Week 14 Review: Blacksouls

From Goodreads:

Nicole Castroman brings the dangerous pirate ports of the Caribbean to life in this vibrant sequel to Blackhearts —the reimagined origin story of history's most infamous pirate, Blackbeard.

Edward "Teach" Drummond is setting sail to the Caribbean as first mate on the most celebrated merchant ship in the British fleet—until he rebels against his captain. Mutiny is a capital offense and Teach knows it could cost him his life, but he believes it worth the risk in order to save his crew from the attacking Spanish ships.

Sailing on the same blue waters, Anne barely avoids the Spanish attack, making it safely to Nassau. But lawless criminals, corrupt politics, and dangerous intentions fill the crowded streets of this Caribbean port. Soon, Anne discovers that the man entrusted to keep the peace is quite possibly the most treacherous of them all—and he just happens to hold Teach's fate in his terrifying hands.

Life and death hang in the balance when Teach and Anne are given a dangerous mission. It's a mission that will test their love, loyalty, and devotion, forcing them down a path neither one could have ever imagined.

My Review:


Author: Nicole Castroman 
Series: Blackhearts #2
Read: March 31st, 2025 
Source: Ebook.bike 
Reason Why: Loved the first book, and it's a End of Series 2025 Book, Historical Fiction 2025 Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2025 Book and a Sophomore Challenge Book! 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: April 11th 2017

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Phase Out Your Seriesathon Update 25

So I've read my next book for the Phase Out Your Seriesathon, and it was Blacksouls which is for the prompt Black & White Cover, and I'll be reading The Dixon Rule next! 

My Reading Journey:

Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong

Prompt Fulfilled: Features Major Event

Started On: January 18th

Finished On: January 18th, 2:28 PM

Pages Read: 441

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

Prompt Fulfilled: Title has J, Q, X, Z-X

Started On: January 21st 

Finished On: January 21st, 9:41 PM

Pages Read: 554

Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani 

Prompt Fulfilled:  Last Letter First

Started On: January 22nd

Finished On: January 22nd, 4:28 PM

Pages Read: 355

Surrender of the Brutal King by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson

Prompt Fulfilled: Trio Of Trilogies Trilogy 1 Book 1

Started On: January 27th

Finished On: January 27th, 4:31 PM

Pages Read: 205

Sacrifice of the Brave King by Eliza Raine and Rose Wilson

Prompt Fulfilled: Trio Of Trilogies Trilogy 1 Book 2

Started On: January 27th

Finished On: January 27th, 8:26 PM

Pages Read: 289

The Dryad Storm by Laurie Forest

Prompt Fulfilled: Big Book

Started On: January 28th

Finished On: January 28th, 9:47 PM

Pages Read: 752

Return of the Vengeful Queen by C.J. Redwine 

Prompt Fulfilled: Finish

Started On: January 30th

Finished On: January 30th, 11:04 AM

Pages Read: 400

I Am the Dark that Answers When You Call by Jamison Shea

Prompt Fulfilled: All 5 Vowels In Title

Started On: January 31st

Finished On: January 31st, 2:00 PM

Pages Read: 336

The Bond That Burns by Briar Boleyn

Prompt Fulfilled: 75% Cover Must Be Fav Color

Started On: February 13th

Finished On: February 13th, 4:27 PM

Pages Read: 583

Sweet Obsession by Katee Robert

Prompt Fulfilled: Exactly 2 POVS

Started On: February 13th

Finished On: February 13th, 8:42 PM

Pages Read: 336

Charming Devil by Rebecca Kenney

Prompt Fulfilled: Excited For

Started On: February 14th

Finished On: February 14th, 2:17 PM

Pages Read: 384

The Dragon King by Penelope Barsetti

Prompt Fulfilled: Favorite Color

Started On: February 14th

Finished On: February 14th, 11:41 PM

Pages Read: 436

Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard

Prompt Fulfilled: No If, Of, And, An, But, Or, The

Started On: February 16th

Finished On: February 16th, 11:46 AM

Pages Read: 449

Scythe & Sparrow by Brynne Weaver

Prompt Fulfilled: Trio Of Trilogies Trilogy 3 Book 1

Started On: February 19th

Finished On: February 19th, 2:41 PM

Pages Read: 416

Chaos King by Kacen Callender

Prompt Fulfilled: BIPOC Rep

Started On: February 19th

Finished On: February 19th, 9:31 PM

Pages Read: 400

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

Prompt Fulfilled: Building

Started On: March 1st

Finished On: March 1st, 7:17 PM

Pages Read: 384

Shadow's Heart by Kresley Cole

Prompt Fulfilled: Pub In Last 3 Months

Started On: March 8th

Finished On: March 8st, 6:41 PM

Pages Read: 386

Lessons With the Mothman by Kathryn Moon

Prompt Fulfilled: 6 Or More Colors

Started On: March 12th

Finished On: March 12th, 7:58 PM

Pages Read: 295

The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

Prompt Fulfilled: Trio Of Trilogies Trilogy 2 Book 1

Started On: March 15th

Finished On: March 15th, 10:25 PM

Pages Read: 560

The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi

Prompt Fulfilled: Trio Of Trilogies Trilogy 2 Book 2

Started On: March 16th 

Finished On: March 16th, 9:17 PM

Pages Read: 512

Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen

Prompt Fulfilled: Finish A Series

Started On: March 24th 

Finished On: March 24th, 12:21 PM

Pages Read: 560

Rebel in the Deep by Katee Robert 

Prompt Fulfilled: LGBTQIA+ Rep

Started On: March 24th

Finished On: March 24th, 2:27 PM

Pages Read: 352

The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman

Prompt Fulfilled: Complete

Started On: March 25th

Finished On: March 25th, 3:42 PM

Pages Read: 512

Seduced by a Rogue by Amanda Scott

Prompt Fulfilled: Backlist

Started On: March 28th

Finished On: March 28th, 5:19 PM

Pages Read: 373

Blacksouls by Nicole Castroman

Prompt Fulfilled: Black & White Cover

Started On: March 31st

Finished On: March 31st, 2:01 PM

Pages Read: 400

The Dixon Rule by Elle Kennedy 

Prompt Fulfilled: Wheel Spin 1

Started On: April 1st

Currently On: Page 0 of 496

Prompts Left: Want To Visit, Single POV, Rep, Nature, Animal, New, Random Number, In Progress, Adapted, Colour Cover, Free, People, 5 Or More Books, Multi POV, Small Book, Cozy, TBR Vet, Title has J, Q, X, Z-J, Title has J, Q, X, Z-Q, Title has J, Q, X, Z-Z, Starts & Ends With Same Letter, 3 Or More POVS, Translate, In Progress, Wheel Spin 2, Series You Avoid 1, Series You Avoid 2, Poll Pick, Disability Rep, TBR Vet By Pub Date, 5 Or More Books 1, 5 Or More Books 2, 5 Or More Books 3, 5 Or More Books 4, 5 Or More Books 5, Birthday Month

Books Read: 25

Pages Read: 10670

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #605, January 9th

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #604
Teaser Tuesday #612
WWW Wednesday #612
WOW #608
Will the Time Come #605
Third Sentence Thursday #595
Random Reads #581
First Lines Friday #608
Book Blogger Hop #274

Monthly ARC's February Round Up

Monthly Series January Round Up

21 Books to Read in 2021 Update 31

22 Books to Read in 2022 Update 10
The Reward Challenge Update #590
Wheel of TBR #137
How Well I Stuck to It #442
Wrote that Review Update #439

Week 1 Reviews:
Tress of the Emerald Sea

Blackhearts

The Rotten Beast

The Fox Inheritance

Fox Forever

Tangled in Tinsel 

Their Little Girl

King of Battle and Blood

Queen of Myth and Monsters

Dragon Bones

Dragon Blood

Foreplay

Lovely Bad Things

Shadowhunters and Downworlders

Bout of Books: 

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Update 6

Update 7

Update 8

Update 9

Update 10

Update 11

Update 12

Update 13 and Wrap Up

Magical Readathon: Orilium: 

Year in Aeldia Sign Up

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Update 6

OK, so I got 47 posts in 7 days, and it was a pretty great week, I read a good amount of really great books, and I can't wait for this coming week! What about you guys? Happy reading!

So this week I want to read Hell Bent!

Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell.

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory—even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.

Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, magic, violence, and all too real monsters.

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

21 Books to Read in 2021 Update 31

Yeah, I read my next book for the 21 Books to Read in 2021 Challenge! 

So I read Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman from the Edelweiss List! 

Yep. Happy reading!

Here's the link to this year's post with my journey.

But to recap, I wanted to do a version of These Books Will Self Destruct in 12 months without the self destruct. I wanted to read books that I've had for a while, that I really needed to get read, but maybe I forgot about them or that I had them. So I made 3 lists, one for each way I have them, as physical books, as an NetGalley ARC, and as an Edelweiss ARC.   

Magical Readathon: Orilium Update 1

So I read my first book for Magical Readathon: Orilium, and it was Blackhearts which was for the prompt Turn Left, and I'll be reading Fox Forever next! 

My Reading Journey:

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Prompt Fulfilled: Turn Left

Started On: January 2nd

Finished On: January 2nd, 2:35 PM

Pages Read: 384

Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson

Prompt Fulfilled: Turn Right

Started On: January 3rd

Currently On: Page 0 of 320

Prompts Left: Turn Right, Turn Right, Turn Left, Turn Left, Turn Left

Read: 1

Pages Read: 384

Bout of Books Update 1

So yeah, I've finished my first book for Bout of Books, and it was Blackhearts, and I'll be reading The Fox Inheritance next!

My Reading Journey:

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Started On: January 2nd

Finished On: January 2nd, 2:35 PM

Pages Read: 384

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson

Started On: January 2th

Currently On: Page 0 of 304

Goals: 10

Read: 1

Pages Read: 384