Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

Some Spoilers

Synopsis:

After setting out to save her sister, Anne Crowley finds herself face-to-face with the notorious John Jacks, the son of a ruthless pirate captain. John Jacks thwarts Anne’s every move yet she finds herself attracted to the infuriating pirate.

Determined to find her sister, and resist the charming John Jacks, Anne and her band of pirates must search the high seas for clues to finding her missing sister before she’s lost forever.

Review:

As far as I am concerned…this is what fiction (literature that tells stories which are imagined by the writer) should be about.  From the very beginning I was in completely immersed, taken away to another time!

The flow of the story was effortless to follow. Characters defined well so that this reader could fully grasp the complexity of Anne! We learn early on that her father (the governor of South Carolina) has utilized unsavoury tactics to get where he is……he promised the pirate, John Jacks, his first child’s hand in marriage.  What does he do in the opening chapter but try and get Anna married off to Bradford Worthington…probably thinking this would thwart the promise made earlier to John Jacks.  Anna agrees to marry Bradford ….marriage without love….how sad.

The next day….Anne and her sister Jane are swimming in the ocean when they notice a pirate ship docking and decide to return home immediately.  Anne sends Jane on a head and by the time she gets home, Jane has been taken by the infamous John Jacks. As the protective big sis, Anne sets off a bit recklessly to rescue her sister.  And then the adventure ensues.

The only way to follow a pirate is to get on their ship.  So Anne sets out to do just that, by impersonating a young man in need of his first job on a ship.  It is intriguing seeing Anne’s deductive skills in how she will make all this work…getting employed by the pirate, fitting in with the crew (i.e.  not getting found out as a girl) and keeping these secrets until she has located her sister.  Now, not everything works out perfectly….hiccups occur and it is entertaining to see how Anne gets out of these difficulties.  Numerous times her plans don`t go according to plan, but boy can she think on her feet.

Needless to say, as time progresses, the upstanding prim and proper Anne disappears and Cutlass Anne (the pirate) emerges.  And I must say, I like the pirate Anne’s chutzpah.  I love her tenacity in accomplishing her goals for everyone she loves (yes…a romantic entanglement ensues).

The only negative and it isn’t actually with the book but with the synopsis, seems to be that the synopsis indicates that Anne was attracted to John Jacks, but in actual fact it is not John Jacks but his son, Flynn, that Anne is attracted to. And isn’t John Jack the actual pirate captain and not the son of a pirate captain.  Slight mix up in names …but frankly, it did not hinder my enjoyment in the least.

Overall, if you would like an easy, fun read with chuckles as well as a few pirate fights, then this is definitely a read for you.  This is the second book of H. L. Wampler that I have read and I have enjoyed both reads.

*OBS would like to thank the author for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*