls me and I can't wait to hear more about Caledonia, Pisces and Mors Navis. What an exciting ride within the first couple chapters!

This is a tantalizing teaser, with just enough to hook you in to want more chapters. We get a brief overview of the society and the struggles that the girls will have to go through. Even the "weak" characters have personality in the brief moments we see them, so I'm sure they'll be great once we really get to know them.

Although I only read an excerpt from Natalie C. Parker's new book, Seafire, I found it a fun, rousing adventure about a girl who takes to the sea. Recommended for young adults who enjoy stories of independent women.

A very enjoyable and fun read. I'm looking forward to read the entire book that should be wonderful judging by the peek.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

This sneak peek was good and intriguing enough that I'm interested to read the full book. But I am also a little worried about some of the cemented prejudices that I can already see are going to be major factors in the girls' relationships with others and even within the group. But I'm certainly not against girl pirate stories. I love girl pirates.

I don’t usually read samplers but I kept seeing this book talked about and was curious. I love what I’ve read so far and I am totally in when it’s available. Looks like a dynamic sea faring adventure with a great MC.

This sneak peek of Seafire has me wanting to read the whole novel right now. I can’t wait to get my hands on Seafire. This story sounds so good.

I had seen this and thought it sounded like something that I would enjoy. To be honest though, I don’t think I got enough of a feel for it in the short few chapters so I’ll definitely be taking a look when it’s released.

I’m glad I got to check out a sneak peek of this book. This one wasn’t really on my radar. I have noticed the beautiful cover popping up here and there, but it isn’t something I’ve been actively looking forward to. The part that got my attention was the all girl ship’s crew. That sounded very interesting. And it probably is. However, I’m not sure I’ll be picking this one up. The author’s writing style kind of bothered me. It felt a little too dramatic and wordy for what she was trying to convey. It could be I’m just not in the mood for a YA pirate fantasy at the moment, but we’ll see. I’m sure this will be a popular book this year. I may pick it up eventually.

This sneak peek really makes me want to read the entire book! I am a big fan of YA and this just left me wanting so much more! I hope to read this soon! Thanks for the opportunity!

Review of Sneak Peek:

What little I read of Seafire has me all too excited to experience the rest of the story. A heroine leading a team of women in a cut-throat world on water and the decisions that brought her to that point in time made for an enthralling snippet. Oftentimes I'm a picky reader when it comes to writers, but Parker's writing style was fluid and all-too-easy to fall into. I'm desperate for the rest of the story, to see a lead female character who has regrets and heavy responsibility on her shoulders handles it all, and how ultimately everything she decides will fall on those around her. I cannot wait to get my hands on it.