Booksblabbering || Cait❣️'s Reviews > Running Close to the Wind

A very conflicted three stars.

Avra has insanely good luck. Sadly, that means he keeps running into Captain Teveri, a pirate who has tried everything they can to get rid of Avra who is like an annoying, clinging cat, a piteous pup, a lecherous leech.
Avra, now a former agent for the intelligence ministry, seeks a mutually beneficial alliance with Teveri as he has recently stolen classified information that could change the tides ( get it ;)? ) of Tev’s crew.
Oh, and of course, there’s an unfairly hot priest on board who has taken vows of celibacy. Avra has taken an oath to get in his pants.

”Therefore I will point out, to my great regret, that it is more prudent to wait on the matter of beating him up and leaving him for dead until we have a contract for the sale in hand. At which point, we can maybe just butcher him and sell the meat to Eel-Face Yusin as some weird kind of fish.”

The main character was INFURIATING. He is a self-proclaimed flibbertigibbet and just won’t shut up. Which I normally love. But he’s also a 35-year-old man who refers to himself as a ‘poor little slut’ multiple times.
Avra is, simply put, pathetic and annoying. He has zero filter, no intelligence, and one heck of a sex drive. Like he is unbelievably horny all the time. Yet he is oddly entertaining, like a train wreck you can’t tear your eyes from.

”In the last two days, I have been through more than any silly little slut should ever have to go through!"

Thankfully, Tev is a lot easier to root for. Gender non-conforming, done with everyone’s crap (understandable), broody, witty, and seemingly nursing a dark past.
Also, he writes the best inventory entries, ship logs, and diary accounts which end and start each chapter!

This book is just bizarre. Absolutely whacky.
Turtle astrology. Sea serpents. Glowing, blue dogs. Cake competitions… Like 20% of the book is a cake competition where they trade insults.

So this book is like its main character - infuriating, long-winded, yet utterly addictive and hilarious.
This kept going between two, three, or four stars! 🌟

Would I recommend this? Kinda? I had a fun ride but I also wanted to scream and rip my hair out.

”And we're all going to try to get through this with our so-called friendships and sanity intact until we can fuck Arast over and die in a blaze of glory."

Thank you to Pan MacMillan for providing a physical arc in exchange for a review!

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