This plot-driven sequel to The House of Windjammer (2003) depicts further adventures of 16-year-old Adam Windjammer as he evades pirates and engages in battles to restore glory to his family's name. After the financial ruin of the Windjammers, Adam sails to the Americas in search of his uncle's shipwreck. Meanwhile, Hector van Helsen, the power-hungry moneylender responsible for the Windjammers's plight, continues to search out ways to gain full ownership of their shipping company. In his quest for yet more money, van Helsen arranges to marry his daughter, Jade, to a powerful family. Jade, however, has other plans. To escape her father's tyranny, she disguises herself as a boy and embroils herself in the war between her father and the Windjammers. She eventually teams up with Adam by the story's end, although her motives are confused by her undying desire to earn her father's respect. Packed with sea-faring terminology and details about 17th-century Amsterdam, this is one for sophisticated younger readers who love a good adventure story. Another entry in the series is sure to be forthcoming. (Fiction. 12+)Read full book review >

Stronger on 17th-century historical detail than plot or character, this overblown series opener stars a dimwitted, unlikable Amsterdam teenager who suddenly finds himself heir to a family business tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. With conniving banker Hugo van Helsen pulling strings to complete their downfall in the wake of a disastrous trading expedition to the primitive Americas, the Windjammers need a miracle to save them. Leading a faintly Dickensian cast, sullen Adam Windjammer blunders about searching for such a miracle, having his fat repeatedly pulled from contrived fires by the far brighter and more competent Jade, Van Helsen's adventurous, neglected daughter—until, after many trite set pieces and clumsily introduced clues, the search becomes superfluous when the Windjammers' workmen voluntarily step forward to pay the family's debts. Right. Richardson sets the stage for sequels from the first chapter on, but few readers are likely to want to read them. (Fiction. 12-14)Read full book review >