Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw

Life on their island is one of survival, Mira has always lived with one foot on land and one in the sea. Her family and friends survive by scavenging ship wrecks until the Watch captures 2 of her loved ones and she finally has to leave her island to discover more about her mysterious mother in time to save them.

I loved this story. It was fun and entertaining. It was definitely YA and I would have loved a bit more atmosphere and depth to some of the characters. But honestly it was still incredibly engaging and hard to put down and I appreciate a short book! The magical elements were unexpected and so intriguing. I loved Mira and the other characters. Her journey felt authentic to being young and on her own for the first time. I loved the twists and turns and adventure. I’m assuming/hoping there is a second book - I can’t wait to find out more about Elijah.

For anyone who loved Fable or is looking for a magical adventure at sea.

Thank you to @inkyardpress for my copy! This book is out tomorrow!

I am fully in my pirate era and this book did not disappoint. The world building was very simple and easy to follow. I did want to see more of the magic and creatures so I’m hoping we get more in the next book. The pacing was perfect and I was drawn in from the very beginning.

I loved Mira! She was strong and fiercely loyal to her family. She did make some dumb decisions near the end of the book but I’m hoping she finally learns from her mistakes in the next book. Also I’m here for her turning morally grey!

The romance plot was fantastic and I loved the direction it took. I didn’t see it coming and really enjoyed it.

The ending was so intense and there was a moment that definitely made me tear up. I’m dying for the sequel!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy to review!

This book ended up being so much more than I bargained for! Mira is desperate to save her father and her people after a shop wreck goes wrong. With her father's capture and secrets still hidden, she takes her fate into her own hands.

Can she trust the boy with the beautiful eyes, whose life she's saved? She isn't sure, but she desperately wants to. And then there's the mysterious boy from the docks.....the man in charge of the cargo on the ship...and the rear of the crew on the Phantom.

No one is who they first seem, and everything comes down to a secret that her parents have kept from her for her whole life. As she discovers the secrets of her mother, she discovers more about herself. She learns who she can and cannot trust, and through immense pain and betrayal she sets a course forward...with a compass and a blade.

Thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for the ARC copy of this book.

DNF at 22%

I was so excited to read this. Even as I started reading, there was a really beautiful setup of language and vividness to the descriptions of the island, the ocean, and the ships we see.

What kills this book is the flatness of the MC and those around her, as well as the slowness of the beginning in progressing to the main storyline. Mira often is given a decision that has a most convenient answer to move forward the plot line. She doesn't experience enough internal conflict to justify her decisions beyond typical YA tropes and storyline cliches. I would have loved to see more emotional difficulty in saving her father, her relationship with storms and the ocean in light of her mother's death, or a struggle to trust Seth, rather than a rapidly growing instalove story.

At the point that I stopped reading the story, she barely started her journey off of the island. Nearly a quarter of the book is spent setting up this journey with a stranger that we also do not know. I know that there were several things to set up in order to get to the point of this journey, but I felt some of the scenes needed to hit the chopping block to compress this story and make it more impactful. Perhaps, if this had been done, the story would have been more enjoyable.

Thank you NetGalley for an earc of this book in exchange for my honest review

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, the concept was different and the book was super fast paced. Yes there was many common tropes in this book but I honestly didn't mind. The main character Mira was really likeable as well.

The one thing I didn't likes was that Mira kept going back to Seth. LIKE GIRL CMON. It was so obvious that he wasn't going to change and because you could see that easily the "romance" part of the book kinda took me out.

Otherwise I would recommend this book. I wish it was longer and I hope that there is more books in this world in the future

This book had a really interesting premise, and I love the cover. That's what initially drew me to the book. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I struggled with the uneven pacing and writing style, and I didn't love the main character or the romance. I actually debated DNFing, but the story picked up about halfway through, and I ended up finishing it.

A pirate from a family of pirates, Mira goes on a swashbuckling and action-packed adventure to rescue her father, and I liked that aspect of the story. The world is intriguing, too, as is Mira's connection to the sea. Initially, I liked Mira as a protagonist, but she kept making horrible choices and the same mistakes, which got really frustrating. Some of the things she does are so illogical, and I didn't really understand her thought process.

The story also makes use of a lot of tropes, and though I like some of them, the love triangle and insta-love vibes did not work for me. It felt kind of forced, and I didn't feel the chemistry. Overall, I think this book could appeal to readers who enjoy YA romantasy, but it just wasn't for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

I really enjoyed this story! It has good characters, a nice pace and the writing is great! Hopefully there will be more to come for these characters!

I feel like this should have been two books.

There was a lot of information thrown at you and it was hard to get a sense of the world and magic system. The beginning started well, Mira's life and her abilities made sense in a way I assumed we would uncover bits as we went along. However, things took a turn and we ended up on an adventure that I don't quite understand.

I failed to see how the coordinates found in her mother's chest related to her father's imprisonment and didn't understand why they needed to make several stops before heading to the prison. I also didn't fully understand 'The Watch', were they stationed on the island full of wreckers?

While the writing style was good and it certainly kept me going when the plot went off the rails, I needed a more flushed-out magic system for sure. I don't even want to comment on the romance...I still don't totally get what happened there. It was also marketed as having a love triangle which I think was a bit of a stretch.

2.75, rounded up to a 3. Thank you for this ARC.

Thank you to the publisher, Inkyard Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mira is one of the wreckers on the island of Rosevear, who lure ships onto the dangerous surrounding coastline and then swim out to plunder the wrecks. But when the Council begins laying traps to put an end to the practice, Mira’s father is arrested and sentenced to be hanged. Desperate to save him, Mira makes a deal with a survivor from the recent wreck for passage off the island and she sets out to find something left to her by her mother, who was a wrecker as well, in the hopes that it might help. Mira’s journey will reveal some long hidden family secrets and the truth of why she feels so at home in the sea, but with the day of the hanging drawing swiftly closer, will she find what she seeks in time?

The premise of this book reminded me a lot of Daughter of the Pirate King and Fable, both of which I really enjoyed, so I requested this as soon as I noticed it was available.

This concept behind this book was quite promising and the initial chapters did a great job of describing the world and later, the magic system. Mira’s village and their practice of intentionally wrecking ships and plundering the remains was intriguing, but it was only present for the very first few chapters of the story and isn’t focused on much after that.

As with every fantasy novel, it would have been nice to have a map, especially given that the characters were travelling all over the place, and in such a short time frame too – the entire book took place over the course of only 8 days. There were times when the travel between places seemed oddly quick and it made the world hard to picture.

The writing was pretty good and the pacing was consistent and a good fit for the story. However, Compass and Blade had pretty much every trope I could think of for this genre, from enemies to lovers, found family, magical creatures and more, which made many parts of this book more than a little predictable for me.

Mira would have been a likeable character if she didn’t keep making such stupid decisions. She was naive and ridiculously gullible and kept going down the same path again and again even after knowing the truth. It would have been more readable if she atleast learned from the experience and there was some character growth but no. And don’t even get me started on the romance.

I don’t mind books that have a major romance arc – but this had literally every cliche in the book. Mira and Seth’s relationship fell totally flat for me from a reader’s perspective and I had zero interest in the arc, it was so insta-lovey and irritating. I think this is meant to become a sort of love triangle in the sequel, but honestly, I’m not that impressed with the other dynamic either. The rest of the characters weren’t all that memorable and just blended together after a while.

While I didn’t exactly predict the ending, given the number of tropes and the way the story was unfolding ensured that I wasn’t taken by surprise when it all came together either. There was just not enough of a twist on these tropes, so it made the ending and the book as a whole feel as if it was falling into very familiar patterns. Nonetheless, it ended on an interesting note (thankfully not a cliffhanger) and sets up things well for the sequel.

Overall, this book didn’t really work for me. I’m still in two minds as to whether I’ll be reading said sequel because I’m not sure I could put up with one more book of these characters. Still, I’ll hold judgement on that until it’s out and I see some reviews for it. Compass and Blade definitely had a unique concept with a lot of potential, so if it interests you, I would suggest picking it up.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Inkyard Press, and Rachel Greenlaw for the opportunity to read Compass and Blade in exhange for an honest review.

This novel follows Mira, a girl who lives on a remote island. She is a wrecker, someone who goes out to shipwrecks to claim the items for themselves. Generally, there are no survivors, for the wrecks are done purposefully, and those who participate don't want word to get out.

When the island Council seeks to end the illigal intentional shipwrecks, laying a trap for those who are the cause, Mira's father is imprisoned. Mira will do anything to save him, even teaming up with wreck survivor, Seth, to get her father back.

In the process, Mira uncovers new secrets about her mother and her heritage that she wasn't expecting, and Seth has some interesting secrets of his own. Mira has nine days to save her father from the noose, so the novel takes place within that matter of days. The romance is almost as fast-paced and ridiculous as that of Romeo and Juliet, but with a little bit more flavor to it. The pacing overall is a bit all over the place, and the main focus shifts a few times thoughout.

This novel seems to be the start to a series, but I am unsure. It has one of those endings where it could be conclusive, but there could also be a spicy revenge story down the line. It's a decent novel in terms of the style itself. The quick romance scenes are enjoyable to read, and some of the action makes the story more exciting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I truly *wanted* to like this book so much more than I did, and there *were* aspects that I loved: the by-the-sea setting, the unique aspect of "wreckers", the fast pacing.

That said, these high points weren't enough to save this novel from the lows, and they were plenty. The true sticking point for me was the main female character, Mira. I was not invested in her, I did not feel a connection to her, and she made some astoundingly awful decisions that I simply could not get past. The romance fell flat for me as well, and the plot was somewhat nonsensical.

I will likely check out other books by this author to see if perhaps my dislike of this one is a fluke, as I do think the author can weave a story with some skill.

3 stars.

3.5 Stars

I struggled with how to rate this one. The opening was compelling with interesting characters, high stakes, and a fascinating world. And the ending made me want to read the next installment. Based on these two parts I would have rated it 4 stars.

However from roughly 50%-95% I was quite frustrated and considered DNFing this multiple times. My two main issues came down to certain plot points feeling copy and pasted from ACOTAR, and Mira’s utter lack of common sense and trusting people who’d already proven untrustworthy, which felt like it was only necessary for plot reasons not for character development. I won’t list examples of either due to spoilers, but suffice to say it hampered the believability and my enjoyment.

As I said before, I am interested to see where it goes, so I may read the next book, but I’m not certain.

I ate this book up. For those who loved "Daughter of the Pirate King," "Bridge Kingdom," or "To Catch a Pirate" this will be a really enjoyable read. The story follows Mira, whose community are "wreckers" (people who lure ships to sink and then `steal their goods. When Mira's father is caught, Mira leaves their island to go in search for a way to save him. Along the way she meets quirky allies, new enemies, and uncovers many secrets. Its YA and it feels appropriate for that level of readers (i.e. this is not a spicy romantasy).

The world is interesting and there are a lot of potential world building threads that I would like to see Greenlaw explore further in the rest of the series. I am especially interesting in seeing other magical beasts and creatures! I thought the plot was good, relatively quick paced. And I can see myself really loving these characters in the future. Mira is a pretty naive FMC, but since she grew up on a small island, it makes sense. The way she kept forgiving the main male character was infuriating, but makes sense for a teen experiencing love for the first time. I see a lot of potential for the other case of characters and I am especially interested in seeing more of the mysterious Eli.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Inkyard Press for providing an eARC of this book!

A girl connected to the sea finds herself setting sail to find her mother's secrets... and facing love, betrayal, and discovering who she really is. This is the first book in a series and follows Mira, a wrecker who plunders ship wrecks to make money just like her mother did before her mother died at sea. She lives on the remote isle of Rosevear but when the Council wants to put an end to the wrecking they arrest Mira's father to make an example of him and he is heading towards the noose unless she can save him. Along the way she makes a deal with the mysterious wreck survivor Seth, who has secrets surrounding him and lies on his tongue. Mira has no choice but to trust Seth yet finds herself drawn to him and falling for him... yet one lesson she is about to learn the hard way is that sometimes you have to be careful who you can trust and she's going to need all her wits about her to survive the betrayals that await her at sea. This book unfortunately was a let down for me. I had really high hopes and was so excited for a fun pirate/magic story with romance and adventure. The romance was NOT IT AT ALL, seriously, do yourself a favor and skip this one if you are looking for a good romance. Mira is the most annoying and naive protagonist I have come across in a while. It was so hard to get across this book because every time I would start reading, I would just want to close it and walk away from it. Mira comes off like a naive high schooler and honestly her survival instincts are pretty...bare to none. I just, don't see myself finishing this series and the way this one ends sets it up for the next book. So while this one was a miss for me, I would say if you enjoy younger YA books with romance and quests, maybe give this one a go, maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did.

*Thanks Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Inkyard Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I uploaded my review to Goodreads. I will upload my review to Amazon on the publication day.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Rachel Greenlaw for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Compass and Blade coming out February 27, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really love books set around the sea and ships. I love books about islands and islanders. I have a Polynesian background, so I can relate to these types of stories a lot. I thought the writing was really well done. Mira was a really great character, but I thought she was a little too trusting of some of the young men she just met. I loved the first half of the book. Things got a little convoluted for some of the second half of the book with the going back and forth. But then I loved the ending. Seems like it’ll be a series. I’ll definitely check out other books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys seafaring adventures!

Thank you so much to Netgalley & the publisher for this review copy! I am so looking forward to this and to writing a full review on my social media when I am able! Thanks again!

I think there was a lot to love about this story! The beginning and overall vibes felt reminiscent of Adrienne Young’s Fable: life on an island and the high seas, a girl with abilities unlike those around her, a group of teens sailing a ship. While I thinking the first part of this book really stood out, I do think it lost a bit of that feeling the longer the book progressed.

It is a bit tropey, which isn’t a bad thing on its own, but they didn’t feel flushed out enough to truly make sense. I don’t think the strength of this novel is the characters, but rather the world itself. Sirens, monsters, smugglers, lies! That’s where this story truly feels at its peak.

Mer as a protagonist was someone I wanted to root for, though I didn’t always agree with her and thought some things happened a little too quickly. But overall, I think she’s a likable character and I’d love to see how she develops and grows! I think there’s a lot more to dig into when it comes to her.

I always love a good love story, but Seth was not it for me. Elijah on the other hand… Overall, I’d have skipped the romantic aspect of this in favor of more time with the other members of the crew!

While this may not have been five stars for me, I do think it’s a fun read with a lot of potential!

Mira lives on the island of Rosevear, where they survive by being wreckers - luring ships to crash and then collecting the spoils. When a sting leads to the arrest of her father, a desperate Mira goes on a journey to find something her long-dead mother had hidden in the sea in an attempt to save his life.

I really wanted to love this one but it just didn't hit for me. I think the pacing was a little off and I really struggled to get into it. It started to pick up a little over halfway, but it wasn't soon enough for me to continue if I wasn't trying to finish for a review. The romance fell flat for me personally and I wasn't really buying it.

All that said, just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for you. It's set up nicely for a sequel - I think if the sequel leans in more to the magic and adventure aspects, it could be great. I'd be interested to see what else this author writes.

Enjoyed this story and Mira’s character. Loved the side characters. This was a wonderful story, with some great twists, that kept a me reading and interested. The beginning started a little slow, but it picked up and was great.

This is definitely a series I will be continuing! There is adventure, magic, quirky friends and hunky men. What’s not to like?

I enjoyed this from beginning to end. There is suspense and mystery throughout the whole book and you can tell the world and storylines were crafted with thought and care. I loved the hints of magic but also how it doesn’t play a huge role.

This is a book about a young woman trying to figure out where she belongs and discovering the strength that has always lived inside her.