Book Review: Swept Up by the Sea

Review of Swept Up By the Sea, a romantic fairy tale

By Tracy and Laura Hickman

(c) 2013 ShadowMountain 

ISBN 9781609076610

 

9.95 E-book

A cunning and delightful mash-up of Pirates of Penzance, Princess Bride, and little Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and On Stranger Tides makes Swept Up By the Sea creates an ingenious  laugh-a-second suspension from reality break.

 

Labeled a fairy-tale romance, the Hickmans have created a cozy world where minotaurs and dwarves, nyads and dryads, djins, humans and pirates all live together by the sea.

 

Apparently engaged to Vestia, the girl next door, the naïve and silly Percival Taylor sets out on an adventure before he gets hitched, based on the advice of a suspect fortune teller. He soon becomes the romantic hero he thinks he is to the governor’s insipid daughter Tuppence and begins a rather involved quest to woo her, all the while being chased by Vestia, and used for their own mysterious purposes by the town shipwright and a professor.

 

Naturally there’s a pirate ship involved, a nyad who always wants just one more thing and the troublesome issue of finding their way back into a genie’s bottle, and—oh yes, fending off the ghost ship. Hearts are offered and won, lost things come home, gumption restored, and virtue is saved.

 

Adventure, romance, danger on the high seas…with touching moments as well as many humorous ones will keep readers who enjoy the causal and impossible fairy tale setting with a satisfying layer of reality turning pages as fast as they can—like I did.

 

Well done!

Announcing exciting new book: Swept Up by the Sea

SWEPT UP BY THE SEA….. It’s Pirates of Penzance meets Princess Bride

 

 

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

ISBN	978-1-60907-661-0

Children's Fantasy

17.99 Print

9.99 E-book

 

Determined to seek his fortune, Percival Taylor leaves behind his sleepy hometown and sets out to become a legendary pirate—only no one at the roguish seaport of Blackshore will allow him any- where near a ship!

Percival must find other means to win the heart of the beautiful Tuppence Magrathia-Paddock, who has mistaken him for a pirate rogue out of one of her romantic tales. She is entirely willing to swoon into his arms if he can prove his buccaneer soul—and she is willing to arrange her own kidnapping to prove it.

Percival eventually finds himself captain of a broken-down ship, complete with a crew of pirates who make their living selling fake treasure maps, a jilted fiancee, a reclusive Master Shipwright, and an old professor with a secret that could kill them all. It’s Pirates of Penzance meets Princess Bride as this motley group of characters sets sail for treasure and romance.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHORSTracy Hickman is a New York Times best-selling fantasy author who has published more than 40 novels, many of the co-authored with Margaret Weis. He published the first of his solo novels in 1995. Laura and her husband, Tracy have been collaborating on fantastic works of fiction since their marriage in 1977. Together, Laura and Tracy have written role-playing games, screenplays, and works of fiction, including their first co-authored novel in 2004.

 

 

My review will be coming later.....Lisa