Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official in Anglya meaning she is privileged, however she longs to escape the confines of her life before her father can marry her off. So, she stows away on the ship the Stormdancer hoping to get away.
For a nineteen-year-old, Lucy Saxon is a pretty good author. She certainly has a lot of potential and I'm sure she will improve as she writes more.
The plot is fairly good. However, at the start of the book, Cat's objective is to escape her life, but we don't know exactly what she's escaping from. She dislikes her father, but doesn't every teenager at some point? Her mother is ill, doesn't she mind abandoning her? I felt it needed more detail on her father's cruel behaviour, so that it was clear she felt forced to leave rather than being just a stroppy runaway teen.
After Cat leaves there is too big a gap in the plot where nothing really happens. She just lives happily on the Stormdancer with nothing building in the background and you wonder what the rest of the story is going to be about. It leaves you bored just waiting for the plot to pick up.
The characters I think could've been better developed with more stand-out individual characteristics. You had the stereotypical enigmatic male with a dark past he doesn't wish to speak of; he didn't seem in any way different to past heroes. The heroine is a usual stubborn girl wanting to escape her life and finds herself falling in love with the first boy she encounters.
The language used seemed unnatural and forced almost. The dialogue just didn't flow but seemed disjointed; it needed to be more conversational.
I do feel Lucy Saxon has created an odd and new world. It was easy to imagine and I would love to be aboard the Stormdancer.
After finishing, I liked that the end was different. It sort of angered me because I felt saddened by it. It didn't end lightly, which was surprising. Overall, I'd give this book 2 stars out of 5.
Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!
