A really interesting and exciting youth, urban fantasy story.
Something between Peter Pan and time travel adventures.
The writing style is easy to understand and the story progresses quickly, even if I didn't quite follow some of the events on the island, I'm not sure if I understood the context correctly
It's easy to sympathize with the characters, many of which grow on you easily.
The ending absolutely convinced me. It was pretty exciting towards the end and I'm glad how it ended.
I highly recommend this story for young readers ages 12 and up.

Gorgeous novel, a fantastic read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

Completely blow the shit out of my head!
It's as stunning as the cover and has this fairytale-like writing! I enjoy it more than what I expected!
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and Booksgosocial for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.

What a marvellous adventure that was. In the beginning, I was unsure where the story was going to go especially when you considered the fact that the characters are mainly children.

I enjoyed every minute of this book and I read it in one sitting.

I received a complimentary copy of The Good Ship from NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This book could be so great! It has a wonderful plot, good description and a lot of creativity. What it is lacking, however, is character development. Interactions of characters seem almost forced, since there was no build-up to create necessity for the interactions that do happen. There was zero romance until, suddenly, there was romance. I didn’t see it coming. One of the characters teasingly called the new girl, “your girlfriend” in reference to another teenager. I had to reread to see which kid the comment was referring to because until that point, there had been no emotional connection to the girl by anyone—even the ‘tour guide’ who found her washed up on the beach.

Other than the oddness between characters, this was a pretty interesting story.

3 stars - full of great ideas, but not quite my cup of tea

Now, this one was a real mixed bag. It's the story of 13-year-old Annabelle who accidently sails with her father and brother through a doorway in the ocean. They come out in a fantastical world that is very reminescent of Peter Pan: children who do not age live on an island and their enemy is The Jade Army, the greedy and hateful pirates.

These pirates take her father and brother while Annabelle is swept up to the children's island and becomes part of their community. Quite soon we find out that they are actually plotting to leave the island soon and go back through that doorway on the Good Ship they have been building for a long time. And as such stories go it is up to Annabelle to find her place in this community and play her part in making the plan work.

I find it really hard to rate this book as it was sort of all over the place.

The good stuff: it's chock full of great ideas - the houses in the trees, the cavern and the Good Ship. There's ancient goddesses (one good and one evil, of course) and speaking beasts, mischievous fairies and much more.
But here comes the less good stuff: it is kind of frustrating that the great imagery is marred by wonky grammar. Quite often the autor would jump between tenses from one sentence to the other, which totally breaks the immersion for me.
The other aspect I was not a fan of was that the story was very much plot-driven, while I never had a clear idea of the personalities of the characters and why they actually acted the way they did.

More than once one of the protagonists would do something incredibly stupid just to get a series of events going and this is not a way to advance the plot that works for me personally. Also, the pacing was quite odd at times.

I think to appeal to an adult reader this story would need to delve a bit more into characer development and receive some editing. However, I do think this would be a really nice read for tweens and teens who might enjoy the good stuff more and not be as deterred by the less good stuff.

(As an aside: being a sailor myself I am not quite sure how much the author actually knows about building and sailing boats. This unfortunately made immersion more difficult for me.)

An intriguing fantasy adventure for older children with echoes of classics of the genre. It creates a world well worth exploring.

First impression was this unique and beautiful cover. I wanted to read it based on its shelf appeal. Getting into the story, it had such whimsy and adventure. I appreciate how well paced the book is. Following Annabelle as she loses her brother and father and ends up on this island of lost children was captivating. This book is very plot driven. I do wish we had a little more depth to characters so we could really feel that connection with them even deeper. I loved all the magical creatures in this book as well. I just wanted to be transported to the island to see these wonders myself. I love that we were also able to read about what happened to some of those lost children as well.

The story starts in the middle of the Atlantic, where Annabelle Cross, her dad and her brother are sailing. Suddenly, they are pulled through a doorway. Annabelle wakes up on an island while her father and brother have disappeared. Fortunately, she isn’t alone and soon discovers that other lost children and fantastical creatures habit the islands. Annabelle soon discovers that nothing on this island is what it seems.

Reading this book reminded me of books such as Narnia and Peter Pan. It is a fun and cute tale. The Good Ship has a lot of mystery, and Jeremy Wright does a great job making the reader intrigued. The writing style is very accessible, and the pacing is excellent. We also learn about the different creatures on the island and how time works which were interesting to read. I appreciate that Jeremy Wright has a whole chapter on the aftermath, where we learn about what happened to many of the characters. The cover is beautiful as well!

Although I enjoyed this book, I think that some of the romance felt quite forced. Furthermore, I would have wanted the characters to be more fleshed out. Annabelle was a great character, with some depth, but I did not feel that the side-characters were memorable.

At the beginning of the book, Annabelle goes through a very traumatic experience, where she loses her father and brother and is stranded on a remote island. Although Jeremy Wright does focus a bit on her mental health, I don’t think there was nearly enough emphasis on this trauma.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any young reader.

Rating: 3.75 / 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a sweet tale reminiscent of older books where the protagonist is swept into another world entirely to end up having the adventure of their life.

Set in the middle of the Atlantic, Annabelle and her family are drawn through a doorway of light only to be attacked by an pirate ship. Annabelle wakes up on an island of children and has to adapt to a new way of life having lost her father and brother to the evil Jade Army.

The story was great. I love fish out of water stories and this was like a modern day knock-off CS Lewis. I think it truly harked back to the real fish out of water fantasy for children which is what really got me into reading. If you love that kind of thing then I'd really recommend this.

I loved the characters, good and bad. As it was a children's book I felt like the romance was a bit forced considering the fact that they were only thirteen. The writing was very visual and cinematic and it painted pictures in my head of a world totally different from the real world.

Overall, a joy to read. Interesting story, plenty of characters, wonderful world. Highly recommend to all children of an appropriate age or if you just love children's fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Have you ever picked up a book and it's so beautifully played out in your head like a movie? Well this is exactly how this book made me feel. Can't wait to read this to my daughter when she's old enough

This story seemed like a dream or a fairytale I wanted to stay in.
It held my interest from start to end and I'm delighted to see a mix of evil forces and their prortrayal with the children.
I cannot recommend this book enough.

The story was hard to follow at times due to everything happening all at once and the pacing being inconsistent. However, once you get into it, it’s a solid adventure full of action and interesting characters.

this book is a very entertaining read. i enjoyed the way the action scenes were written and paced. the worldbuilding and lore of the island itself was also fascinating and well done.

absolutely loved taking an adventure through this book. such a great story. action scenes were amazing. such a great story and a great escape which we all need right now