3.5 Stars
Fans who love the world-building of the Golden Compass & the food art in Ghibli movies will enjoy this book! Trust me, when you read this book, these two comparisons will make sense, hahaha.

Max cannot stand the cold ...because if he gets too cold, his skin condition will kill him, so he is always kept safe and happy by his parents. But destiny has other plans.
With both of his parents gone, a djinn war looming over his world and a power blooming inside him, Max will have to trust in; a prince, a queen, a witch, a thief, an assassin & a spice pirate.
Get ready for a new taste of adventure!

Pros: THE WORLD-BUILDING!
This world holds so much; Eastern culture inspiration with the mythology creatures, the spice trade that is the main economic trade, pirates, witches, Djinn, a destiny & Animal Shape-shifters!
I adored that he wrote this story for his son, who also shares a medical condition with the main character -representation!
This story has such many possibilities and so much destiny for so many of the characters that I'm excited to see where things will go and how their lives and plans will unfold.

Cons: For a world with a heavy eastern culture influence, there weren't a lot of POC or diversity in it, which isn't great. I know this is a fantasy, and he wrote it for his son, but if you are taking inspiration from a culture, please have more than just white people.
While this world had so my new, unique and impressive creatures and world-building, there was no hook. As my love of world-building was the only reason, I continued to read after I STILL had no pull into the story.
And lastly, some characters may have had a little too fast connection without any real build-up, so that wasn't really believable for them.

I think this series has a lot of potential, and I will for sure be reading the next book to see if the world continues to grow and potential the hook will appear, and my higher than usual rating will be justified.

Let me preface this by saying that, as the mother of young adults, I am fully aware I’m not the target audience for this new series. But in the month of March every year, I read titles that are specifically written for 9-12 year olds as part of #middlegradeMarch, so I added this one to my list. I felt like it had a ton of potential: the storyline was interesting, the characters seemed a bit of a unique take on age old archetypes, and the writing was good. However, the main character, Max, was just enough odd that he was frustrating rather than endearing. His dialogue in places was way unnatural and unbelievable for a 12 year old, though the subject matter seemed to juvenile to bump this one up to a young adult series. I have high hopes that the second and third books would iron these issues out, but, again, it may just be that I am not the target audience. Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and advanced copy of Max and The Spice Thieves.

This wasn’t my usual read so I was excited to try it. It’s a really good adventure story, easy to read and follow and the story changes and developments every chapter really helping keep you gripped to the adventure and wanting to know what happens next. The author has really made it feel like your actually there travelling with max throughout the journey through his vivid description. I took a point off because I do feel it’s missing something maybe a little more action, however as it’s book one I feel it was more of a set the scene of things to come type of book. I loved the ending and the twist and it really makes me think there’s a lot more to come.
Would definitely continue reading the series to find out what happens next!

Thank you to Netgalley and Crumblebee Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Max and the Spice Thieves took me by surprise, as many ARCs do! I picked up this book because of the aspect of pirates, and I was not let down.

Max and the Spice Thieves follows Max Daybreaker. His world is turned upside down when his mother goes missing. Lucky for him, a crew of Spice Pirates led by Captain Cinn help Max on his dangerous mission across the three sees.
Along the way, an unlikely alliance aids his search-a teenage warrior queen, a 3 eyed seer, and an assassin spy.
Their journey takes them through many treacherous lands while facing an ancient witch, harpies, shapeshifting bears, and the terrifying Djinn, who will stop at nothing to enslave the entire world.
With every new challenge, Max unlocks the secrets of his unsettling past. Powers are awakened inside him, questioning what he knew about the world.
Is Max who he thinks he is?

I want to start out by saying I felt the plot was a little messy, but I think it works for the story. I feel as if the first 25% of the plot is so jumbled, but from that point on, it is great. It progresses so well and I loved every second of it. I did take a star off for that reason, but that is my only issue with the book.

Now for the characters; I LOVED Max. He is a strong pre-teen figuring out who he is throughout the entire book. Reading from his perspective as he progresses through the story is amazing. Since this is a children's book, I did not think that any character would really stand out, but I was mistaken. Max really stands out as a strong male character, which I do not see a lot of. It is such a refreshing story to have a male POV. Max definitely was the most well-rounded character with an amazing character arc. As for the other characters, all of them were amazing. Linzy, Mesha, Sal, Anya, Captain Cinn, everyone was amazing.

The world-building was done in a different way than I am used to, but it was great! It was super simple to understand, and I think that is why it works so well. Being a children's novel, worlds are usually super easy to understand, and Peragine did not disappoint with a well-rounded world that is easy to understand.

I truly enjoyed this book, and hope that people read it when it comes out. Pirates, kick-ass characters, well-rounded plot AND world, end of the world situation, it has got everything! Not to mention the cute love-triangle throughout the book!

I cannot wait for the sequel, I am so excited to see what journey they all embark on next.

Before we get into the meat of this review, I have to say a quick thank you to Netgalley and the publishers over at Crumblebee Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Max and the Spice Thieves is a Middle Grade Fantasy book that is the start of a brand new series. Max must pair up with Captain Cinn and his crew of Spice Thieves when his mother goes missing. But he discovers that his life is far different than he imagined when he learns about his own magical powers. The book comes out on April 20th. Max and the Spice Thieves is available for preorder now.

Part of me really wants to say that the problems with this book stem from the fact that I’m not part of the target audience. I’m 31 and the main character is 12. So...yeah, I’m probably going to have some problems getting into this one. But I don’t think all of that can be blamed on the age discrepancy between target audience and actual reader. I think my main problem here really comes from issues with the authorial voice. The author has character who are all ages--Max and his friends are preteens, Captain Cinn and his crew are all adults--and somehow both feel deeply untrue for people in those age ranges. The children aren’t just precocious children who might have a slightly bigger vocabulary than most. They don’t sound like children. But the grown ups don’t sound like grown ups either. It’s like the author was writing a book about a kid for kids. But then realized that they needed to make sure if an adult was reading it to their child that they knew that a lot of what happens in the books aren’t things the author would condone. Which was just a weird thing to be thinking about while reading this adventure book.

The book felt like everything happened too fast. We travel all over the place with Max and his friends but I never felt like I really got a deep understanding of the locations or the people. The magic system also felt like it was under explored. Maybe it will go further into how the magic works in the next book.

But I will say that even with the problems I had in this book I still loved almost all of the characters. I want to know more about Piers’s past. And Lindzy is going to be one badass queen some day. I think if you have middle grade readers in your life this can be a good option for them and I think there might be enough in there for you to enjoy while you’re reading with them.

‘Without spice, food is nuthin’ more than tasteless horse feed. I believe in giving anyone with a little coin a tastier life.’

Max and the Spice Thieves is the first book in a new middle-grade fantasy series. It got an overall rating of 3 stars for me.

Max Daybreaker finds himself alone when his dad is presumed dead and his mother is kidnapped. With the help of Captain Cinn and a large group of characters ready to help him, he sails across the three seas in hope of finding them again.

The book has an interesting premise. Max’s adventures are really fun to read about. The world building makes you want to keep discovering more. My favorite character is Captain Cinn. He made me laugh, and his dialogue was fun to read. I enjoyed seeing him being protective of Max, always making sure he’s safe and well, almost like a father figure. He was the only one who treated the main character like a twelve-years-old boy (most of the time). I also liked the fact that Max has a skin condition. It’s always nice to see disabilities, and medical conditions being included in books, especially in a middle grade one. There were one or two comments made by some characters about his condition that should have been followed by a reaction from Max in my opinion, though. It read like the condition was written by someone who knows about it, but hasn’t had a disability or illness of their own. As someone who has a chronic illness, having someone saying ‘Oh, once you [do this], it’ll go away, you’ll see’ is very frustrating and doesn’t help. It’s a common thing for people to say, so I’m glad it was included, but I would have liked to see Max reacting to this. The last part of the story was my favorite, and set things up well for its sequel.

Too many characters were introduced in the story, including some that didn’t stick around for long. I also felt like the character’s reasons for being included in the group didn’t make much sense, or felt forced. A lot of details were also thrown in the text along the way, which made the book quite complex in my opinion for a middle grade story. It resulted in the author packing too much in one book, and therefore brushing over some things. I also had a problem with Max’s age. It is said he’s twelve-years-old. However, he wasn’t written like his age most of the time (especially his thoughts). The rest of the crew didn’t treat him like a boy of his age as well for the most part. I had a problem with the way the two female characters that are love interests to Max were written. They are strong, but become annoying and really not well portrayed around him. No one wants to see two female characters hating on one another for a boy, and competing for him in this way. I could just feel the book was written by a man that wanted to write ‘good’ female characters.

This book has a lot of interesting elements, but wasn’t fully executed the way I had hoped. It would have worked better as a movie, most likely. I would recommend people to try the book for themselves, as this is my own interpretation and feeling towards it.

* This review is also posted on Goodreads, and shared on Twitter. On the book's release day, the review will also be posted on Amazon Canada.

While I do not often read middle grade books, I was immediately drawn by this one. My gut feelings did not betray me either, it was great.

The story arch managed to keep even me as an adult interested. I liked how Max is written, not as a kid in the eyes of an adult, but as his own person making his own decisions and going on his own journey. I loved how a story about pirates can be non-Eurocentric (because they often are, and this one is not).

I managed to read it within a day, because it was hard to put this book down.

I couldn't write my review right away, however, I read it almost 2 months ago. I just had to let it sunk in because this was a phenomenal book and I can't wait to get it in a physical copy as well.

The story is about Max, a boy who has some kind of disease which makes his life harder but at the end of the book we realize that he is more capable than anyone around him. He is a strong boy who meets a lot of characters during his adventure for example, spice thieves, a witch queen, a powerful djinn and more.

I loved the writing, however, there were some mistakes, like somewhere it says that Max is 12 years old then he is 14 but the timeline is the same. Of course, some minor grammatical mistakes were made as well but it was an amazing book and I couldn't put it down I just read it in one, okay maybe two, sitting. Five stars!

Thank you for NetGalley, John Peragine and Crumblebee Books for providing me a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Max and the Spice Thieves is a refreshing read in the Middle Grade fiction Genre!

The story follows Max as he meets a crew of Spice Pirates from the Saucy Pig while looking for his mother. There is something about Max that draws people to him and of course some of the people we meet along the way have either promised his mother or his father that they will protect him. As Max sets out on a perilous journey in search of his mother, the author introduces us to a myriad of interesting characters who only add more flavor to the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Max as he learns to take control and grow up. He learns to work with people and bring them together. We slowly come to know about his magic and as the story progresses, through twists and turns we come to know the truth behind the complete plot. 

Throw in pirates, magic, Djinns and Snow Bears and we have a wonderful mix for this story. It is fast paced and well written, keeping both children and adults hooked onto it. This is one book that I will whole heartedly recommend and I cannot wait to read the next book! Max's adventures are worth reading about!

This was a fun middle-grade story! It's told from the first-person POV of Max, a 12- or 13-year-old boy looking for his parents with the help of some pirates and some mysterious girls. Max's thoughts and actions seem pretty true for a boy his age and he's a bit of an unreliable narrator, which again fits with his character. The aforementioned "mysterious girls" were interesting and will hopefully be fleshed out more in the next book in the series. The leader of the pirates may have been my favorite character, but I really couldn't help thinking of him as Captain Jack Sparrow! You'll see why when you read the book yourself.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This captivating tale follows Max and his crew as they battle many spells, face danger at every turn, narrowly escape death after altercations, ultimately discovering the magic he holds within. Max leads us on a quest to find his mother and uncover how his father disappeared, bringing along with him a collection of various mythical creatures who band together to fight evil beings and shape shifting demons. Max’s father is presumed dead, although he has a gut feeling his father is somewhere out there. His mother wants to cheer him up, so she plans an adventure to sail on a pirate ship, however, she is taken shortly before they are to depart. Max finds himself in the company of Spice Pirate Captain Cinn and they band together on an epic adventure sailing the seven seas aboard the Saucy Pig. They find themselves up against Prince Abad and are taken to the Jade Palace as captors. This is where they meet Linzy who ultimate helps them escape and unveils herself as the Witch Queen. Together they are faced with many other creatures and characters, some of which they accumulate into their band of misfits and the unfortunate souls are discarded. Max is eventually captured by the Snow Bear clan at the Ice Palace and he proves himself worthy of their protection by unveiling his own magical power. Throughout his journey, Max is learning more about his hidden powers within and how to ultimately use this powerful force to defeat the evil Djinn and rescue his parents.

This is the first book of the series and is an adventurous tale from the start. Each new character Max encounters is a roadblock he needs to overcome in his pursuit of finding his mother, as task he never loses sight of! The author did a lovely job of showing how a strong family bond never disappears, even when faced with challenges and obstacles that prevent a close connection. I am not the targeted demographic for this book, so it did not grab me initially. I am not drawn to pirates, mythical creatures, etc. however, I did enjoy the adventure aspect of it.

Max Daybreaker doesn’t know it, but he’s about to go on the adventure of a lifetime. When his mother goes missing, he meets a Spice Pirate by the name of Captain Cinn, who helps him get started on the journey to find his mom. Through this journey, Max makes new friends, explores new places, and faces danger time and time again. As it turns out, finding his mom is not the only mission he needs to take on. Truly a whirlwind of a fantasy adventure.

This book is a great read for middle grades, but as an adult, I wasn’t enthralled with it. There is so much potential for worldbuilding in the setting Peragine creates, but it felt kind of rushed in this book… I’m sure it will be explored in even more detail as the series continues.

Thanks to Crumblebee Books for a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Crumblebee Books for this free ARC in return for a review!

What a fantastic voyage! Max Daybreaker is a 13-year-old boy that embarks on an incredible adventure in search of his Mother after she goes missing one day. He already believes his Father to be dead, so Max isn’t about to let something happen to his Mom. The whole adventure begins, as he is waiting for his mother to return to their dock as she promised they would set out for a journey. He sits and waits, but instead finds an intriguing pirate, Captain Cinn! Max is introduced to the crew of Spice Thieves and their pirate ship named ‘The Saucy Pig’ as they jump on board together to help Max find his Mother. During this quest, not only are they meeting Serpents and three-eyes-seers, but Max is discovering his own hidden powers as he fights these creatures. You get the fantasy and also feel for all the food on ship which makes it quite realistic. He also has a skin condition which makes him sensitive to cold climates and that also plays a huge role in the captivating and survival of their conquest. Although there are incredible levels of fantasy, Max (protagonist) is relatable because of all these underlying factors that make him out to be a human boy. You are completely rooting for Max the whole way and at the end of the story you watch the incredible journey unfold as he discovers who he truly is. It leaves enough at the end where you know there is a sequel coming and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining middle grade fantasy!! For young readers who want a fantasy story with pirates, adventures and travel to distant lands this story will do the trick. The tale follows Max who lives on Paradisi, one of the islands in the Southern Sea. His father, a ship's captain has been missing and is presumed dead, although Max does not believe that. His mother disappears as they are leaving for another island and Max falls into the care of Cinn, a spice pirate. Not only does Max learn he does not know everything about his mother or father, he also begins to realize that he possesses some extraordinary abilities. The search for Max's parents brings him new friends, enemies, and encounters with a witch queen, harpies and adventures that will not only test him, but possibly kill him. The final part of the journey takes him north to the frozen lands of Arctus where he will find shapeshifting bears and the djinn who will stop at nothing to ensure their freedom from being trapped for eternity.
I liked the pacing of the story as it moves along quite quickly and I think this will keep younger readers engaged through the ending, which definitely leaves you with more questions than answers. As an adult reader there are certainly times that I wish some of the characters were more fleshed out, but for younger readers I think they will really enjoy all the characters, for sure Cinn and most certainly the snow bears, I liked the snow bears!! For anyone who is looking for a fantasy series for younger readers I think this one would be a really good one!!!!

ARC received from Netgalley

Interesting story! Pirates and foods are best combination, and Max's adventure is such entertaining ride! Did I mention mouthwatering food description?

This was a fun read, that I'm sure many middle-graders would love to get their hands on. The characters are likeable and there's a strong undercurrent that focusses on the strength of family and friendship. I would definitely say that it's the relationships that shone out for me, and the detail and care taken to demonstrate the power in these.

The story itself is fast-paced and jam-packed full of action and daring deeds, in a wonderfully crafted world that pops with the descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells that Peragine weaves throughout. The inclusion of spice and food into the story was an interesting device that worked quite well. From an educator's point of view, this element is so important to have included as it places value on something that my predominantly white students associate with other cultures and societies.

Most definitely an epic journey that I think many young people would enjoy!

This was a great book for middle schoolers about family and adventure. There is beautiful world building in this book and. I think any kid would enjoy it—especially people who can relate to the 12 year old boy main character. Max is a boy with abilities that at first seem like a curse but soon seem to be perhaps a greater strength than anyone could have imagined. When Max's parents are missing, he teams up with Spice Pirates and a band of lovable characters to fight the evil in this world and save his family. Max is a great main character and he is a very thoughtful boy who grows throughout the novel. He is driven by family and that is one of the reasons I really loved the book. While I found the writing pretty simple, I do think young kids would enjoy the adventure of this book. The plot was interesting and I think middle schoolers would appreciate Max as a character because of his interesting and relatable voice. The descriptions of food and spices also were one of the best descriptions in the book. I loved the character Cinn and overall there was some nice dialogue and character building, and there were definitely some surprises in the story. Overall, I loved the themes of family and adventure in this book and I think young kids would enjoy the book overall.

Dazzling adventure set on the high seas, peppered with Pirates and Djinns. A slow start with good plot development as the story unfolds. Max, a boy ‘ allergic’ to cold, and with magic powers inherited from his father, embarks upon an adventure to rescue his parents.
Encountering many problems on his journey, it seems that Max will never accomplish his mission. Odd allies assist him and spice up his voyage.
A brilliant tale for young and old.


Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review.
Loved by my ten year old son ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Max is still grieving for his dad, lost at sea and presumed dead, when his mother tells him they are going on a journey on a pirate ship! Before they get to the ship Max's mum is taken, leaving Max alone at the harbour when he meets Captain Cinn, a Spice Pirate and captain of the Saucy Pig! Cinn takes Max aboard to help him retrieve his missing mum.

This is a lovely book, definitely aimed at children rather than young adult.  Max is a poor little character that you want to hug and tell him everything will be okay.  The variety of characters introduced is great, from Seers, spies, assasins, princes and harpies - Peregrine has definitely catered for every aspect of a fantasy novel.

The overall take from the story is one of love - compassion for another person, love for ones family and kindness to a stranger.  A lesson I feel is so important to every youngling, especially during these hard times.  In closing, I did enjoy this one and would recommend it to be added to your children's bookshelves.