Fable is what is best about YA fantasy adventure books. Enough action to keep your interest, strong feisty female lead, bunch of misfits who form an alternative family. There are some tense moments in the book but nothing that really has you on edge, it is definitely a YA book & sticks very much within its genre. I found it really easy to imagine the action like a film & enjoyed the sea setting. The characters are well set up for the sequel. I think, within it's genre, this is a great read & I'll be looking out for the next one.

Who doesn’t like a big fat juicy pirate story? Well me some times - but no matter because I loved this one! Fable was abandoned by her father on an island of thrives and pirates to fend for herself for 4 years before she manages to escape with enough coin to gain passage in the Marigold to confront him. Cue more adventures, swashbuckling crew and danger. This felt short. Fable is a strong heroine with cool abilities and I can’t wait to see how she develops further in the next book. There are a lot of intriguing questions/loose ends at this cliffhanger ending. I want to understand more about her parents, her sage gem abilities and what happens to the rest of the crew of the Marigold. I’m glad it’s a duology and I get to read the next book soon but I hope it’s longer! The author produced a fast paced, action packed book, that made my heart lurch in parts. Highly recommended. 4.25/5 stars.

Fable is an amazing adventure on sea, with likable characters and a strong female lead. Fable is the daughter of one of the powerful traders in the Narrows, an unforgiving sea. When her father leaves her behind on Jeval, a tiny island where everybody has to survive on their own, she is determined to return to him and make him give her what she is owed. When she finally escapes the island four years later, she tags along with West and his crew on the Marigold. Surviving the harsh seas and her father’s rivals while working with the crew of the Marigold almost seem like the worst choice when compared to Jeval. The writing in Fable is great. The characters mostly feel real and likable, the pacing of the story was good (enough moments to catch a breath, which is something a lot of books lack), and the story itself was predictable, but fun. World-building wasn’t very special, but there wasn’t some enormous magic system to explain, so that made sense. The world did feel very small, probably because only a few island were visited, while you’d expect more when a story takes place on the seas. The one thing that bothered me was the romance, it felt extremely sudden and random to me. There was no real build-up towards it, which made it a very difficult romance to believe in. The book ends with a great cliffhanger, making me want to dive into the second one right away. I can’t wait to read Namesake and I definitely recommend Fable to anyone looking for a fun and exciting YA fantasy novel.

I have spent the last few days doing everything I can to survive on Jeval, island of the thieves, aboard the Marigold in the high-risk narrows and bartering with all sorts of people just to stay alive. The world building, characterisation and plot of Fable by Adrienne Young are sensational. A novel that captivates you, dragging you beneath the surface and submerging you into the life of Fable, making you feel as though you are, in fact, the main character. Mostly set at sea, this book is an action packed adventure full of devastation, heartbreak and the tiniest bit of hope. It has secrets galore and keeps you guessing on who you can trust, the whole way through. There is a few mild gory parts, lots of fast paced moments where you just don’t know if the characters will manage and a villain that makes Cruella De Vil seem almost friendly. This is the first book in a completed duology and I can’t wait for the adventure to continue when I pick up ‘Namesake!’

I adored this book. I should start this review by saying I'm pretty obsessed with the sea and pirate-esque stories. I don't know where this obsession comes from but ever since I was little, I've just loved the water. One of my favourite memories is from when I was on holiday and I was just swimming and floating about in crystal blue water so clear, I could see all the way down to the white sand below on the sea floor (we were out at sea on a boat trip for the day). I just loved the feeling of how boundless the sea felt around me, water stretching out below and away on either side of me. So pretty much from Fable's first dive, this book hooked me in. My favourite part of this book was, without a doubt, how much time we spent on or around the water. I was a bit scared going into the book that the pirate 'life at sea' feel wouldn't play that big a role in the end up but luckily, it did. I loved the images created of Fable on board the Marigold. I've not read many pirate books and this book just solidified my love for them and the worlds they create. I fell right into Fable's world. It was gritty, treacherous and everyone was out for themselves, which made for extremely interesting and complex pirate politics. The characters were also another really interesting part of the novel. I loved that Fable didn't come across as a stoic, unfeeling heroine but, instead, her emotions sat pretty plainly on the surface. It provided a nice contrast to the harshness of the book. She just wanted to find a place where she belonged and I really empathised with that and felt for her. The relationship with her dad made for some very gripping, heartfelt moments as well. I do wish we'd got to know West a bit more in this novel but hopefully we'll get to know him better in book two. I also love friendship groups in stories so the fact there was a crew in this book was perfect - there were a host of different character relationships and I'm just so excited to see them develop more in the sequel. If anything, I just wish there was a bit more development with West's character and maybe some more development with other members of the crew, but I'm hoping we get that in book two. I also wasn't too sure about the way the ending came about but I do still really want to read on. Overall, I really adored Fable. The world of this book was just so rich and ended up really hooking me in - I loved the time I spent on the Marigold with Fable and the crew. The politics of the pirate world were unexpectedly quite complicated and the setting depicted the cutthroat and harshness you'd expect of a pirate world really well. Fable was such an interesting lead and I really loved following her through the book - she showed emotion and I really enjoyed that, especially when it was set against the harshness of the setting. I'm so excited this is a duology as well - I want to be back out at sea with her already!