Book Blurb:

A seafarer driven to conquest. A dash to the shore’s bitter end. What hope might arise from the ruin of wrecked dreams?

Fourteen-year-old Swift loves the study of medicine. His interest is almost a match to his fascination for sea myths—particularly for the Star of Atlantis, a lost relic from Welsh pirate history.

In struggling to “grow up,” Swift sets his sights on competing for a seat in a highly selective internship, for young students aspiring to someday read medicine, until…

Swift’s former best friend, Ash, discovers a centuries old pirate treasure. And on sickening interviews, Ash reveals that his discovery contains a clue to the whereabouts of a treasure far greater: the legendary Star of Atlantis.

To chase his oldest dream and lay his hands on the Star of Atlantis, Swift must cobble together the few clues that hint where it might rest. If he’s to beat Ash to the treasure, he must put his sailing skills to the test, contending with treacherous Welsh sea coves and caverns.

And he must size up his own fortitude, his own capabilities, or lack thereof— for the search for the Star of Atlantis might mean lost friendships, lost dreams, and even lost life.

I received this book from the author via BookSirens. All comments and opinions are entirely my own and this review is voluntary.

Rayleigh’s Review:

Swift has reluctantly given up his dream of treasure hunting to “grow up” and pursue medicine, at the ripe age of 13 (he turns 14 in the book) due to his father’s pressure and his brother’s encouragement. But when a best-friend-turned-enemy finds a lead on his heart’s desire, The Star of Atlantis, he dives back into his treasure hunting passion headfirst determined to beat his rival.

Just as with the first book, The Strider and the Regulus, the prose of this book is beautiful and allegorical. It’s more of a boy facing the challenge of growing up than an adventurous tale, but it is written very beautifully and I love the descriptions.

The problems I have with this duology are too big to be looked over though. First, they should have never been split into separate books. Both books are between 150 and 190 pages, which together make the average size of a regular book. The Star of Atlantis (book 2) picks up immediately after the first book and most of the things addressed in book two should have been answered in the first one (seriously, the whole first book deals with Swift’s decision on medicine, and he doesn’t answer that question until chapter two of the second book). There was no reason to split them up because splitting them up made them both feel incomplete; the first book had no resolution and the second book only had resolutions to problems introduced in the first one. They are two parts to the same book, not two books in a series.

The other major thing that I can’t look over is the amount of manipulation that the brothers and the father, Justus, used to get Swift to make his decision. Throughout the whole book, I was hoping that Swift wouldn’t give in to their pressure and that he would choose to chase his own dreams. His father infuriated me the most, but even the brothers, in their constant cutting down and telling him how useless his passion was and wasteful his dreams were, made me angry. This family did not support Swift unless he succumbed to their wishes and what they “knew” him to be best at. They didn’t listen to him unless it was to twist his words against him. The whole issue was manipulative, just like in the first book, and I’m not okay with that being how Swift came to choose medicine–believing that it was his own passion, when it absolutely wasn’t.

Overall, I loved Swift, and I loved his passion for the sea and treasure. Again, I thought the book was written with beautiful prose and very emotional descriptions, I just don’t agree with the ending resolutions and I have some very strong feelings against the methods of Justus and Swift’s brothers.

Rated: