The first half of the book I thought was good, maybe even 4 stars good. It had a well written story with good character development so you understood how Jacquotte came to be, and where her story began. The adventure and action had me interested and invested in the story and I enjoyed it up to that point. 

Then the second half happened. It was completely far fetched, unbelievable and frustratingly inconsistent with the characters, time period, and setting. 

Pirates in general but maybe especially during the “Golden Age of Piracy”, were brutal, violent, commanding and fearsome. Instead, Jacquotte’s character was naive, foolish, and soft. She would not have survived as a pirate but especially a female one where she would have had to prove herself even more so. 

There was so much modern gender, racial, emotional awareness, equality, etc, that was not a part of that time period. It felt untrue and really out of place for some of the dialogue and points of view. Most of that never would have even been considered - the disparity and inequality was just commonplace. Add to that women/wives with no experience making up the majority of the crew, running the ship like a democracy….and the constant brutal injuries that didn’t seem to impede anyone at all. It just made it feel like we stepped into a fairy tale. 

Again, could have been a great story if the time period and setting had been more realistic and accurate no matter how unfair or unfortunate or brutal it was. If it was divorced from the whole Piracy thing it would have been a fantastic story. But the two concepts opposed each other in reality. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.