#107 The Ship of Shadows

The Ship of Shadows  by Maria Kuzniar 

The blurb: 'Aleja whiles away her days in her families dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic shes only ever read about in books. After all, shes always been told that girls cant be explorers. But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel known as 'The Ship of Shadows'. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of legend. And it wants Aleja. Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realise that the sea holds more secrets than she could have ever imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja's strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates- and discover what they are risking everything to find'

I was once again kindly asked by @The_WriteReads to be apart of this amazing blog tour and was very very kindly gifted a physical copy from the wonderful publishers Puffin and Netgalley who also sent me an e-arc. I am super stoked as i have an 8 year old niece that i can pass this book along to, i wish there were more stories like this when i was her age!

Just over a year ago id never read a middle grade book as an adult, it wasnt until i discovered How to train your Gavin on Youtube that i started to take notice of all the amazing middle grade reads and become excited about the stories again.

The Ship of Shadows is a super fun middle grade book featuring an all female pirate crew, a magical ship and a journey to find a lost piece of a map. The story follows Aleja who finds herself in trouble one day and is running away from the possibility of a public lashing when she accidentally runs into a mysterious crew of The Ship of Shadows, they agree to hide her for a few hours but instead set sail from the port with her still on board. The captain wants Aleja to consider becoming a permanent member of the crew so decided to take her along on a mission to recover a missing piece of a map.

This book is jam packed full of magic, mystery and some sea monsters to boot. The story is so endearing and has many elements of bravery and friendship. I loved how each crew member had a special talent that made them unique. The setting was really cool as ive never read a childrens book that was set in Spain and Morocco before, it was all described so richly as well. The writing is just stunning, i cant believe that this is a debut novel.

I can honestly say that i fell in love with the whimsy of it, the descriptions where so well done that i could picture it all so well in my head. Something i really loved that you dont see often in middle grade is that the author didnt shy away from using big words which i loved, middle grade should expand a young persons vocabulary and question what words mean. 

I couldnt have loved this swashbuckling tale of girl power any more! I would love a new book for every piece of the map that the crew need to find please *hint hint* haha. I cannot wait to read this book to my daughter in a few years. The Ship of Shadows has become one of my new favourite middle grade reads up there with Nevermoor and Keeper of the Lost Cities.

Thank you again to Dave, the lovely author Maria who has been so engaging with her readers on Twitter  which has been so lovely and to Puffin books.

A few of the places you can buy this amazing book:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z8NXB49/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780241372920
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ship-of-shadows-maria-kuzniar/1134489553?ean=9780241372920
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-ship-of-shadows/maria-kuzniar/9780241372913