Name: Blackhearts
ISBN: 9781481432702

Nicole Castroman

"A reimagining of the origin story of Blackbeard the pirate and his forbidden love affair with a maid in his father's house"--

Blackhearts

Sven Test

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights ReviewsI went into this story expecting pirate fights and action but what I got was Blackbeard's background, which I loved! I read a guest post on a blog about why Nicole Castroman wrote Blackhearts and I'm so glad I read this because then this story made sense to me and it was all the more intriguing.

Anne is a maid at the Drummond's household despite coming from a respectful family. Anne was a very determined character and awaiting with open arms her independence. She wanted to leave, to escape and in order to do so she had to steal from Drummond, risking getting caught and hanged. The thing is she isn't supposed to be a maid as her father was a merchant but her birth was kept a secret from the public due to her mother being a slave. She's ready to explore the world and find her mother's side of the family. Edward "Teach" Drummond arrives from a year at sea and he already wants to leave. All Teach wants is to be at sea but his father expects more from him, to stay in land and marry someone from a respected family. Anne doesn't want to fall for Teach because he's betrothed to someone else but Teach isn't giving up on Anne and what he feels for her.

Anne had never met anyone like Teach. He was arrogant and driven, as was his father, but at the same time Teach was not above gestures of kindness or consideration, traits he had no doubt inherited from his mother.

WHAT I LIKED:
The story was focused on both characters and their lives instead of simply Teach's life a.k.a. Blackbeard. This story is told in third point of view from both character's life. I have expressed before that I'm not a fan of third POV but I have to say the author did a very good job, giving equal spotlight to the characters and written in a way that wasn't a complete bore to me. Anne's life wasn't the easiest and the reader gets the full story behind what happened to her, not snippets of it or left to our imagination. She was a complex character and the author dove into her life as deep as Teach's life, who also wasn't the easiest one.

I enjoyed Teach's and Anne's conversations from the moment they meet. They are real with one another and express what they feel without holding anything back. Some of their banter was cute, at times unrealistic and somewhat cliché but I actually adored it. I guess that because everything was going badly for them, just reading about them being happy in each other's company was enough to make me root for them.

"Come find me," she said.
"Always."

Teach’s friend John was a great addition to the story. He was so fiercely loyal to Teach and we definitely need more of those in YA.

Having John as a friend was like having a big, vicious dog as your loyal pet.

WHAT I WASN’T A COMPLETE FAN OF:
This has nothing to do with the author’s writing or the story: Some side characters were demanding to be killed, I swear. I hated them with such passion and some of them got the better end from what they deserved.

THE ENDING!!! I'm holding out hope there is a sequel with a happy ending because I NEED IT! It cannot be left that way if it's a standalone. My poor heart will not accept it :( Drummond, Teach's father, finds out that Anne had stolen from him and also finds out about his son's relationship with Anne so he tells Anne he won't send her to be hanged if she leaves on a ship and leaves a note to Teach, saying her feelings for him were never true. But Anne's destination changes and is kidnapped. Teach finds out about all of this and sets aboard his father's ship, completely unrecognizable, in hopes of finding Anne.

"We could be on opposite sides of the world, but you would still be mine, as I am yours."

Overall, I really enjoyed this background retelling story on Blackbeard. I wish there had been more to it (see above) but it was a great story and the author did a great job writing her debut novel.

I received an eARC from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest reviewThis review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews

Tânia Borges

3.5 stars. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but that's probably my fault because I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 5 this week, so I decided to read this. Trust me, this is definitely not a book about pirates and badass stuff in general. It's a sad love story, and that's it. But I'm really hoping that this story will develop more in the next book.
The only character that I was interested in was Teach, and only because of the very last pages, which was when I truly enjoyed his development as a person/character. I was very much convinced I wasn't going to read the next books, but literally the very last page changed my mind. It wasn't bad, I just thought it would be different. I hope the sequel is better.

Viry

"We could be on opposite sides of the world, but you would still be mine, as I am yours.”
  

W O W. BEAUTIFUL. AMAZING. WONDERFUL. All the positive adjectives. I love this book so much and I cannot wait for the second book. There wasn't a lot of "pirate" aspects in this book but it really laid out the foundation for what is going to be an intense adventure in Blacksouls! If I had to compare this to other novels it would be a mixture of The Winner's Curse and Daughter of the Pirate King. Super fun, diverse, and the perfect amount of angst and twists.

twitter thread (kinda)
book aesthetic

Laura Springall

I’m not even going to bother writing a review. Just do yourself a favour and skip this one if you’re not a big fan of sexism, classism, racism, fetishism, slut-shaming, and fat-shaming (just to name a few of the issues I had with this book)

Blackhearts

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