Having narrowly escaped the Nazi bombing of their miniscule island kingdom, the young impoverished royal family of Montmaray is living in exile in England with their very wealthy aunt (A Brief History of Montmaray, 2008). Their lives have changed dramatically, as they are thrown unprepared into the world of upper-class society. But they also become embroiled in all the confusion of the perilous 1930s, speaking out against Fascism and appeasement and aiding children escaping from the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, all the while attempting to get help in wresting their home back from the Germans. Princess Sophie’s voice is true and clear in her journal, with syntax and tone spot on, as she writes with compassion of the upheaval, changing family dynamics and her own emotional growth. The novel is, in Sophie's words, a combination of the “Awful Bits” and “things that successfully distract one from the Awful Bits” in a world that “has been wound up as far as it could go.” The lively, charming characters meet challenges with pluck and ingenuity as well as a great deal of humor. Will modern readers get all the references to the real events and people? Perhaps not, but it won't matter, because the information is woven seamlessly into the plot. Multilayered and engrossing, Cooper’s tale alternates between frothy fun and heartbreaking seriousness with utter mastery. (author's note) (Historical fiction. YA)
Pub Date: April 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-85865-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
A promising premise let down by execution that leaves readers adrift.
An entitled heir to a viscountcy runs away to the high seas in this debut set in 18th-century England.
Stifled by the expectations of his emotionally withholding father, 17-year-old Christopher-Henry Mortimer Davenport, aka Kit, runs away the night before his wedding and talks his way aboard the ship Deliverance, which is about to leave Falmouth, not realizing that its merchant activities are less than legal. Luckily, Captain Reggie Sharpe, who’s from the Caribbean and has brown skin and locs, needs a new bookkeeper since the last one mysteriously disappeared, and he takes Kit on despite his snobbish attitude and lack of sailing experience. Kit spends several months working to win over the crew before discovering that he’s fallen in with pirates. Just as he’s found his footing in his new life at sea, a betrayal sends him back to England, where he must navigate shocking revelations without support from the sailors he’s come to rely on. Unfortunately, the portrayals and discussions of ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and social class differences lack depth and nuance. Sharpe has little personality outside of bossing Kit around, causing their romance to fall flat. While the book’s tongue-in-cheek foreword states that the author has “tweaked history” but “only as far as it will be entertaining,” the line between deliberate choices and inadvertent anachronisms is sometimes unclear.
A promising premise let down by execution that leaves readers adrift. (content note) (Historical adventure. 14-18)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781665984775
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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