
4 out of 4 stars
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On your marks, set, Sail! Adrift, by Charlie Sheldon, takes us adrift the Pacific Ocean, where we find the Seattle Express, a ship captained by Steve Procida, on fire. The crew then have no other alternative but to abandon the ship and get into life boats to try and save their lives.
William, the main character, finds himself on the other lifeboat form the captain’s which, unfortunately, gets lost in Haida Gwaii, his birthplace. With no news from him, Myra, Sarah, Tom, Sergei and Travis set out on a mission to save him. During this mission, they learn a lot about William’s past. On the other hand, Larry and Louise, the owners of a sinking business, risk everything to set out and try on their tugboat, Warhorse, to try and salvage the Seattle Express. They are, however, in competition against the powerful Buckhorn corporation who own the ship in the first place. They have to devise a sneaky plan and execute it to the letter. Will they find the ship in time to claim it? On the other hand, time may be running out for William. Will his rescuers find him in time? Only time, and Charlie Sheldon, will tell.
I found Adrift to be a well-written, fast-paced, thrilling novel. I was gripped from the very first page. Charlie Sheldon opens by the description of the fire and, therefore, immediately throwing us into the deep of the conflict. I loved this exposition a lot. The characters are also introduced immediately and it is done so well, that I almost felt like I had known them my entire life. You would not even imagine that this is a sequel to another book. You can read it easily even without ever reading the first book.
There was a lot going on at every stage in the book. This was another aspect that I enjoyed a lot. At all times, someone was in danger, another person was falling in love, another was falling in hate, and another was learning something new. In essence, Adrift has all the hallmarks of a great maritime novel: danger, guilt, love and adventure.
The only thing that I found a little disconcerting was the technicalities of the sailing business. There were some words that I had to look up in the dictionary. It was, however, not that big of a problem as the story flowed extremely well. It was also very professionally edited, as I only managed to spot one grammatical error. For these reasons, I have to give it the highest rating of 4 out of 4 stars. It is a novel that will be enjoyed by lovers of adventure novels and sea-based stories.
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Adrift
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