I was excited to read this book as The Rosario sounds like a great adventure thriller from the blurb.
I dont think the book hit the mark completely but it wasn't awful. It was slow and clunky, the characters spent a lot of time chatting and re-chatting, never giving me anything new to deliberate. It was very tell and not much show.

I really enjoyed this book. It had me grippred from the start. I loved all the twists and turns. It made me want to keep reading I wasn't able to put it down. It's almost a Dan Brown like book. Which I love as well. Thank you to net galley for letting me read it.

I picked up this book because there was a promise of treasure hunting, of historical ships with great riches hidden within, and an action-packed race to collect these items before someone else did.

I was expecting Indiana Jones with a dash of James bond, but I got something else.

Unfortunately, there was not enough treasure hunting and way too much terrible dialogue and annoying characters, as well as filler writing. You know how they say farmers inject fruit with water to make it appear bigger and juicier? That was this book. It could’ve been at least 50% of the length.

And the characters. None of them were realistic. And they were all insufferable and childish: who describes their new-found love for their co-prisoner by saying “…I’m desperate to [kiss you]! But this atmosphere isn’t conducive to us even having our first kiss…however, I can’t stand it any longer - for God’s sake, kiss me, plea—“ then he kisses her, to which she responds by saying “Wow! Oh my God…you really know how to kiss.” Did a 14-year-old write this? There are more examples in the book. And the main antagonist was even worse, he was like a caricature of a James Bond villain but executed horribly wrong. He was hotheaded, immature, prone to tantrum, and all-in-all very unlikeable, but not in a way that you know you should dislike him because he’s the villain, but in a cringey, please-make-it-stop kind of way.

I feel like this story had a lot of potential but was executed poorly. I wanted to learn more about the history of the Spanish armada and have had an opportunity to hunt for those treasures with the characters, but what I got was unnecessary dialogue, abrupt transitions, drawn-out immature tirades by the antagonist, and maybe two short instances of treasure hunting which were over-shadowed by the annoying characters.

True to my “no book un-finished” rule, I did finish it, at first because I was waiting for it to get good, and then after only out of necessity and so I could give a fair review. Others have left reviews saying they enjoyed the author’s style of writing and the story. But unfortunately, this book did not do it for me.

Thank-you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced reader copy.

Characters: ⭐ ½
Plot: ⭐⭐ ½
Action: ⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐, simply because it was wordy and did not flow well at all (I will note that the writer did use diverse and varied language that was eloquent at times, but because of everything else I disliked, this did not save the book)
Overall: ⭐⭐

Well written and the story flows easily, an interesting thriller that will keep you turning the pages. Plenty of twists and turns to keep you engaged and good characterisation.
Overall a good read that I would definitely recommend.

This was a very interesting thriller. It is a classic trapped with no way to go story. Only this one has so many twists and turns, it will keep you reading late into the night. It is hard to put down. I recommend it to anyone wanting an exciting read.

A massive book for those who want as many words as possible in a book, or a good opportunity to practice speed reading. The plot and story are actually not too bad, even though there are a few strange decisions. The descriptions are a bit too much, especially in the first part, but I still think many will enjoy the story if they keep at it.