I really enjoyed this one. Can't wait for the next book! ( )

This was a decent conclusion to this duology. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this story and there were a few twists that surprised me. The ending was a little rushed. I honestly thought with 20 pages left that this series would get a third book. It took me a while to read but overall still an enjoyable book. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Scavenge the Stars duology. I borrowed a copy of this audiobook through the library.

Audiobook Quality (3/5): I wasn’t a huge fan of the narration for this audiobook. The narrator’s voice is fairly high-pitched and young sounding; it didn’t match Amaya very well. The narration was also a bit dry and didn’t convey character emotion very well. Character voices were definitely different between characters but again didn’t match the characters well. I would recommend reading this in paper format rather than listening to the audiobook. The narration was okay and understandable but not pleasant to listen to.

Story (4/5): This was a well done conclusion to this duology and I enjoyed seeing how things wrapped up. This book follows Amaya and crew as they try to unravel the secrets behind the forged money and Ash fever, and work to find a cure for Ash fever. The world is well built and the story moves at a decent pace. While I didn’t absolutely love this, I did enjoy it quite a bit. There are some fun twists and turns and it was intriguing to watch our characters unravel the web of deceit here. The Ash Fever plotline hits a bit close to home after the last year of the COVID pandemic, so just be aware of that.

Characters (4/5): There is a fun cast of characters, even if I did get a bit frustrated with how Amaya and Cayo keep lying to each other throughout the story. A lot of the characters here are fairly flawed but that served to make them feel very human and relatable (even if it was frustrating at points). I didn’t love the characters but they do have a lot of depth and are intriguing to read about.

Setting (4/5): The world building here is solid and our characters alternate between a couple different continents, finally ending up back on Moray. It’s a very believable world and it's well thought out. There is a lot of traveling by sea, which is okay, but I am not a huge fan of seafaring stories.

Writing Style (4/5): This was well written and the story was tied up nicely. I was interested throughout the whole book and enjoyed the twists and turns in the plot. I also enjoyed the flawed characters and how they had to learn to accept each other’s faults to work things through. I enjoyed Sim’s Timekeeper series a lot more than this series, but this wasn’t a bad series.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it was a decent retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo with a gender swap. I found the story entertaining and liked how the whole thing played out. There are a lot of politics, twists and turns, and confidence schemes set in a seafaring type of fantasy world, so if that sounds like your thing I think you will enjoy this. I didn’t love this was much as “The Timekeeper” series but I did enjoy it and plan to check out Sim’s future books. ( )