Steel by Carrie Vaughn

While other high school girls are cheerleaders or play volleyball, Jill Archer is sword fighting. Or fencing as it's called, and she's quite good at it. At least she thinks she is. Then Jill finds an old, rusty piece of sword sticking out of the sand during a family vacation and suddenly she is transported to a real life pirate ship! With no time to dwell on where she is and who these strangers are, Jill quickly adapts to life on the high-seas. But when a vindictive pirate begins to seek revenge on the crew she's with, will Jill finally get a chance to prove herself once and for all?

This is my first Carrie Vaughn reading experience, and I was so pleased that I moved Voices of Dragons up the TBR pile, and put the forthcoming After the Golden Age on my purchase list! Steel was fun and kept me on the edge of my seat with adventure. At first I thought Jill was entirely too quick to accept her fate aboard the ship, but she was still a uniquely strong female character. She never complained about having to work as hard as the others or whined about not having her modern day comforts with her. I liked Captain Cooper too, as far as nurturing-type female pirates go. The battle scenes were vivid and not over-done. Carrie Vaughn was not afraid to get bloody, but kept it to a realistic amount, which I also appreciated. She manages to choose just the right amount of words for her descriptions, providing exactly what I want to read and not over doing it. Girls will love this book because of Jill's heroics. Guys will love this book for the awesome bilge-rat pirate action. I highly recommend you give it a try!

Overall Rating: 4 Stars