‘ Isle of Broken Years’ is an amazingly inventive story that started off being the tale of a noblewoman being captured by pirates and veered off into something way more interesting and fantastic. Catalina is expecting to meet the man her parents have decided she is to marry and live out her life in the New World. When she is kidnapped by pirates hoping to make some money from her capture her life takes a turn for the worse. When they pass near the ’Bermuda Triangle’ things go off in a whole new direction. I absolutely loved the premise of this novel. It was not at all what I expected - it was so much better. It is difficult to say too much about the rest of the story as I don’t want to give anything away. Suffice to say there is mystery and life is fraught with danger. An unexpected attraction adds some romance to the story - and this was handled really well. As Jane Fletcher writes lesbian fiction you can probably guess where this goes. The characters are well written and develop over the course of the book. I will also just say that the epilogue is wonderful. I’ve never seen one done quite this way before, but it really works. An excellent story.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley and Bold Strokes for review.

When Sarah’s mom died, her father cut her hair, put her in boy’s clothes and took her with him to sea. 8-year-old Sarah became Sam and lived a sailor’s life ever since. Taken by a Dutch privateer 8 months before, cabin boy Sam (still successfully passing as a teenage boy) tries to keep her head down amongst the rowdy pirates.

Catalina de Valasco, daughter of a Spanish nobleman, is on route to New Spain to meet her husband-to-be when the pirates take her and her companions hostage for ransom. To keep their precious ‘cargo’ safe from raping seamen, Sam and a few others (who can keep it in their pants) accompany doña Catalina as they get dropped onto this mysterious island that just popped up.

Sam’s got a bad feeling about the place and she’s right. No sooner do they step on land or the island jumps (through time but they don’t know that yet), destroying the ships and most of the crew and leaving Sam and company stranded in this most inhospitable place. And it seems they are not alone.

So far it was all historical, but once on the island the sci-fi part of the story kicks in.

All the time traveling is done by the island itself so the reader (and the characters) don’t see any changes apart from some shifting from night to day. It’s the stranded peeps themselves that are from various times. That makes for some comical cultural differences. I think Catalina sounded a bit too modern at times.

All the alien tech on the island felt a tad too convenient at times. If you need a gadget you can find it in the barn, they have caretaking robot spiders that do the cleaning up, there are hot water showers and your clothes are auto-cleaned, they have light and airco, there is gas to power the vehicles, they have weapons and ammo. The only snag is that for food they need to go to the dangerous part of the island where they are hunted by killer robot beasties. Apart for the food situation I wouldn’t find it such an evil place to be to be honest and it took away from the feeling they were ‘surviving’ on that tropical island.

Don’t expect a sweeping romance arc. Catalina basically hates Sam through the whole book because she is a filthy pirate and of what Lorenzo whispered in her ear. When he kicks the bucket she thinks Sam pushed him towards his death and hates her even more. When that is disproven she still don’t trust her and they avoid each other as much as they can.

When they finally do come together (20 pages before the end) it was extremely underwhelming. The love scene is 2 paragraphs and for both girls it’s their first time (ever) and where do they do it? … in the shower, standing up. As first times go and the amount of clueless these two are, I just don’t find that very plausible, sorry.

f/f

Themes: Atlantis, aliens and the ancient Greeks, talk about a hostile environment (!), the language nerd ultimately saves the day, one very short and clumsily written love scene, OMG that Lorenzo guy was such a self-hating gay homophobe throughout the story I would have gladly dropkicked him in that jungle of death myself.

3.8 stars

* A free copy was provided by Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books Inc. for an honest review.

So... this one had me wondering what I should do with it, because there were some parts I really loved, but then others that I wish were tweaked a little bit more. It started off as a historical fiction, then took a left turn into sci-fi/ speculative fiction. I liked that Fletcher played around with the concept of time travel other than the typical tropes that go a long with that premise. Having a <i>place</i> jump times is really interesting to me. However, the pacing was really slow for me. I thought the characters having to research their way out was nice, however Fletcher struggled to keep the plot from dragging. 

Catalina De Valasco is a noblewoman on her way to be married off to a powerful man in Spain. The ship she is traveling on is attacked by privateers lead by a savvy pirate who wants to ransom her off. While prisoner on board the vessel, she meets Sam, a shy deckhand and sparks fly. Due to tensions on the ship, most of the crew end up on what seems like a deserted island. They soon realize that is not the case, and Sam and Catalina must use their wits to survive. 

The romance between Catalina and Sam is nice, but like other reviewers noted, they have a lot of issues to work through. Catalina was really great, even as she started to realize that she was attracted to Sam and all of the implications of being attracted to a woman. She was also a bit stuck up, but I attribute that more to her being a noblewoman from a ridiculously powerful family. Sam, on the other hand, was just a little too easy going. She handled the situation better than even the other characters did in the island. That was more like the plot needed her not to freak out more often. She does make up for it a little by being really astute and adaptable, so it's not terrible. 

Overall, there is a lot of really, really good stuff here. I almost wish that it could have been stretched into a second book, so that we could get a little more about what was happening and more time with Catalina and Sam together because their chemistry was fantastic. This is a solid read for the most part, and with the lack of quality lesfic sci-fi and fantasy. I'm glad its here.

The Isle of Broken Years is a very good book. Mysterious circumstances, historical conundrums, unknown technology, strange creatures, and a small but diverse array of characters all come together to make a great read that has elements of historical fiction, science-fiction, and adventure – plus a slow-burn romance between two women of very different backgrounds.
I started to read assuming this was a pirate story, and it starts just like that. The plot takes what I thought was a big twist and I really didn’t expect it. But it’s all in the title and it’s good twist, and a unique one!
I really enjoyed reading this book, and I thought the epilogue worked well. Perfect for this book. I loved this one, and it gets five stars.

This is a first read for me for this author so was excited to get a copy of this book.  I wasn't to sure what I was in for, but I can say the ride was well worth it.  I am not much of a syfi/fantasy genre reader, and I'll be honest i didn't even know that was what this book was about, but I enjoyed it.  This author does a wonderful job of really pulling you into to the story with great descriptions of the landscape and characters.  The book is more 80% adventure (getting sucked into the Bermuda Triangle and trying to escape) and 20% lesbian love story.  

It kept me turning the pages for 2 days, my only let down was the epilogue-of all my years of reading, I never had an epilogue presented in quite that way (I don't mention how due to spoiler)-I would have preferred a bit more detail wrap up, but to each her own.

Over all a good read if you are into syfi/fantasy and a well written story with good characters.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this author on my own.

To see my Amazon review, it is under CC-September 4-Nice read

This is thrilling ride with great adventure and exciting twists.

Catalina, of Royal blood, is on her journey to New Spain where she will meet the wealthy man she is to marry. But their ship is attacked by pirates and she is held for ransom. As they enter the area we know as the Bermuda Triangle, everything changes. 
You can imagine there be great adventure and exciting twists and it was. 

I was a bit disappointed when get to Cat and Sam romance as much I like a slow burn romance they didn't get really together but toward the end that's why I thought it should be more length book or two parter where focus on the romance more hopefully there would be a next book so we can see where Cat and Sam end up.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks

Finished in two days (a record for me nowadays). Would have read this in 1 sitting if I'd known what it was actually about instead of what the blurb and cover says.  On the other hand, I was very happy to be surprised. Shocked, even.  This is one of those rare instances when not knowing what direction the book is taking is definitely an advantage.  Enough for me to say it's a wondrous journey and a thrilling adventure.  Not the best written by any means, nor does everything make sense, but its the most fun I've had since Requiem for Immortals.

5 stars for the enjoyment

P.S. Highly recommended if you love adventure, thrills, a good mystery and would ya believe...sci-fi.  ;)

This. Book. Is. Wild. I definitely thought this book was a historical fiction book when I first requested it but then it takes you through a series of twists that leave you awestruck. It's amazing. I couldn't put it down. 

Catalina, of Royal blood, is on her journey to New Spain where she will meet the wealthy man she is to marry. But their ship is attacked by pirates and she is held for ransom. As they enter the area we know as the Bermuda Triangle, everything changes, and what happens next is beyond your wildest imagination. I don't want to give too much away, because the best part of this book was getting surprised at every turn. 

This is my first book by Jane Fletcher and holy moly was it an amazing first taste of her writing. She  is extremely talented. I loved the dialogue and the characterization. The world she created and described was so thoughtfully designed and just gorgeous. I loved the little tidbits of philosophical musings that were discussed by the characters as well, it was definitely eye opening in many ways. 

I will definitely need to buy this in paperback, and I will recommend it to anyone. 100% fantastic. 

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well I found a new author that I really enjoy! This book is one of the more "outside the box" stories I've read in awhile and I loved it. The characters, the plot, the descriptions of the island; everything was perfect. 

I had been a little tired of your traditional lesbian love story books for a bit, and this was exactly what I was looking for. The romance is cute and is definetly a slow build, but that's not really where the book shines. It's everything else PLUS Cat and Sam's coming together. 

The only reason why I didn't give this book 5 stars instead of 4 was the ending. It was a bit abrupt and to be honest, I was hoping it would be a series book. I wanted to know how everyone would acclimate (no spoilers so I'm a little vague) but instead we got a pretty weird and week epilogue. 

Other than that, this was a total page turner!

But what was this? A cover that seems to take you to a pirates adventure (awful cover by the way) Or the woman who is drawn, is she a kind of vampire, with those lips so red and so clear eyes? Even the synopsis makes you think that it will be an adventure in the sea, with characters from the seventeenth century. And the publisher, on their website, says that it is of genre adventure and fantasy. But what was this again?

Spoiler starting: 
<spoiler>. This adventure begins with the boarding, by a pirate ship, towards the ship that takes Doña Catalina from Spain to America to marry her rich fiancee whom she does not know. From the arrival of the pirate ship to an island to keep Doña Catalina kidnapped and wait for the rescue they have requested for her, the pirate adventure turns into a time travel in which Catalina, Sam, the supposedly cabin boy and Alonzo, the guardian of Catalina from her childhood, they are stuck in an unknown and scary world, in which they will join other travelers of the time, from times as different as the Vikings, pre-Columbian Africa, our time, all trying to leave of the loop they're in. The idea of finding Atlantis, discovering the mystery of the triangle of Bermuda, is a subject that gives for very good books and movies. In this case, it is mixed with the intervention of the Greek culture, which allows Catalina to decipher many of the enigmas necessary to discover the mysteries that surround the island in which they are.

And since I am not an expert in this genre, I do not want to judge whether it is better or worse than others. My feelings after finishing it are that it has been very entertaining to read but that there is something in the end that is not quite well resolved. I would also like a little more about the relationship between Cat and Sam, but that would be to my liking. </spoiler> 

So I was waiting for a pirates one but...

4.25 Stars. This book is crazy, but in a good way. Jane Fletcher is an author I have a lot of respect for. Her Celaeno series will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my favorite fantasy series. Fletcher doesn’t put out new releases as often anymore. I actually have not read her book the Shewstone yet. Not because I don’t want to but I worry what if she won’t write another book? I want to know I have one new book left to read. Trust me, I know that sounds weird but I can’t help it. But as much as I love her work, I have to be objective. This was not as good as some of her other books. However, it was very entertaining and still a treat to read.

This book actually starts off as a historical fantasy (think pirates) than it takes off in another direction which I will just call spec-fic. The genre that this book turns into is part of the twist so I have to keep very vague not to ruin anything. The pirates in this book sail into the Bermuda Triangle so you can just take a guess how crazy things can get. Fletcher’s imagination was clearly working overtime here.

What disappointed me most is the romance. It is very slow moving. I like the potential of the characters as a couple and was rooting for them, but it took so long to get anywhere. It is honest. The way the book is set up, it would take a long time for that bond to form. Because of the characters background they would never just jump in bed together out of the blue. The problem was by the time they got closer, the book was ending. It would have worked better if this was turned into an epic length book, or two books. That way Fletcher could have spent more time making the romance shine.

One the good side there is a ton of excitement. This is a very entertaining read with plenty of danger to keep any reader on their toes. While the twist is out there, it made for an imaginative world I have never been to before. This book is very unique which I appreciate.

While this is not my favorite by Fletcher, I still recommend it. If you enjoy historical fantasy and spec-fic, or just looking for adventure and something different, give this a chance. I hope we will be seeing many new books by Fletcher to come.

I had no idea of what I was going to be reading when I requested this ARC other than that it had a ship on the cover. I figured it would be historical given the type of ship and it wasn’t until everything went awry that I had another look at the cover and noticed there was a woman on it too, and in fact, that the ship is really quite small. This is a fantastic read, as it, that is was both good and fantastical.

Catalina, a Spanish noblewoman, is aboard a galleon bound for America in order to meet and marry the man she is betrothed to. It’s 1631 and the seas are treacherous. The ship is boarded and captured by pirates who decide she might be worth something to the very wealthy man she is to marry. The pirate captain leaves his cabin boy, Sam, as one of the guards at her door. Catalina finds she has nothing but disdain for Sam, who looks no older than fourteen, in his choice to be part of the immoral band of men. In finding somewhere to wait for a message to be delivered to Catalina’s future husband, the galleon sails into the Bermuda Triangle.

I was riveted to this crazy ride of action and adventure. It had my imagination fired up and I loved that I really didn’t expect it. Four and a half stars, rounded up.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.