While I hate to be that person who requests a book and never reads it, unfortunately, that's what happened here. But not for lack of trying! I tried to sit down and get into this book, but something else always sounded more interesting or things came up and got in the way. I've been sitting on this book for more than six months and I think it's time to throw in the towel. I don't want to continue to sit on this book, knowing I won't be able to pick it up and read it for who knows how long.

I have seen from other reviews that this was a mixed bag though, so maybe I would have loved this book and maybe I wouldn't. I do love the cover though and think it conveys the plot of this book pretty well. Female pirates is always something I'm willing to read and get into! Hopefully I can find time to sit down and enjoy this title soon.

A promising pirate fantasy

I honestly expected to like this book less given the reviews I saw but it was a good book! The story is, yes, a little slow, especially in the beginning, but the worldbuilding is really interesting! The characters are great, relatable and intriguing. The style could be better, but it's still fluid and pleasant to read. One thing I didn't like though is the fact that the chapters were long. But apart from that, I really enjoyed the universe with the ships and the sea and the magic!

Promising for a potential sequel!

"Witchy pirate shenanigans" was always going to find some level of success with me, but unfortunately this book never really exceeded its (admittedly very cool) premise. The worldbuilding is incredibly imaginative but I feel would have benefitted from a longer book with more space for character-building elements in between discussions of shells and dark lights and grimoires, or a stronger focus on one character as opposed to the multiple POV changes we got. As it stands, the first half of the book felt like setting up the world and the second half felt like setting up the series, without much breathing space in between. This becomes even more of a negative for me when one of our main characters spends most of his time being confused about old magic, which I am sure will be explored in future installments but which reads in the now as just frustrating and overly cryptic. I get the sense that this is the kind of book which will read better after the series is completed and the world has had more time and space to grow. That said, I enjoyed the world I got to see, and again: witchy pirate shenanigans. Difficult to develop such a premise into something not worth my time. Thank you to NetGalley and Murphy Dome Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Molly and her brother Evan are craftborn - children of witches who were children of witches - and they've learned to use their powers outside the strictures of the witches guild. But their parents are vanished, leaving them only a magically enhanced ship and a dangerous world in which the king, the guild, and the mysterious Watermen are all fighting for power, all while the world and its magic alter radically around them.

Review
Around 1990, I read a book called Sunder, Eclipse, & Seed, by an author I’d never heard of – Elyse Guttenberg. It was an interesting fantasy that seemed to stop short, as if more were intended. I waited expectantly for further books, but they never appeared. Instead, two pre-historical books set in Alaska came out, the first of which didn't intrigue me enough to buy the second

About 25 years later, at my first convention (and so far only Worldcon) in Spokane, I wandered into the SFWA hospitality. As I edged around the table of chips and soda, pretending I knew someone across the room, whom should I find beside me but Elyse Guttenberg? I can’t tell you what a relief it was to have an excuse to talk to someone about something I was interested in. She confirmed that Sunder… had been intended as a trilogy, but that it hadn’t worked out.

In any case, when I saw The Power We Share, I was very pleased to have more fantasy from Ms. Guttenberg. While not the hoped-for continuation of Sunder…, I began reading with enthusiasm. I’m sorry to say that I finished reading with slightly less enthusiasm.

Guttenberg starts with an interesting world and magic system, but never really develops or clarifies it. I ended the book with little more understanding of how it all worked than when I began. There are humans and witches, but there’s crossover, and the world in general is changing, somehow related to the unmelting ice that forms the bounds of the world (or does it). Magic has clear rules, but they seemed to apply only occasionally, and for no clear reason (other than the vaguely changing world). That lack of development is the biggest disappointment of the book, because I thought both world and magic had real promise. A good deal of it is bound up in the backhistory of the parents of the protagonists, but their fate is left open, their powers unclear. In fact, it felt to me as if the book ended much as Sunder… did – holding out the possibility of a sequel without absolutely requiring one.

Much as the worldbuilding is promising but underdeveloped, I had the impression (perhaps mistaken) that Guttenberg wasn’t entirely comfortable with the social/character structure she built in – it verges a little too close (and too awkwardly) to a heaving bosom/doting prince romance, where I’d have hoped for more of an assumption of gender equity. It’s not much, but it surprised me, and I didn’t think it worked as well as it should. It doesn’t help that the start and end feel fairly rushed. The central romance is somewhat perfunctory. There’s a building war, but its basis is only thinly sketched out, and while there’s mention of previous war, there’s a single government with two power centers that have not previously fought, so it’s not clear whom the other wars were between. Molly, the lead protagonist, is frequently subject to important memories that return for no real reason.

The book also desperately needs a map. It was unclear to me what the world looked like (apparently circular), where things were, and how realistic travel was. Without a map, the geography is just not clearly described enough to be interesting.

That all sounds critical, and it is. But a part of it is disappointment that a novel world with so much promise was left in what to me seems such an early, yet-inchoate shape. It’s a great idea only half thought through, and I think the book would have been much more successful as a longer, much more fully developed series than with so many unformed elements crammed into one short book. It seems odd that, with so much time between novels, Guttenberg wasn’t able to offer a more coherent story. That’s not to say there couldn’t still be a sequel to this one, but many of the mysteries are too muddled to be easily retrieved and resolved. Ms Guttenberg has talent, but here’s hoping that for her next book, she presents a complete, unified story rather than a somewhat half-hearted introduction.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Before I begin my review for The Power We Share by Elyse Guttenberg, I would personally like to thank the author, the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and I have reviewed it honestly.

Pirates, magic and heists! The Power We Share features a rag tag team of thieves and disgraced witches as Molly goes for gold in this epic, pirate fantasy tale. Discover a world of secrets, spells and schemes you won't soon forget.

The Power We Share features, but is not limited to, the following themes:
○ Fantasy
○ Pirates
○ Magic
○ Witches
○ Thieves and brigands


My overall rating for The Power We Share is…

3.5 Stars!

Pirates, witches and heists? With such a unique combination I could not say no to reading this book! I love the rich fantasy world Guttenberg has created and the quirky use of magic and spells. Molly was a fiesty character with her bad-ass pirate skills and her unusual magic. I found some chapters dragged by and others intense and exciting, so I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall, an interesting concept and well written.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest, this had so much promise, but missed the mark. Certain parts were never fleshed out, others, way too much. And there were parts I just felt a bit bored or lost. I feel like this was a lot of set up, but not enough forward progress in the overarching plot. If you want a good female mage pirate novel, I think you might be better served by either waiting for The Bright and Breaking Sea, or pick up Daughter of the Prate King, or even the Assassin’s Curse.

This book started out great, but it went downhill fast. There were too many extra scenes put in. Too much infodumping. I really thought I'd be reading a strong female pirate story, but there was no story to find... This book lacks plot.
I've read 37% and it's still in the introduction phase. That's not a good way to write a book in my opinion. The writing itself is nice. It's probably the only reason I even got as far as 37%.
It's a DNF for me and I'm a little sad that it has to be that way, this book had enough potential.