Phoenix Rising by Bryony Pearce

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Stripes for providing me with this e-copy. 

Pages: 368

Publisher: Stripes

Released: 1st of June 2015

In a future world where fossil fuels have run out and democracy has collapsed, an outlawed pirate crew fight for survival on their ship, the Phoenix, kept afloat by whatever they can salvage or scavenge on the debris-filled seas. Toby has never known anything other than life onboard the Phoenix and he's desperate for adventure. But when trouble comes hunting the Phoenix down, Toby realizes that what you wish for isn't always what you want. He meets beautiful Ayla from the Banshee, a rival pirate ship and sworn enemy of the Phoenix, and his world is thrown into disorder. How can he know who to trust and what to believe? The future rests on him making an impossible choice...

What I Have To Say 

An adventure story with pirates in a future of survival and struggle? What more could anyone want!? This is very different from what Bryony Pearce has written before but her imagination has created a very interesting world, even documenting the progress towards that world with newspaper clippings at the start! I love the idea of pirates sailing around on waters that are dangerous to even touch searching for any supplies that they can salvage. 

Toby was a character who was easy to fall in love with straight away. His voice was strong and his longing for adventure was something that we can all sympathize with even if we aren't being forbidden from going on land. And he had Polly the sassy parrot for company. Who doesn't love a sassy parrot? 

And Ayla. Oh Ayla. I think I was in love just as much as Toby from the first moment he met her. A tough pirate girl for Toby to fawn over was definitely what the book needed. Especially as from the enemy ship! She really showed the contrast between the two ships and how they're run. 

I cannot wait for the next book in the series, to get back into that world. The only thing I think this book was missing is more insight into the other character's thoughts. I'd have loved to see things from Ayla or Hiro's point of views more. Or even Polly's! 

Fantastic coming of age, adventure story.