tHe crooKed WorD

As of April 30, 2014 we will no longer be posting reviews on tHe crooKed WorD. Reading is like breathing for us - and discovering new books and authors has been a wonderful adventure - but the time has come for us to move on. Thank you for your support, for allowing us into your lives, and for letting us influence in some small way the contents of your bookshelves.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Steel

Steel
by Carrie Vaughn

294 pages
Published March 1, 2011


It was a slender length of rusted steel, tapered to a point at one end and jagged at the other, as if it had broken. A thousand people would step over it and think it trash, but not her.
This was the tip of a rapier.

Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.
The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.
Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.


* * *


Oh. My. Bloody. PIRATES!!!!!

Ships. Adventure. Sword fights. Dark magic. Revenge.

Don't you just love this cover? Of course, I'm a sucker for cool-looking swords. And, in case you couldn't guess, I just adore a good pirate tale.

What makes a good pirate tale? Research. Skill. In my opinion, the best ones are at least based on history, not just a romanticized ideal. This book is, by far, the best pirate adventure I've read in years.

I want to see this become a movie. I want to own this book, instead of just borrow it from the library every couple of weeks, because I am SO going to read it a thousand times.

My one complaint? I WANT MORE.

5/5 stars

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