More of a Middle Grade and I didn't really enjoy it.

Hell and High Water by Tanya Landman was an exciting, satisfying adventure with an atmospheric setting based on the Devon coast and on real people and events of the eighteenth century. Plus, puppet shows!

The plausibility level was not always high here either, and yet with her storytelling energy and well-crafted language Landman managed to keep me engaged with her coming-of age story of a mixed-race boy with a mysterious past. Set adrift by the death of the man he’s always known as Pa, Caleb must try to unravel the secrets of his own origins as well as of his supposed father’s life and death. For fans of high-action, character-rich period drama by the likes of Philip Pullman and Leon Garfield, this will be a welcome new addition to the genre.

A tense historical, with a rich and diverse cast of characters. Full of twists and turns, with shadows and secrets behind every corner.

While I was really interested in this blurb and concept, this ended up feeling slightly flat. And I feel fairly bad for saying that, because there's nothing particularly wrong with this!! It's not a terrible book. It's just far too flat.

Hell and High Water is a historical fiction mystery about racism. That is a fantastic premise, isn't it? Do you see that full blurb? Mentions of Punch and Judy, mentions of England and the colonies... it sounds awesome. Unfortunately, I found the execution quite mediocre.

My major beef was just how flat this all felt. There's nothing particularly wrong with this book. But there's nothing shockingly good about it, either. I just felt like I'd read the same book five times before. I think this would be an interesting historical fiction starter, but as someone who's read quite a lot of historical fiction, this sadly didn't feel like anything new.

My Thoughts:

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc. I was excited to read this book based off the premise but the book did not live up to my expectations. This book drew me in because it was both historical fiction and a mystery. While this book is good it was not for me. If you like mystery and historical fiction give this one it might be the book for you.

Plot:

The book starts off with Caleb's father being sent to the colonies. He is then sent to live with his aunt and that is where the mystery part of the story begins. He finds a body washed up on the beach and now he has to figure out who it is. But because of his status no will believe him when he does find out who it is. The mystery was predictable at times but still good.

Characters:

Caleb is a well written character and he was one of the best parts of the book. The other characters added to the story and made it more interesting.

Another good pick that I found on NetGalley! The author writes in an excellent way, with interesting characters and full descriptions of everything going on. I confess I wasn't expecting to like this book much due to the cliche book title, but it really set me up for an exciting ride! Four stars!

I like this book and what it was about. It's hard for me to resonate with historical books even if they are fiction. Only because History isn't my thing. Besides that I loved this book alot