This one... was ridiculous. Almost too ridiculous for me, but I do love me a silly goofy time on occasion, especially one that is SO queer and bright to read. literally no one in their right mind would EVER be against queer pirates, so hell yes to me!

Genuinely don't think I've ever been this conflicted about a book. If you saw any of my earlier reading updates, you know how much I struggled with this read. And while I somewhat came around somewhere just past the 70% mark, it really feels like a case of too little, too late to fully redeem my enjoyment of this book.

When I heard about a book that was compared to Our Flag Means Death, I was beyond intrigued. I've been chasing the high of that show for the longest time so I couldn't wait to snatch this one up. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the comp doesn't extend any further than centering queer pirates. That's it. This book lacks all of the warmth and emotional depth that made OFMD such a fan favorite. There's no exploration of insecurity, no journey of self-discovery, no freeing oneself from the shackles of the life they were expected to live. This book feels painfully shallow by comparison.

A lot of the depth and emotional growth that was missing in this story I largely attribute to how awful the main character is. I'm not sure if the author expected us to find him a charming scamp or something, but he's just downright annoying. He's sex-obsessed and immature and self-centered and insensitive. There's only so many sex jokes you can cram into one page before it becomes embarrassingly unfunny and extremely cringe. He fixates on certain characters and is determined to sexually harass them into giving him what he wants. He interrupts emotionally charged and dramatic moments between other characters in attempts to make himself the center of attention again. I lost count of the number of times I wished this were a book about Tev and Julian living in a world in which Avra just didn't exist.

I feel weird harping so much on one character, but that's really all there is to work with here. There's barely any plot and what little we get feels forced and rushed. This feels like the author had an idea for some characters and some jokes she wanted to write then had to come up with some half-assed storyline to barely string it all together and make it marketable.

I wanted to enjoy this book, but it just felt like an incredibly annoying mess. Great side characters can only carry a book so far when there's nothing else worth staying tuned for. Still desperately wishing this book had just been about science and piracy and Julian and Tev and the crew. Oh well.

This book is so much fun! Funny, romantic, gay pirates stuck in a comedy of errors! It's freaking fantastic.

A fun, joyful, sexy romp about an aspiring throuple of queer pirates - only one of them is an incredibly sexy monk with an incredibly inconvenient vow of celibacy. Perfect for the rabid Our Flag Means Death fangirl in me, and a fantastic Pride month read. Oh, and did I mention that this book is laugh-out-loud levels of hilarious? Loved every page. My only complaint is that it ended too soon. I need more! More queer pirate joy! More hot Julian! More dick jokes! MORE CAKE COMPETITION!

Highly recommend for anyone who has an Our Flag Means Death-shaped hole in their lives. That we'll never get season 3 is a travesty, but books like this one help. Especially when you imagine Avra as Lucius and Teveri as Jim. And Julian as Henry Cavil. Yes, he wasn't in Our Flag Means Death, but it's fun to imagine.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and Netgalley for the advanced copy of Running Close to the Wind! I finished this book, loved it, and then completely forgot to leave a review. Oops! Let's pretend that didn't happen.

Running Close to the Wind is a supremely funny pirate story set in the existing universe of Rowland's other books, which I'm also a big fan of. Set in the wake (ha ha) of A Taste of Gold and Iron and with a contrastingly anticapitalist set of characters, we follow Arashti spy and part-time poet (or is it the other way around?) Avra Helvaci as he escapes the country with some incredibly valuable information, stowing away on a ship and, lucky for him, running into his old flame, the pirate captain Tevari az-Haffar. Along with the rest of the crew of the Running Sun, they have to figure out what to do with the information, try not to get eaten by sea serpents, and most importantly, see who's going to fuck the hot new monk aboard the ship first.

Do you like stories about fundamentally silly characters who can still pull off being serious when the time is right? Do you like bawdy pirate stories? Do you like cake competitions?? Even if you don't, I dare you to not laugh at the shenanigans the crew of the Running Sun get up to during serpent breeding season. I've seen jokes about the next romantasy book being called "A Tangle of Tongues and Teeth", but how often does that tangle make sailing impossible for weeks on end? I rest my case. Go buy this book.

This book was silly fun. While set in the same world as A Taste of Gold and Iron, it is a completely different style of book, irreverent, crude and ridiculous but a rollicking good time as well. While there was a bit too many horny jokes and innuendos for my taste, I loved the characters and had a great time regardless so I recommend!

While I didn't love this as much as A Touch of Iron and Gold, I can see why fans of Our Flag Means Death and light-hearted fantasy novels might enjoy this one. The characters are voicy, the worldbuilding is expansive and interesting and the feels as vast and tumultuous as the seas. Funny and charming, this isn't a quick read but an enjoyable one.

This was so fun and had the authors signature writing style that was full of wonderful world building and fun to read characters

While I was a big fan of Rowland’s earlier works, this one didn’t hit for me. The characters felt overly childish and the stakes felt too low. I found it very difficult to care for the characters in the way that I wanted to, and that took me out of the story. Unfortunately, I put this down and while I may go back to it someday, I did not finish it.

I didn't enjoy the humor in this and found the tone to be a very jarring jump from Taste of Gold. Instead of feeling like embracing queer joy I felt like it was being very forced along with the bawdy humor that was just never ending

I really loved this author's last book, which was much more serious in tone, so I was really excited to see what they did with a lighthearted rom! Plus the cover is so appealing. Unfortunately, I was never truly pulled into the story because the stakes (despite being fairly high) just felt really low. And I found the main character to be a bit grating on me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland!

*Running Close to the Wind* by Alexandra Rowland is an exhilarating and imaginative fantasy adventure that blends action, wit, and rich world-building. The story follows a determined protagonist navigating a perilous journey, where the stakes are high, and the path is fraught with danger. Rowland’s writing is fast-paced and filled with vibrant characters, each with unique motivations and strengths. Themes of loyalty, identity, and self-discovery are explored with depth and complexity. With its engaging plot and dynamic character arcs, *Running Close to the Wind* is a thrilling read for fans of adventure, magic, and character-driven fantasy.

3.5
It's hard to imagine that there can be ever too much of a good thing but it's definitely the case in this book. This is a story about Avra, a 35 year old man-child with preternatural luck and a 15 year situationship with a pirate captain. When Avra finds himself in possession of some very valuable information he concocts a plan with Captain Tev to translate the information and sell it. This effort is aided by a super hot, super smart monk Julian that is helping them decode this information and is the object of both Tev and Avra's desire. It's a very silly book, full of dick jokes, and puns, insanely tongue in cheek and self aware. It reminded me of watching the deadpool franchise. It was a very fun reading experience on the whole but I think the book was just too long with too little substance. There were just a little too many dick jokes, it was too unserious seeing Avra continuously complain about not being able to "swallow Julian's dick like a python."I think if there were a few less jokes, and a bit more effort put into the plot and the development of the polyamorous relationship I would have rated it higher but alas. If you enjoy pirates, fun queer ensemble casts, and silly fantasy adventures it's still worth reading. It's just not life changing.

A delightfully low-stakes caper with a strong core of anti-authoritarian philosophy. Highly recommend to fans of the Penric series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Surprisingly a lot of frank discussion of sex but very little sex on page — but it is endgame OT3 and the kink is very much part of the character/relationship development.

DNF @ 20%

Honestly, I loved the premise of this book. I wanted to love it because I enjoy the Quest trope and treasure hunts. Plus, I was sold on polyam rep.

Unfortunately, the narrator is insufferable. From the first chapter, he made me hate him cause literally every other word out of his mouth is sexual or at least innuendo. He wasn’t funny or quirky, just one of the most obnoxious MCs I’ve ever read…though that scale is constantly shifting.

This book made me giggle out loud. The pacing get me running along with it, and I found that I couldn't put it down. I cared about the characters. I look forward to reading more from this author!

I haven’t laughed this much in a very long time while reading a book. I started it in audio but soon I switched to audio+ebook because there were too many parts I wanted to highlight (see all the photos for some of the best quotes). First of all this book is not a romance, it is set in a queernorm world and the MC is such a perv brat I loved him right away. The narrator had a way to make him sound whiny in a hilarious way and it was just perfect, fitting to how I picture him. A little monkey gremlin of sorts. Avra is the horniest man ever, he gets love and hate in equal measure from everyone he meets. His on again off again lover is a nonbinary captain who finds him insufferable but sometimes just can’t resist Avra’s charms. Between finding a way to prove and sell an invaluable secret, they also sort of fight for the very flirty monk with a celibacy oath. Julian in a hunk of a man and both Avra and Captain Teveri want him, resulting in some very hilarious screeching from Avra about Julian having shoulders, like how dare he be so handsome in front of them and not allow them to touch. Julian is clearly interested in both and he toys with them a lot; it’s hilarious because it’s enough for him to just breath for Avra to go to Teveri telling them that Julian is being a tease.
The main plot is about Avra stealing a secret and asking Teveri to help sell it, but to sell it they need Julian to decode the secret. The whole story surrounding the main plot is full of such random events: blue glowing dogs, horny sea serpents, the most unusual cake competition, Avra being the luckiest man alive, Teveri trying to resist Avra and failing, Julian having a very spicy secret past, and the most interesting group of characters.

I really enjoyed this book a lot but I wouldn’t have minded a few more pages after the ending. A short epilogue. But besides that I found myself entertained from beginning to end.

Oh this was so much fun. The literal definition of a romp. I laughed out loud several times and have never been edged so much in my life. 10/10

3.5 stars

This book is ridiculous. I literally had to put it down for a month after reading the first line it was so ridiculous. I still don't know if I would necessarily say I liked Running Close to the Wind, but it was an amusing experience.

I have to preface this review by saying that what this book is trying to do is not something that I generally like to read. I need my books to be more than just campy, unserious romps. That is not what this book is. That's fine! Good for the book! Not for me.

I do have to admit that this book is really funny. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times while reading. Captain Teveri's logs were my favorite part and I wish there were even more of them. The dynamic between the crew was entertaining and I liked the light-hearted pirate world Rowland creates. I was also really intrigued by Avra's possibly magic good luck

What Running Close to the Wind lacked, in my opinion, was balance and variety. Staying at a 10/10 wacky, unserious vibes for the whole book starts to get exhausting and redundant. The jokes get repetitive and overdone. Avra's personality and general lack of a filter get annoying. I just wanted something to develop over the course of this story. There is a vague plot surrounding "accidentally" stolen military secrets but it is stretched thin over many pages. Most of the book is just banter between the characters and sex jokes. The plot is so irrelevant that it feels like the book just ends randomly rather than coming to an actual conclusion.

But ok this silly, goofy book probably isn't trying to have a serious plot so surely there is some character development? Eh. There are one or two conversations where Avra, Julian, and Teveri negotiate their relationship, history, and feelings. But it doesn't really feel like that goes anywhere. If you squint maybe you can call Teveri's sudden attitude change character growth. What really frustrates me is how one-note Avra's character is. He is an absolute man-child who describes himself as a "flibbertigibbet." Because of this, I found him both amusing and insufferable. I wanted the book to do something with his character. Is his humor a defense mechanism and he has another side to him? Can he be serious when it comes to people he cares about? Is he actually way more intelligent than he lets on? You can read between the lines of a few scenes and maybe get hints that there is more to his character but that's pushing it.