ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!💖

I LOVED IT. ❤

This is a great story that tugged at my heart strings and had me on the edge of my seat, brilliant. This is a touching beautiful pirate storyline and I want more and more and I definitely recommend it.❤
Emily was exceptional in her performance and brought together the characters struggles expertly and told a rollercoaster of a story with such passion. ❤

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Epic!

This is the first book I have ever read narrated by Ms Zeller, and I enjoyed a lot her melodic voice, acting skills and the fantastic way she managed the voice of Georgina and Cinder. Ms Temple made a wonderful job with the ebook and its truly epic story, and now the beautiful narration of Ms Zeller is the cherry on top. The plot is captivating, full of heartwarming moments, in between dangerous adventures and the storyline caught me since the beginning to the very last page. This is an exceptional book and I can't wait to read more books written by the author.

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A dark but exciting fantasy pirate story

George is a wonderful character, a young woman whose fear won’t stop her from doing what’s right, at any cost. Captain Cinder is not what or who she expects at all and even though her true identity is revealed pretty early in the story, I don’t want to say too much. I’ll just say I liked her a lot too, I liked the complexity, the broken soul, the will to survive.

They’re surrounded by characters I came to love, such as George’s maid Rosie, Ender the giant pirate, Maro the non-binary first mate; and face villains I loved to hate: the prince, George’s brother, at least one other I can’t write about without spoiling.

When I think pirates, I think adventures, and I wasn’t disappointed on that front either. The pace is fast, there’s always something happening, usually ominous. There’s some violence, “largely of a piratical nature”, as the author warns (there are more detailed warnings on her website). The story is darker than I expected, and I probably liked it even more because of that.

I have very minor complaints about Emily Woo Zeller’s narration. George’s voice sounds a tad too old at times but the voices are overall really good. The tone is overly dramatic here and there. The drama is already in the words and doesn’t need to be overstated, especially at the end of chapters. Other than that, the pace is right and the characters really come to life.

As I wrote in my review for the book, there can never be enough lesbian pirates stories, and this one is well worth your time. I don’t know whether the author plans to give us more of these characters’ voyages but I certainly hope so.

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Song brought to life

One of my favorite Holly Near songs has always been Imagine My Surprise. It talks about discovering women in unexpected places doing unexpected things - one of which is being pirates. Here, we have that wonderful idea brought to life in Captain Cinder and even better we get Georgina, the spy for her to love. The story is full of twists and turns as Georgina tries to stay alive and continue her missions and as you would expect, Cinder has quite a few secrets herself. Emily Woo Zeller gives us these strong women as fully three dimensional characters in a performance full of fire and tenderness. An amazing addition to my titles I will re-listen to often.

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This is No Damsel in Distress

charted is a standalone action-adventure romance between two incredibly strong and courageous women: one is a princess forced to marry a man she despise, the other is a pirate captain with deep secrets. The romance is a slowburn, but burn it does with a ferociousness that finally bursts into flames in the later half of the book. However, there is very little on page sex, although there is intimate and passionate moments.

Georgina, called George, is a noblewoman who is betrothed against her will to the kingdom’s prince and next in line to throne. The prince while charming, has destroyed his country: people are starving and desperate with little hope. Even in such desolate environments, some of the people have secretly banded together to create rebel force to oppose the prince in any means they can. George has been assisting this rebellion, but her engagement to the prince has put everything at risk. Enter Cinders, the dangerous pirate captain who kidnaps George and saves her from a menacing fate.

Uncharted has interesting worldbuilding – it is set within an alternate world that has renaissance and Victorian reverberations. Although there is no mention of magic or other fantastical elements, the book feels like a fantasy epic, and I could see there being more books set within this world. In fact, although the book ended with a HEA for George and Cinders, I am very curious to see what happens to the Redmere nation and pirating world now that some key players have been eliminated.

I thought George, who’s POV the book is told from, was an interesting and complex character. I appreciate her fire and conviction, even when I found her naïve and slightly annoying at times. As a noblewoman, she had been sheltered from real suffering, even though she was aware it happened in the world. But before her betrothal and kidnapping, George never had to make truly impossibly difficult decisions. She had to change and grow in order to survive, and I think the author did that growth in a natural manner. The action and suspense was well done, and it kept the plot moving forward at a fast pace. I was not blown away by the romantic elements of the book – George and Cinders relationship seemed to be a secondary element, and the adventure/character growth seemed more paramount. This wasn’t a bad thing, but I think I went into this book expecting more romance and relationship building. The romance and relationship building that occurred near the later half of the book was very well done, and it was easy to see that George and Cinders truly loved each other.

The audiobook was narrated by Emily Woo Zeller who did a fantastic job. Emily’s voice was expressive and smooth, which made for a wonderful listening experience. I could easily differentiate between all the characters, and never felt lost in the narrative. This, along with a well done audiobook production, made for a great book.

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Enchanting and engaging

I absolutely loved this twist on pirate romance.
Two beautiful, complex and independently strong women who find the perfect foil to themselves in each other.
Fanciful, full of snarky banter along with plenty of swashbuckling adventures and danger on the high seas.
Wonderful narration.

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Pirates, oh my!

If you're wanting a story that will pull you in from the first page, Georgina and Cinder's story is it! This story is filled with so much that leaves you absolutely enthralled and ignoring everything else to live their story. The narration brings this story to a whole new level of amazing.

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