Title: Cinnamon and Gunpowder
Author: Eli Brown
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Adventure, Historical fiction, Pirates
Pace: Fast
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2013
It’s not often that a book completely surprises me with its ending, but Cinnamon and Gunpowder most definitely managed it. It wasn’t a surprise in a bad way either. Rather, just… not quite what I was anticipating for the end of this novel. And, even if I was a little disappointed in the first instance, the more I’ve sat with this ending, the more I’ve loved it. There was a great feeling of contentment and calm at the end of this story that I have really enjoyed sitting in once I turned that final page. I love that there was a sense of open-endedness with the conclusion though. You can imagine all of the characters enjoying their hard earned rest, but that there’s potentially other adventures just around the corner.
One of my favourite things about Cinnamon and Gunpowder was the skill of description which Eli Brown employs. Particularly the descriptions of the food that he makes throughout. I love that amongst the swashbuckling adventures, the changing of morals and the insanity of the high seas, Owen Wedgewood is also driven to create culinary masterpieces. Each of these have just enough description in how and what he’s made that it is tempting to try and test myself in this culinary trend too. I won’t because I don’t have the time or energy to actually nurse a sourdough starter in my shirt. But, wow, did I enjoy imagining myself in Wedgewood’s shoes.
Every chapter of this book brings a new and intense swashbuckling adventure to the fore. I love that every character has incredibly unique drives and passions. And that each point of conflict (of which there are many) is driven by these vastly different characters. There’s also the fact that the understanding of what motivates each character is understood incredibly differently as the story flows forwards. Primarily this is because Wedgewood starts to move on from his stiff and restricted view of the world. From a very English and puritan viewpoint to one that is more accepting, loving and similar to more modern ideals. The fact that this viewpoint is drastically changed alongside Owen’s very obvious falling in love just made me love it all that much more.
It was immensely easy to fall in love with Wedgewood and his adventures. But it was also easy to fall in love with all of the other characters. I loved Mr. Apples, Joshua and the twins. But it was most definitely Mabbot who I was drawn to the most. Even at the beginning, when the descriptions of her were less than complimentary, they still made me absolutely adore the mad captain. I loved that even though, on the surface, her decisions seemed unnecessarily cruel and evil, the more you find out, the more you understand the logic behind her motivations. It made her drive to find and stop the Brass Fox that much more admirable and I love how strongly she helped Wedgewood change his opinion of the world around him.
This was a fantastic story that I absolutely devoured. The writing style was a little bit more formal than I have been reading lately, so I did take a little longer than usual. However, I really enjoyed this departure from my “normal”. I will definitely be looking to add some more Eli Brown books to my shelves in the near future.
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Earth and Skye 