Eleven-year-old Spindrift has lived with her grandfather above his curiosity shop ever since she washed onto Lux's shores as an infant, her parents lost in a deadly shipwreck. Her most prized possession is the crystal ball that was tucked into her boat the night the Masdevallia went down. Her life is shaken up, however, when the crystal ball finally reveals the genie-like entity within it, and a man wreaks havoc on Grandfather's shop, confessing to killing Spindrift's parents to obtain their wish-granting "black orchid." Consumed with a desire for revenge, Spindrift is determined to thwart the man's quest to possess the seven powerful orchids, of which her crystal is undoubtedly one. The ensuing high-seas adventure is one of magic, camaraderie, and revelation, as Spindrift and her two best friends follow in her mother's footsteps to find the elusive orchids. Old letters from her mother gradually reveal the dark side of obsession, which Spindrift herself must try to resist. Hand Trevayne's imaginative tale to fantasy readers and fans of Lindsay Eagar's Race to the Bottom of the Sea (2017).

Eleven-year-old orphan Spindrift discovers that a crystal ball containing an orchid can grant her wishes that affect objects, and that her mother died trying to locate six other orchids. Menacing Roland will stop at nothing to complete that same mission. The portrayals of Spindrift's loving relationship with her grandfather and the madness that controls Roland are almost convincing enough to persuade readers of the folly of possessing unlimited wishes.

An orphan comes into a fabulous inheritance only to discover that it not only needs defending, but is more a curse than a blessing.Raised by her enigmatic grandfather, who sells such magical curiosities as strap-on wings, 15-year-old Spindrift knows only that her parents died at sea until a strange customer's inquiry touches off a chain of astonishing revelations. It seems that the Seven Sages who created the world distilled their essences in the forms of orchids into seven colored crystal balls long ago, and one of them, a black one that can grant certain limited kinds of wishes, has come down in Spindrift's family. Moreover, after her grandfather reluctantly shares a trove of letters, she learns that her parents had set out to gather the rest but had been betrayed and killed by none other than Roland, the man who had come to the shop. Knowing that Roland already has five of the crystals—and also that they cause far more harm than good—Spindrift sets out both to recover the long-hidden sixth and exact revenge. Trevayne tucks in oblique clues, motif-building references, a neatly disposed-of bully, dark-skinned twins as allies for Spindrift (everyone else in the cast presents as white), a single encounter with an eerie street person, and other elements as if she were checking them off a list.Lots of tried and true bits capably, if somewhat arbitrarily, assembled. (Fantasy. 11-13)