Blog Tour Review - Kittiwake Stormhaven and the Pirate's Portolano by Victoria Williamson

Blog Tour Review - Kittiwake Stormhaven and the Pirate's Portolano by Victoria Williamson

A daring mission, a sister turned pirate and a sea full of secrets…

In a world of water where land is a legend, 11-year-old Kittiwake Stormhaven dreams of adventure aboard the Amazon Princess. When a vital mission takes the ship into dangerous waters, Kittiwake discovers shocking news - her long-lost sister, Petrel, is now a feared pirate queen.

Kittiwake must outsmart pirates, outmanoeuvre storms and face ghostly captains to save her ship, her mischievous monkey Caboodle and her friends. But in a high-stakes showdown, family loyalty collides with survival, and Kittiwake learns the ocean hides more secrets than she ever imagined.

Kittiwake Stormhaven and the Pirate's Portolano is a really fun and exciting middle grade pirate adventure!

I really love pirates and pirate stories and this really captured the feel of it in a small, child-friendly package. It's fun, funny and full of excitement and peril. It leaves things open enough too that I really hope this is the start of a new series of adventures. It's also beautifully illustrated by James Brown, who really brings each of the ships and settlements to life.

Kittiwake Stormhaven is set in a futuristic world where global warming has raised sea levels to cover all land. The remaining inhabitants built huge ships before the forests were lost to flooding and now everyone lives on a variety of different sailing vessels and in a number of settlements. These ships are powered by a special type of material that comes from meteors, and without it many of them are unable to stay afloat let alone move or power their systems. This need for fuel powers most of the story's plot, as Kittiwake's ship, the Amazon Princess, the largest and most powerful ship in the seas, is running dangerously low on fuel. Unfortunately, so is everyone else, cueing up a desperate race for a recently fallen meteor. To add to the excitement we have long lost family members, who may or may not have turned to piracy, and Kittiwake's friend Scally, a stowaway trying to stay out of prison, and we have a thrilling swashbuckling tale indeed!

The world Victoria Williamson creates here feels real and vibrant in barely any time at all. Illustrated ship bios from the Pirate's Portolano, a book Kittiwake carries, helps to fill in gaps in our knowledge without long exposition. Kittiwake herself is a great lead character, brave and enterprising, and always ready to throw herself into danger to help others. Scally is quite a charming sidekick and his precarious position on board the Amazon Princess added an interesting layer to his character. The villains are complex and have their own believable motivations and drives and I liked the moral ambiguity at the heart of it. Scally's habit of mispronouncing everything and some of the other dialect speech was something I must admit I found quite grating at times, but I expect the silliness of it will go over well with a younger audience. 

All in all, a fantastic swashbuckling adventure, really enjoyed this one.

Kittiwake Stormhaven and the Pirate's Portolano by Victoria Williamson is published by Tiny Tree Books and is out now.

I was sent a review copy in return for an honest review and participation in this The Write Reads blog tour.