Week 1 Review: Blackhearts

From Goodreads:
Blackbeard the pirate was known for striking fear in the hearts of the bravest of sailors. But once he was just a young man who dreamed of leaving his rigid life behind to chase adventure in faraway lands. Nothing could stop him—until he met the one girl who would change everything.

Edward "Teach" Drummond, son of one of Bristol's richest merchants, has just returned from a year-long journey on the high seas to find his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn't love and sick of the high society he was born into, Teach dreams only of returning to the vast ocean he'd begun to call home. There's just one problem: convincing his father to let him leave and never come back.

Following her parents' deaths, Anne Barrett is left penniless and soon to be homeless. Though she's barely worked a day in her life, Anne is forced to take a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks, and Anne longs for escape. How will she ever realize her dream of sailing to Curaçao—where her mother was born—when she's stuck in England? 

From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn to each other, they're trapped by society and their own circumstances. Faced with an impossible choice, they must decide to chase their dreams and go, or follow their hearts and stay. 

My Review:
I had a really great time reading this book! I tried picking it up earlier, closer to when it was released, but didn't get into it at the time. But I gave it another go, and this time I kept going, and I really enjoyed reading Anne and Teach's story!

This is a prequel of sorts to Blackbeard. I don't know the original format, if it's based on a real person, or anything but that there was a pirate named Blackbeard and that he was feared. So I went in with no expectations going in-except that, since this is a duology, and he has that future ahead of him, that things would go wrong in the 2nd book. But I'm not there yet.

I read somewhere that Nicole Castroman describes this book as pre-pirate, and that makes sense. These are the events that made him decide to become a pirate, and are more set in England, with Anne being a maid in his father's household, so not a lot of sea-faring adventure.

I was a bit conflicted. On one hand, I mostly enjoyed Anne and Teach, as characters, and together. But on the other, I sometimes didn't. Like he's pretty aggressive, and she isn't initially attracted to him, so that was off-putting. Plus there's some conversations about purity, sexual advances, and goodness that were unpleasant. The good outweighed the bad, but the bad was there. 

This was a really great read, and I can't wait to read the sequel! 

Author: Nicole Castroman
Series: Blackhearts #1
Read: January 2nd, 2023
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really awesome! And it's a 2023 Retelling Reading Challenge, DAC Book, Historical Fiction 2023 Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2023 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: February 9th 2016

5/5 Hearts

3/5 Books

4/5 Stars