Powder Monkey

13 year old Sam Witchall is desperate for more adventure in his life. He wants to escape his small village in a remote part of Norfolk and see the world, experience all the excitement of growing up as more then just a farmer or a school teacher.

He takes his chances and joins a merchant ship, ready for the fun of a life at sea. But he soon realizes that working on board a ship isn't always that easy with hard days scrubbing the floors and decks and not much room to move about or relax he finds that this life is harsh, especially when the ship is attacked by a French privateer, ready to kill all on board.

They fear that everything is lost and Sam is ready to believe that all hopes of living his dreams are over when a Royal Navy ship appears and scares the french into abandoning them. But the relief is short-lived when the ship sends out a press-gang to take sailors into their ranks to work for them and fight their battles, he is forced to join the Navy on board the frigate Miranda.

War with Spain and France is in full swing and Sam is caught in the middle, doing one of the most dangerous jobs on a ship, being a powder monkey. One wrong step, one fatal move and he could be blown to smithereens and to top it all off his crew isn't exactly the nicest around.

An amazing, exciting read that is hard to put down. It soaks you in and pulls you along in the history of the Napoleonic Wars, it lets you live in the adventures of one boy living at sea and makes you wish for more. Good thing there are two more in the series.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean or Master & Commandeer, or to anyone who enjoys an exciting, fast paced book. Although the writing can seem a little slow sometimes, aimed maybe more at a younger teenage audiences it is still exciting and a great read.

It's definitely a fresh breath after all the love stories circulating at the moment.