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Capitana book review

 


This book reminded me why it is that I love YA fantasy books after not reading loads of the genre over the last few months. Once I hit the last 100 page mark I could not put this down and stayed up late to finish it all as I had to know how it was all going to end. The ending too had me desperate to get my hands on book 2 and know how things will go down. 


Capitana by Cassandra James follows Ximena Reale who is determined to earn her back-cloak, become a Cazadore, and hunt down pirates for the Luzan Empire, but she is still at a disadvantage to her classmates no matter how well she performs in her lessons as her parents were pirate captains. When the most infamous pirate captain in history, Gasprilla, attacks the capital Ximena offers to capture him if she is named a Cazadore after succeeding which is agreed to as long as she competes against the High Ministers son. However as she continues on the journey she starts questioning the Empires Laws that she has always followed. 


I wasn’t quickly hooked by this book but once I got through the first few chapters I did become hooked and wanted to know where everything was going to go. I found the journey that Ximena goes on to find Gasprilla really interesting and it was exactly what I like in pirate fantasy books. 


We didn’t experience much magic in this book, however what we did see felt explained enough for the story to work and for me not to have too many questions. However, if possible I would like to see more of it in the second book and with that learn more. The creatures we met were well explained and really fitted into the story. 


Due to most of this book being set at sea we don’t meet a lot of major characters and instead spend a lot of time with the same characters. I don’t know how I ultimately feel about the Admiral at the moment. However I do like the other three characters who I feel we spend the most time with, Ximena, Pia and Dante.
They weren’t all my favourites from the start however as we spent more time with them they grew on me and I wanted them all to succeed. As we learned more about Ximena’s past I began to really understand her actions and wanted to know how she would tackle things. Pia is entirely a character I wanted to continue to learn more about but really enjoyed the character development of. Dante frustrated me at points however he is now one of the characters I am most excited about when we get book 2 as I feel like while I now really like him he has a lot of unknowns surrounding him in ways that I don’t know what it will lead to. 


I had a great time reading this and it was exactly what I was looking for. It was a fantastic pirate fantasy and I now cannot wait for book 2 whenever it will be released. A solid 4.5 star read that I will definitely be recommending once it is out. Thank you to Hot Key books for an arc, I loved it and am so grateful for the copy I received!

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