The Smuggler's Treasure

 The Smugglers Treasure is an American Girl: History Mystery written by Sarah Masters Buckley.

"Sent to live with relatives in New Orleans during the War of 1812, eleven-year-old Elisabet determines to find a smuggler's treasure to ransom her imprisoned father."

General Thoughts: I was given a set of History Mystery books when I was a preteen and enjoyed this one. I wasn't much into reading so I didn't read many of the other books in this American Girl Series, but one can always go back and find a good book. I enjoyed the adventure part of this book and the fact that I hadn't read much in the way of historical books before and I've found that it still holds up pretty well. 

Plot: Elisabet's adventure in a new city, with new people, doing a job at her families bakery with busy, noisy customers, and seeing the differences between what she was as a pampered little girl (like some that she serves) and the waitress that she's become was fun to watch. It's amazing what hard labor will do when you have choice. What getting up early to do the job your assigned can do to change people's attitudes. I enjoyed the growth that Elisabet had throughout the course of the story. She does gain a friend who helps her on her adventure with potential ghosts and thieves and pirates. The treasure hunt and figuring out the clues to find the map was fun and, when I was younger, thrilling. 

Setting: When it comes to history and fantasy books, the setting is extremely important. One should easily get lost in the new city where you can "feel" the cobblestones or mud underfoot. I think Smuggler's Treasure does just that. The smells of the bakery, the rain, the darkness, sets the tone for the suspenseful moments and really help pull it through. 

Characters: Elisabet, as I said, has great growth through the story. She learns that she can do hard and at times scary things in order to do what she thinks will help her father. I liked the others in the bakery as well, in front of as well as behind the counter. They were memorable characters that even a year after reading it, I still enjoy thinking about. 

Spicy: 0/5. It's a children's book. No. 

Writing Style: I think it was well done. American Girl is not going to get newbies to write their books and Sarah Masters Buckley did a good job at setting tones, making likable characters, and developing an interesting story that was simple enough for me to read at 10 and enjoyable enough for me to read after age 30. 

Overall: I would read it again. I ended up gifting my niece a copy and hopes she enjoys it as much as I did. 

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea has become one of it not my top favorite Brandon Sanderson book. This is one of his "Secret Projects" and is a standalone Cosmere book.

"The only life Tress has known on her island home in the emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and see the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a singe drop of water can mean instant death?"

General Thoughts: Brandon Sanderson has a way of creating the most amazing worlds. Spore oceans where you can instantly die just by breathing it in. Crazy! He always has a way of capturing the most amazing and extremely bazar ideas and making something entertaining and thought provoking. And the fact that he wrote this for his wife makes me so happy.

Plot: In the Postscript that he wrote at the end of Tress, he said he wrote this out of the question of "What if Buttercup went after Westley?" Speaking of The Princess Bride, Brandon takes us on a trip in a crazy Cosmere world where a girl goes to find the man she loves and becomes a pirate long the way. But because there is no hard magic system on this planet, we have a crazy planet (somewhat similar to Sixth of Dusk if I remember correctly). The story is told through the voice of Hoid who we see jumping worlds all throughout the Cosmere and sticking his fingers into all kinds of pies. 

Theme: Much of this book, I think is about standing up for yourself and not letting the world pass you by. So much of Tress' life has been hearing of everyone else's adventures and watching them as they leave, but now she gets the opportunity to go and do something for herself to save someone that she loves. Step out of your comfort zone and make it bigger. 

Setting: As said before, Brandon has a way with words and worlds. Each of the worlds I've read about have been so extremely different. Ash falling from the Sky, the sun killing everything every day, ghosts that will kill you in a Forest called Hell, a different forest that will kill you, sand that is magic, violent storms that cleanse the world and light it at the same time, and many others in the Cosmere let alone the others that aren't there (such as chalk drawings in a steampunk world that try to kill you, and where superheroes are the bad guys.) This is no different. Different colored spores that can blow up, kill you by breathing them in, and a menagerie of other things. It was fun to escape into this different world. 

Characters: Our narrator is Hoid and I loved having be so. He is also a character here, but not as prevalent as one might suppose. Tress and her new crewmates were fun and different. And they were all just a joy to be around. 

Spice: 1/5 because it's an adventure romance and I think they might kiss at the end. But I could be wrong about that. 

Writing Style: I love the way Brandon Sanderson writes. He is my favorite author and there are very few books of his that I don't like. They are easy to read, some might say too easy, and it flows so well. He isn't as eloquent and poetic as some might right, but when it really counts he pulls out all the stops. He writes a lot of words and not all of them are perfect, but they paint such amazing pictures in my head that I don't mind. 

Overall: It's one of my top three books of his. I will most definitely be reading it again soon. 

Tris's Book

 The second book in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series is verse pirates. 

Sandry, Tris, Briar, and Daja, after surviving an earthquakes weeks ago have discovered that their magics have weaved themselves with one another. they can now talk to each other in their minds and do more powerful spells. None of them has much control to their powers, but they are slowly studying  and trying to discover it. After the earthquake, some of the physical and magical barriers that kept their Temple home and the surrounding villages safe are in disrepair or in shambles all together, which makes it perfect time for pirates to try to make their way in and plunder the surrounding areas. These aren't normal pirates either. They have more mages and new technology that none of the Temple mages have seen before. These four may only be kids, but they are growing fast and their magics are growing faster. 

I enjoyed this one. It was high action and adventure with those subtle moments of teaching of the kids. Like Sandry's Book it seemed to go by very quickly where it probably would have been okay to join it with the first book in the series, but there was enough of a plot and story arch to make it okay at standing on it's own as part of the series. I suppose I just want more than these, seemingly, brief snippets that we get from the pages of this book. 

I've liked the growth that these characters are going through and how they are becoming their own people while still joining together to go great things. I like how they are willing to bend some of the adult rules as they try to help with these major problems that are affecting everyone. 

I am also very much ready for the next book. Bring it on. 

Bloody Jack

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer is about a girl who dresses as a boy to join His Majesty's Navy to take down pirates. Coming off of the streets with nothing but the clothes she took from a dead friend, she starts her new life as a Sailor Boy who assists those who are actually in the Navy. She can't let her secret of actually being a girl get out, otherwise who knows where they will drop her off and leave her. She has dreams of being a sailor and seeing far off places and going on adventures, so she hides herself in plain sight as a small boy on a big ship.

This was okay though I was hoping for more. There are a whole bunch of books in this series full of all kinds of adventures so I'm assuming it gets better. It starts out with her turning maybe 12 (faking 10 year old boy) and supposedly two or three years passes. It didn't feel like that too me. There was no mention of time until almost the end of the story and the rest of it felt glossed over. It was written in a past tense, which is normal, but as if written by someone much older while at the same time the accent that is used in the writing shows that it should be more present tense or at least closer to the actual time it occurred. I guess what I'm saying is that the narration is very distant from what is going on in the story.

At the times of high intensity, fighting the pirates and whatnot, I was never scared for her--this possibly had to do with the narration style, maybe something else which I can't put my finger on.

Half way through the novel, when one of the boys finds out that she is a girl, the story turns to them necking the whole time. Every moment they could get they held hands or kissed or touched each other or something. I felt like I might as well have put them in a hallway of a high school or something. That was all it was about for the longest time and I got bored. It was a good thing she got in fights with her other crewmen and pirates, otherwise I would have put it down.

I did enjoy the some of "Jacky's" quirks and the fact that she doesn't see herself as brave. She becomes Blood Jack because she kills a pirate to save a friend. She survives being on an island on her own for a while. I even liked the reality of when she is finally discovered that these gentlemen sailors treat her like a girl of privilege even though she was a beggar off the street at the beginning. Of course to keep her "safe" they put her in the brig (as there is really no other place they could put her, so they say) and have guards on her 24/7, which is excessive in my opinion. If there was a lady that they had saved from pirates, they wouldn't have put her in the brig. So why Jacky? The whole ending was weird. And the awkwardness of suddenly realizing she is female was never really mentioned. Sure they treat her different, but none of them mention any awkwardness or weird looks. I'm sure that would have happened.

The setting was kept simple but we were given enough information to make a guess as to what was going on. Though I kind of wish there had been a tad more where we could have learned more about ships.

Aside from Jaimy and Jacky, most of the characters were kind of flat to me. We weren't give backstories to many of the others. Super brief glimpses maybe, but not enough to give them more than a stereotype.

I think the story has a lot of potential, but right now I'm kind of disappointed. I'll read the next one, but if it doesn't pick things up greatly, I won't read more of the series than that.