Hiya bookworms, today I am going to be reviewing a book that I won in a goodreads giveaway! It is called Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook. This is the author's debut! Thank you to the publisher for gifting me this copy that I won! All opinions are my own. Let's get into it!
This was quite an exotic setting to me for a historical fiction book, which I love! I love when historical fiction books have unique settings. This book is set in Western Australia in 1886. The place is fictional, called Bannin Bay, but the author modeled it after similar real bays in Australia. We follow Eliza Brightwell as our main character, daughter of a pearl diving ship captain. The pearling industry was HUGE at this time of history and one of the things I appreciated in this book was learning so much about it and how the author honored and respected the mistreated crew and divers in the pearling industry. That was very respectful.
Eliza is independent and dances to the beat of her own drum. She dislikes having to do lady-like things for the era and is quite smart about her family's pearling business. I like her character a lot because the girl doesn't just talk the talk but also walks the walk! She gets stuff done! And is very determined. At one point in the book she basically braves a hurricane on a ship with just two other people to achieve her mission. The plot of the story starts with her father's disappearance. He disappeared from his ship while they were out at sea. Nowhere to be found. Everyone becomes a suspect, including her worthless, troublesome brother, and the story goes from there. With the help of Axel, a German adventurer, Eliza dives into the dark and seedy side of the pearling industry to uncover secrets and find her dad.
The setting and story enchanted me. I learned so much about the different animals and plants, pearls and history. It was so cool. However, I hated all of Eliza's family and most of the other people in the town except for her friends Axel, Min, Knife, and the missionary priest. The rest were just awful people. Including her own family. Her dad was a dummy, her brother was an idiot, her uncle and aunt were horrid. Eliza deserved so much better in my opinion. Reading about these losers causing chaos for Eliza made me really annoyed and just took me out of the story and place. I didn't enjoy it how I wanted to. The plot line could be confusing at times as well, lots of finger pointing and twists and turns.
I gave this three out of five stars. Great setting and plot, horrible characters, confusing at times. Overall a solid good debut, I'm very interested in reading more from this author. I hope she chooses another cool setting for her next book. I do recommend this book if you like turn of the century adventures, Australia, or cool settings. But if you get exasperated with characters, then be warned. But all in all, a good book! Happy reading and until next time, have a groovy day!
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