Joe has had enough, and is off in search of his destiny. He knows he was an abandoned baby, so the old nurse and midwife and crabby sea fisherman he lives with are not relations, but he's done his last chore and is marching to his future – until he nearly falls down a cliff and breaks his arm, that is. Stuck back at home it's not just this wound keeping him there – he slowly realises just how many secrets there are that he's not being told about his birth parents. And, as the title and cover image kind of imply, there is more to his destiny than he could realise…

This was an enjoyable romp of a book, taking us back to the last couple of years of the eighteenth century, and the powerful weather and sea states of Nova Scotia. Joe's accident lets him discover an abandoned boat, that he could well do with for his future independence, but it's going to have to be used on something else first – something that was very real to our world, even if Joe and everyone else is created for these pages. That said, mind, he comes across very vividly, and even if there is not one word ever about whether any of the sailors, fishermen or oarsmen could swim, he, the threat of the locale and the historical drama he is due to meet with are all nicely evoked.

Joe is a smelly, illiterate but determined lad that we all get to like very much, and the speech of the people there and then seems to come across realistically, to this modern-day Brit at least. And the book could teach so many other authors about how to use historical settings – just deal with them, and don't hector us into worrying about poverty, slavery, their bad diet or anything. This is suitably free of all that, and lets us find Joe (and his sort-of-girlfriend) so much greater company for it. Aimed at 8-12s, it certainly hits the mark, and it really ought to be able to find an audience beyond the maritime Canadian regions the publisher inhabits. Definitely four stars.