This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

I should’ve paid better attention when requesting to review this book as I did not notice (or maybe it wasn’t listed) that this was the second book in a series. I feel like my experience was lacking because I missed the first book. Without having read the first, I was confused as to the point of the book as well as confused by some details that I assume were introduced in the first book. Still, it was interesting enough that I’ll likely read the first book now and hopefully gain more understanding about this one.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Star of Atlantis is the second installment of The Star of Atlantis series. In this, you are still following Swift and Ash's pirate adventure. In the beginning, we get to see a little about what they were like playing pretend. Then an unfortunate accident happened which was the start to a little game of jealousy between the two.

Now in the first book, I liked getting to know Swift and Ash. In this one, it was definitely interesting to see them almost a year older on this adventure. Friendships are put to the test throughout this, and it definitely tugged at my heart strings. These two are still growing - heck they are in the pre-teen stage still - and they have to learn to trust one another and get over little things like jealousy. Especially since they really just need to talk about what happened and move on.

Eventually that actually happens after a little betrayal or two. I'm happy that Ash finally came clean, and Swift accepted the apology. I just wish that it didn't take so long for it all to happen. Definitely happy that I came across this series and now I need more pirates in my life.

'The Star of Atlantis': 2.5⭐

(Unpaid Review: thank you @netgalley, @triciadwagner and the publishers for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review.)

So, I haven't read the first book 😬 I didn't read the description of this one, because I like being surprised and ended up so confused. However, I did enjoy how familiar it felt reading about the Star of Atlantis, the literal heart that maintained people alive in the lost city. Will definitely come back to it after reading the first!

Despite not having read the first book prior to reading this one, the story still made sense. I think it's a good book that can be understandable alone as well as in series. The writing pulled me in right from the first chapter and wouldn't let me eyes leave the page.

The Star of Atlantis is the book that follows the Regulus and the Stryder, it takes place right after the first one ends. It continues the story of Swift who is a boy from a really intense family of overachievers. His father is the worst. While Swift wants to chase treasure and whatnot, his dad aims for him to go to medical school (at 14). Throughout the book, Swift does not use common sense often so going to med school at 14 seems a bit of a stretch, but then again this is fantasy. So, the story follows Swift and one of his brothers on a last hurrah of sorts, to find the Star of Atlantis. The story gets a bit wordy at times and is kind of slow in parts., however, I found this book better than the first. I think it will be a hit with younger readers who are into pirate adventures and fantasy. I look forward to seeing where this all goes as the end was a bit of a cliffhanger.

It is entirely my own fault that I didn’t inform myself well about this book before requesting it on NetGalley. As it is, I neither expected this to be the second part in a series, nor a middle grade going on ya book.

Thankfully, however, I was perfectly able to read this as a stand-alone. There’s a flashback to Ash and Swift’s childhood right at the beginning and even throughout the book the past is explained in detail and Swift’s character is introduced as if he were new. That worked well for me for the aforementioned reason, but I imagine it must be repetitive for someone who actually read the series from the beginning. In contrast, I would have wished for there to be more information about the brothers and especially the parents, who play little to no part in all of this.

Swift has been obsessed with treasure hunting and specifically the Star of Atlantis ever since he first read about it. He’s extremely gifted at school, too, and his father wishes for him to pursue a career in medicine at only 14 years old. In order to have one last shot at his childhood, he spends his birthday weekend hunting for the Star of Atlantis together with his brother Caius. Caius, however, believes that Swift’s obsession is mostly fuelled by a rivalry with Ash, and hopes that Swift might move on from those dreams and towards more “mature” ones such as reading medicine.

Swift was a confusing character to me. He was said to be so insanely clever that he can pursue a university career at only 14, but then he turns around and lets himself be provoked by Ash, cares more about the Star of Atlantis than his brother’s well-being and makes rash (and stupid) decisions every couple of pages. Maybe I don’t understand the importance of Swift’s intelligence due to not having read the other book, but I don’t see why Swift couldn’t either have been made older (except for this being middle grade) or focus on something else like some kind of school work BEFORE university instead.

However, I liked that he still had dreams about discovering a pirate treasure and allowed himself to be a child. I hated the pressure everyone was putting on him to go into academics, and I was rooting for Caius when he cautioned Swift about only pursuing this internship if that’s what he really wants. The idea of the story was fascinating and though I know nothing of Welsh lore and can therefore not say what this story may be based on, I liked that mythical element.

I do wish that the writing had done the idea and the characters more justice, though. For example during that scene where Swift does his research before the lightning strikes, he narrates everything that he finds just to then repeat it all to Caius again. That was very repetitive and even a bit boring as not much of it actually mattered in the story later on. The same happens again when the boat flips over and Caius asks Swift seconds before it happens (and is all written down again) what he were to do if the boat flipped.

All of these descriptions and details could have been used so much better to describe the island and everything that happens there (especially the events inside the cave, I still haven’t understood what the cave was supposed to look like - it was dry but there was also water?). I just feel like the action is a bit rushed throughout the book and whereas I do like that there was a focus on Swift’s thoughts and emotions and his rivalry with Ash and everything about their past, I don’t think these two aspects were well balanced.

However, I do have to keep in mind that this is a middle grade book and as such I think that it’s exciting and captivating, and a very different kind of pirate adventure story.

3/5 stars.

Once again, I learned the hard way to read the description a bit better, because this book was the second book in a series, and I haven’t read the first book.

The story is about two friends (I thought they were brothers throughout the whole book…) with the main character being the younger of the two. They’re on the hunt for a jewel – The Star of Atlantis – which is, I’m guessing, a continuation from book one in the series.

And that’s all I’ve got. Don’t know if this comes from me not having read book one but I felt like nothing happened in the book at all. I was thoroughly uninterested. I did like that it took place in Wales, though.