Ashley Cornelius

It's definitely a sign.

It's a good summer book for me.

So then from the 2023 Summer Reading Guide, I picked The Adventures of Amina al-Sarafi by Shannon Chakraborty.

But this story starts with Amina al-Sarafi.

She's a former pirate, which former pirate, I don't know, any kind of adventure story.

I'm like, I'm in on that.

She's laying low in a remote home with her 10-year-old daughter when she's approached by a woman who says,

is really begging her and bribing her to come find her granddaughter who has been supposedly kidnapped.

And so Amina al-Sarafi gathers her loyal partners.

She has to rescue her ship and crew to take off and rescue the missing granddaughter.

And I love a quirky team gathering together for any kind of mission or adventure.

And this book is really sweet because even though they haven't seen each other in many years, their friendship and their support of Amina, I thought was really beautiful and fun.

I also love seeing a female character who's a mother too.

The fact that Amina is torn between her love of her work on the sea, which is funny to call it work because she's a pirate, but she's missing her daughter and wants to be with her daughter, but also wants to show her this good example of what it means to be able to do something different.

work that you love.

I just thought that really elevated this beyond just a typical adventure story for me.

Amina is also a little bit older.

She has difficulty with a bad knee, which I relate to.

I listened to this one on audio.

I really felt like the voice actor did a fabulous job of bringing this character to life.