Steel by Carrie Vaughn

Reading Level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 304 Pages

Publisher: HarperTeen

ISBN: 978-0-06-154791-1

My Rating:3/5

Sixteen-year old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.
The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home-one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

'Steel' is my first Carrie Vaughn book. I was so excited to read it because it's about pirates and I love pirates! Although I gave 'Steel' a 3/5, I will still definitely be checking out more of her work because I love the way she writes. Everything flows together very smoothly. However, I was dissapointed with the book a little. I thought it would be more..."real-life" pirate like. Filled with tons of pillaging, booty, and fights. There was only really one fight and that was at the very end. And it didn't even take place between the main character (Jill) and the bad guy (Edmund Blane). There was no real pillaging. These pirates weren't even what my idea of pirates are. They are like, the robin hood of pirates. They free slaves from ships, they don't go pillaging, nothing. That was my biggest dissapointment with 'Steel'.

The storty takes place through a young girl named Jill. She's a teenage fencer. She loses a match-by a mere second-and naturally becomes sulky and depressed about the whole thing. She finds the tip of a rapier on the beach whil on vacation, and is sent back in time when she falls in the ocean with it. The pirates who find her rescue her, and take her on as a crew member on their boat, the Diana. The Captain is the "pirate queen" Marjory Cooper. IT's all a very good premise for an amazing book. I do love the story, it was fantastic. But, the lack of pirate-ness ruined it for me. Also, there were amazing set-ups that never went anywhere. The whole time I read 'Steel' I thought something magical would happen between Henry and Jill. It just felt like...he was there, they were friends, and then all of a sudden, she HAD to kiss him and that was it. Nothing. Jill is a likable character, so is Henry, Blane, Abe, all of them. They are all amazing characters.

Not everything about 'Steel' was bad. There was an incredible story line. There were some believable characters. But, the book, over all, left me wanting more. Which is never good. Unless it's a series and there will be a sequel. This is a stand alone book though. I will definitely be checking out more by Carrie Vaughn because, as I said, incredible writer. I just am not overly enthusiastic about 'Steel'. I would still recommend that people read it because it really has an amazing story. And, I might have been anticipating it so much, that it ruined it for me.