Book Review: Cutlass by Ashley Nixon

Synopsis:

Notorious pirate Barren Reed has one thing on his mind: Revenge against the man who killed his father. So kidnapping his enemy’s fiancé seems a perfect plan…until he actually does it.

Larkin Lee is more than a pretty face and fiancé to a powerful man. Her fierce personality is enough to make any pirate want to push her overboard.

But when the King of the Orient comes to Barren with a task—to find the Bloodstone, a powerful gem thought only to exist in legend, Barren sees another opportunity to destroy his enemy. Together, Barren, Larkin and a crew of pirates set off to find the stone, only to discover it caused the death of Barren’s own mother and Larkin’s, too. As his strongest allies turn into his greatest enemies, and the life of the girl he kidnapped becomes more important than he ever dreamed, Barren’s quest for revenge becomes a fight to save the Orient.

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About the Author:  

Ashley was born and raised in Oklahoma, where the wind really does sweep down the plains, and horses and carriages aren’t used as much as she’d like. When she’s not writing, she’s hard at work on her Master’s degree in Library Science and Information Technology, working out, or pretending she’s Sherlock Holmes. Her obsession with writing began after reading the Lord of the Rings in the eighth grade. Since then, she’s loved everything Fantasy–resulting in an unhealthy obsession with the ‘geek’ tab on Pinterest, where all things awesome go.

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My Review:

I’ve always loved the romance of pirates, okay in reality they can be a bit violent and grabby, but in novels they tend to embiggen (notice my casual use of The Simpson’s fun new word?) more noble qualities, and with Cutlass having a strong mix of pirates and fantasy, it certainly gave me an ideal pirate adventure.

From a writer’s perspective,  it was a little A to B writing. There were no surprises, and the prose could have done with being a little more lyrical (just my taste) I’d actually suggest that it read more like a high grade children’s book. This is just my opinion and I’m sure that others might disagree. There was a lot of action, but there was also a great deal of telling not showing, which could be why it didn’t float my literary boat.

The front cover is beautiful, and definitely lends itself to an early teen read, my only suggestion would be to include both the pirate and fantasy element on there.

Overall I’d gice Cutlass 3 out 5 stars, great concept and definitely worth a read.