Firstly I must thank the author profusely for sending me a copy of this book; it always means a lot when I receive a book from an author. When I set up the ‘review requests page,’ I had no idea that it would gain such a response from the readers of my blog. I have since received a wide genre of books, from children’s books, thrillers, indie novels and sci-fi, to today’s fancy, a paranormal/romantic fantasy. I love reading books and being able to read such a wide range of books is a complete privilege as a reader. So, this is yet again one of these reviews, so thanks again to Feather Stone for sending it over and trusting me with such a special review; so, onto the review!

As always a quick over-view of the plot to begin; her Guardian Greystone knows Sidney Davenport as a ‘wildchild’; this is due to her radical love to rebel, and to break the rules. Sidney is gifted with a set of supernatural powers; however she must carefully conceal her control and abilities to the world. Even in difficult situations, that have the potential to change her life forever, she must be careful otherwise her enemies might discover the truth of who she really is, and then use this against her and have the Guardian destroyed. Sidney must call upon the spirit guides Celeste and Seamus to guide her through. To start her mission Sidney leaves her sweet home on Hawk’s Island, to stop the evil malice of two characters that want to wreck havoc worldwide. However Sidney does not hold the skills in espionage needed for the mission to be successful and after being caught and imprisoned she is sentenced to death. In an odd turn Sidney cannot help but feel an attraction towards the man that is calling for her execution; the tall, dark and handsome Captain Waterhouse. Strict, determined and meticulous in every detail; however in the arrival of the female prisoner he finds his world being turned upside down in a nature he could never have imagined. Waterhouse is about to scrap all his morals and put his life in danger due to the connection between them. Through stunning imagery, an intricate and adventurous plot, and a strong cast of characters, Feather Stone gives readers a fast paced story woven with murder and magic.

So the first comment to make is if you were looking for a strong, strident and determined, female protagonist, look no further! Sidney as a main character is incredibly well characterised and appealed very strongly to me as a reader. She has a really sense of strength and flame and as a female reader I could not help but fall for her sass and grit. Even in the most difficult and stressful situations, she manages to not only ride the storm and stay tough and driven, but she also manages to fascinate and please the reader! I could not help but feel an instant connection to her and that is a real credit to the author. Too often in books we are given wishy-washy characters that are so easily vanquished, I often think it is due to the ’50 shades effect,’ that has left us with female characters that don’t appear to be able to stand on their own two feet. I must therefore pause here and salute Stone in the fact that that doesn’t happen here. (Yes!) Additionally the strong characteristic written into the book makes Sam an extremely diverse and exciting character; at first we see him stony faced and demanding however he shows just the right of compassion when needed. He is slightly harder to warm to, in terms of characterisation, however this allows the reader to fully understand his character, which is a nice touch. Another strong point is in the fact that the setting is mostly located on the Navy ship. This allows for a large amount of description that ends up having an overall magical quality. The description is strong much like the characters and this allows a stronger diffusion of information into the reader’s imagination; I really felt immersed in the story and felt myself being drawn more strongly into the story as a whole. I also really liked the way that the author played with the emotions of the characters and really managed to change Sam’s perception of his own life. The scenes that play out throughout the book between the two main characters were made extremely special and they felt extremely genuine and at times, as a reader, I felt I was intruding on scenes that were just plain lovely. I found myself rooting for their relationship, despite my first viewing of their relationship due to Sam being such a dark and brooding character; at first I thought what is Sidney thinking! However, he grows so significantly into his own character it ends up being extremely genuine and honest. A final remark is that the author has a definite understanding of how to make the readers mind race; the book was extremely fast-paced meaning that it makes it very easy to read and fun to read as well; at no point did I think why has this part been include which is a big compliment. Additionally by leaving an epilogue it allows the reader to ponder their own thoughts and then read the resolution; by doing this it allows the reader some room to breath and recuperate before sinking their teeth back into the plot. One thing to note for me as a reader is that I felt it held more of a mystery feel than a paranormal/fantasy, which I originally thought was the main genre of the book and although for me that was fine due to not being the biggest paranormal fan, for others it may slightly disappointing in that respect.

It will come as no shock (from the above comments that I really enjoyed this book) with the strong characters, a real understanding of plot pace and a memorable love story this book really sang for me as a reader. The genre is not my stereotypical favourite however I can see myself definitely reading books from this author in the future!