I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

This book was just not it for me. I was intrigued for the first 25% of it but I quickly lost interest once I realized that I basically knew how it ended without reading it. It has a lot of potential. The concept of a pirate trial to win the throne is an intriguing start but it fell flat. As I said, it got predictable so early on that I didn't really want to finish it. I did finish it, though, and was right about most things, so much so that I probably could have gotten away without finishing it at all and been satisfied.

Same with the characters. I thought Csilla and Kane were characters I wanted to keep reading about especially but they were two-dimensional. Lorelai wasn't someone I connected to at all and I just skimmed her chapters. And I find it hard to believe that out of a total of 4 pirate captains, 3 are young kids. I know this is a fantasy world but that simply isn't realistic. I suppose Csilla getting it from her grandmother makes more sense because of bloodlines and all but she was SIXTEEN! That just doesn't work for me. Not all teenage characters need to be leaders or heroes or whatnot. Eventually, it gets to a point where it's just not realistic.

All that being said, it's not bad. Pirate tales are always fun so I gave it two stars for that.

As much as I adore pirates and their tales, this book was unfortunately not for me. It just felt too young for my tastes, from the writing, to the plot, to the characters. I think it's better suited for tweens and young teens, more so than young adults. DNF'd at 65%.

I LOVE pirate books and this one did not disappoint! The cover is stunning. I loved the thrilling trials. Very entertaining and exciting book.

Let it be known that books involved pirates, sailing or the ocean will always make my heart happy. This one started off fantastically, the different POVs as each character was fleshed out worked really well and the plot was intriguing! However, at about 75% in, it felt like everything fell a bit flat. The dialogue between characters felt strange and slightly juvenile, the characters themselves lost a little bit of the spark that made them so wonderful and it felt like the focus was more on the love interests than it was the plot. I enjoyed the ending, but that last 25% definitely felt like a Wattpad book to me.

This book made me think of Pirates of the Caribbean and Black Sails, but in a wonderful YA way.
I enjoyed the overall story and the characters, with Csilla, Kane and Flynn being my favorites. This is a multiple POV book and I think the author handled it well. The reader gets to see the unfolding events through three character's eyes which come together on THE pirate island after the Pirate King's death.
The story has it all: great characters, adventure, pirate shenenigans, rivalry, a sea battle, mysteries, some kind of supernatural elements and romance. And damn, the romance. There are two couples in this book, one where the characters broke up due to *spoiler*, the other being a wonderful slow burn... until the book comes to the end.
And that's why the book don't gets five stars from me. The ending.
Everything in this story is fine, the pace, the adventure, the friendly banter, the fights, the race for the pirate throne, the slow burn. Until the last chapters. Suddenly everything feels rushed to get to the ending. And while it's still great writing it makes it seem like parts are missing from the story. The celebration for the new Pirate Royal feels shallow, the delicious slow burn is suddenly resolved and the book ends without giving the reader that sense of wow that it had promised.
In other words, I wanted more after truly devouring the story for the great part of it. I expected more. The characters deserved more.
As it is, Crossbones is a book to enjoy, the pirates and adventure in it are everything you could wish for. It's just the ending that doesn't do it justice.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was at first intrigued by the title and then i read the description and the fact that there was going to be trials to find a new pirate king/queen made me very excited, and the fact that it is by a fellow wattpader which always makes me happy. There is so much adventure and secrecy right from the get go and nothing slows down. There are so many fight scenes that i really enjoyed reading, it felt like I was fighting right by Csilla and Kade. I loved how the author portrayed Csilla's relationship with her sister and how it all came to ahead later in the book. I loved her and her crew. This book goes hand in hang with being one of my favorite pirate books alongside Daughter Of The Pirate King and the Seafire series. It had just the right amount of romance, swashbuckling and sprinkles of magic.

3.5 stars

This story reminded me of a mix between the adventures in Pirates of the Caribbean and the more serious tone of Blacks Sails. This story is a YA Fantasy about pirates. It is a multiple perspective of three characters each fighting for the pirate crown, after the current king suddenly dies with no heir. I love the cover of this book, it is so beautiful and just draws your eyes to it. I was fascinated by the unique political system of these swashbucklers, the magical and religious aspects were also captivating. However, I really wanted to see more from these particular aspects of the story. They were very different and interesting from other pirate stories and I really wanted more of it. All you really only got a small bit just enough that you could follow the story. I would have definitely liked to have seen more world building. The characters were all interesting, but I really wanted more character building and development. Again, we had the basic idea, but it left me feeling a general lack of a connection to the characters. A number of plot points seemed over and wrapped up too quickly. Overall I did enjoy this story, it was exciting and I love the whole aspect and world or pirates, but the world and character development needed to be more flushed out. I would still definitely recommend checking this story out.
Trigger warning: murder, drinking
I received this advanced ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

This book has a lot of potential. The idea behind the story was really interesting, but I don't feel like it was thorough enough. There were several things that could have been elaborated on but seemed like they were just brushed aside - especially with the magic system and world-building. The characters were nicely done and it was a fun read overall, but I think it may be a tad bit on the younger YA side. This is something I think younger YA readers would enjoy because it's a light and easy read. If you're an upper YA reader or even one who like YA book that any age group can enjoy, then this one may miss its mark. Overall it's a good story and I would likely read the sequel. Plus - the cover is beautiful!

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this Arc!

3.5 stars

“Csilla’s unspoken words crowded her mind. She never dwelled on death—there was no reason to in the life she lived. Death came, it took, and it did not give back. She hadn’t given much thought to how she would die, but she assumed it would be bloody and brilliant. Not like this.”

That's one hell of an entry into a novel. It was probably my favorite line of this book.


This story follows Pirate captains as they compete for the bone crown after the bone king dies.
There are three different povs Csilla, Kane and Lorelei. Out of all three I significantly enjoyed Csilla’s pov more. I also really liked Flynn. I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers. Even when I thought he betrayed her I still liked him. Kane is a nice guy just a little unsure of himself and poor Lorelei was just thrown in the middle. I found both characters likable but I was still drawn more to Csilla and Flynns back and forth.

I expected the twist. I didn’t like this certain character from the beginning so I wasn’t surprised when my suspicions were proven correct.

Overall I did enjoy it and it was a pretty fast read. A nice amount of action and a dab of romance and the cover is stunning.

This book started really strong, but the plot quickly unravelled to the point where I found myself skipping whole chapters. I'm really disappointed by the lack of world building and the confusing character motivations.

Rating: 2.5-3 stars

I wanted to like this, but it felt more like an unfinished rough draft than a complete story getting ready to hit the shelves. We get the bare bones of the story without much character development or worldbuilding. The story feels too rushed and the book lacks any kind of tensions because problems arise and resolve so quickly. There isn't really anything for the reader to hold on to develop investment in the story or characters because the stakes were never really established in a meaningful way. Things were just a little too easy. Most of the romantic relationships and friendships formed over the course of a chapter and never really felt genuine.

This is a personal pet peeve, but there's a character that hisses a lot, and the instancessss with multiple s'ssss got annoying after a while.

I love pirates, so naturally I was interested in this book. However, it just didn't do it for me. I had a hard time liking or relating to any of these characters. Unfortunately, this was not the story I'd hoped it to be.

If you like the Grishaverse and All The Stars and Teeth, then I'd definitely give this a read!

All in all this was a really great book. It's told in multiple POV, has magic, mermaids, pirates, violence, fighting... pretty solid book.

I was really hoping to like this book because I always love a good pirate story. This one just fell short to me. It didn't feel like the world building was there. I didn't fully understand some of the parts that made up the story. Like I don't know what the gods and goddesses added to the story besides a little bit of conflict. I didn't fully connect to any of the characters and didn't think the point of views changing really added much to the story because they all sounded the same. Most of the time I was bored and caught myself just skimming through some of the pages. It was just an okay read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review.

Big thanks to Netgalley, Kimberly Vale and Watt Pad Books for the ARC in exchange for a review.

The story follows three pirates, Csilla, Kane and Lorelei.

Csilla, the captain of the Maiden, whos ship sailed by an all woman crew, became captain after her grandmother passed along the title to her, despite Csilla's older sister Rhoda, being next in line.

Kane, the captain of the Iron Jewel, has big shoes to fill after inheriting the ship from his abusive, deceased father.

Lorelei, a young woman, whos mother is the town crazy, needs to save herself, and get revenge, by becoming a pirate. A hidden family history comes to light, and Lorelei becomes entangled in a search for the bone crown.

Overall, this wasn't a terrible story. I loved the pirates and magic and mermaids. It is listed as YA, but if you removed the barely there romance and a few other scenes (there's a hanging and some stabbing), it would very much be a middle grade story.
Every captain, with the exception of the villain, is 16 ish. They all went to pirate training school together. They all work together and become their own 'family'.
Everything was very easily accomplished, keys were stumbled upon without actually trying to find anything, there were side tasks completed easily and quickly, despite being in an ocean and having to be places.

I'll say 3.5 stars overall.

As someone who loved Bloody Jack back in the day and also the Grishaverse, this feels like a great mixture of the two. Would recommend to fans of either and those searching for adventure or those who are wanting a pirate story.

This book completely surpassed my expectations. The action started right away and didn’t stop. I went into this book blind, only knowing that there were pirates somewhere in the story. I’m glad the book caught my interest and hooked me from the start.

The characters are all so unique and it was three interesting reading the same story from three different perspectives! My favorite was probably Csilla, and OMG Lorelei completely shocked me. These ladies are amazing, strong, and much better than the male pirates.

The trails were super engaging. The constant backstabbing and life threatening moments made me want to keep reading! This book is perfect if you are looking for a fast paced, semi-romance story.

I have mixed opinions on this books. I wanted to love it so much, the description and idea had me instantly hooked, but I just didn’t find that much enjoyment within the novel itself. I jumped back and forth between really enjoying this book and disliking it. I found that it could be considered cringey at parts. I wanted to love this book so badly that I felt like I had to continue to force myself through it at times. But at the same time, I loved parts of this book and the interactions between characters.

Overall, this book was rated a 3/5 by me. It definitely could have been better at parts. ur overall, it was not awful, however much room for improvement there was.

I LOVE ANYTHING ABOUT A BOOK WITH PIRATES!! I fell in love with the idea of the tribals, I think it’s so cool!! I want to find more books that incorporate that idea. This book being a standalone definitely lacked in world building though, the plot was super simplistic as well. I do feel like this book would be better as a series rather than a standalone, but all in all I do recommend it was an easy read and it provides entertainment! 4/5 for me

I am not 100% sure about this one. It's a bit too simplistic for my taste. The idea and premise is neat, but it was just very... lackluster.

The first half of the book is a major info dump as well, and I couldn't handle that. I found myself skimming and growing bored and the thought of continuing a chore. Also, adding "fluffy" words to make your book longer and basically act as filler is a terrible way to go. This book felt like it was in it's drafting stage still, which was a real disappointment.

The young pirate connections were quite endearing, but I thought they were supposed to be more "ruthless" and coarse. There was also very minimal world building and I am left feeling lacking. The plot is very predictable as well and the overall story was poorly executed.

The pacing is very quick and we go from one event to the next too quickly. I felt a bit overwhelmed and left unsatisfied. And the romance was... cringe worthy. I felt whiplash between the book pulling me toward young adult teenage mutiny to childlike prose.

I wanted to love this book so, so much. Especially because of the absolutely stunning cover and amazing premise. But this was ... very poorly done. Unfortunately, I will not be recommending this book to readers, nor will I be adding it to my shelf.