Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: Harbor for the Nightingale (Stranje House #4) by Kathleen Baldwin

Book info:

Title:  Harbor for the Nightingale
Author:  Kathleen Baldwin
Series:  Stranje House #4
Genre:  YA Historical fiction, alternate history
Release Date:  September 26th, 2019
Publisher:  Ink Lion Books
Source:  E-galley from Rockstar Book Tours which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:

Harbor for the Nightingale is the highly anticipated fourth installment in the popular award-winning Stranje House YA series! #1 New York Times best-selling author Meg Cabot calls this romantic Regency adventure series "completely original and totally engrossing."

"Enticing from the first sentence." --New York Times Sunday Book Review on A School for Unusual Girls

"Baldwin has a winning series here: her characters are intriguing and fully rendered." --Booklist, on Refuge for Masterminds

It's 1814. In this alternate history, Napoleon has forced Europe to its knees, and now he plots to seize control of Britain.

Maya brings the mystery of India with her...

With her friends' lives in deadly peril, Miss Maya Barrington, one of Miss Stranje's unusual girls, must serve as a double agent. To do so, she gains entry into Napoleon's duplicitous game on the arm of the enigmatic Lord Kinsworth. She can read almost everyone; not so with this young rascal. Quick with a jest and armed with lethal charm, Kinsworth remains just beyond her reach. Can she trust him?

With Britain's future at risk and those she loves in deadly peril, Maya questions everything she thought she understood about life, love, and loyalty.

Fans of genre-blending, romance, and action will love this speculative history Regency-era novel filled with spunky heroines, handsome young lords, and dastardly villains--fourth in the Stranje House series. Don't miss the first three books: A School for Unusual Girls, Exile for Dreamers, and Refuge for Masterminds

"An outstanding alternative history series entry and a must-have for teen libraries." --School Library Journal on Refuge for Masterminds

"This alternative history series will appeal to fans of Gail Carriger's works and The Cecelia and Kate novels by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer." --School Library Journal on A School for Unusual Girls

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Kobo

My Review:
I am such a huge fan of this series and had been waiting so long for the next book to come out.  I was not disappointed in this next installment in the story.  In fact, it's left in such a way, that while not a cliffhanger exactly, we're still left needing to know how things will go on.  Even though this is actually a bit of an alternate history, there are still those traces of actual history that make me want to go read the true story to know how exactly things did go in real life.  We've still got all our usual characters, both the good guys and the bad guys.  We do have a new romance this time, of course, and I really like how it played out.  I love this extra sense that Maya had, but it was even more exciting when it seemed as if maybe other people had it as well, ones you might not have imagined.  The royal intrigue was spot on as usual, and the action was a constant character in the story as well.  As I have already said, another great chapter in the Stranje House series, and I am excited for Sera's story next!

Title: REFUGE FOR MASTERMINDS (Stranje House #3)

Author: Kathleen Baldwin

Pub. Date: May 23, 2017

Publisher: Tor Teen

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook

Pages: 352

Find it: Goodreads,  Amazon, Kindle,  Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

My Review

It’s 1814. Napoleon has escaped his imprisonment on Elba. Britain is at war on four fronts. And at Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, five young ladies are secretly being trained for a world of spies, diplomacy, and war…

Napoleon’s invasion of England is underway and someone at Stranje House is sneaking information to his spies. Lady Jane Moore is determined to find out who it is. If anyone can discover the traitor, it is Jane—for, according to headmistress Emma Stranje, Lady Jane is a mastermind.

Jane doesn’t consider herself a mastermind. It’s just that she tends to grasp the facts of a situation quickly, and by doing so, she’s able to devise and implement a sensible course of action. Is Jane enough of a mastermind to save the brash young American inventor Alexander Sinclair, her friends at Stranje House, and possibly England itself?

Title: EXILE FOR DREAMERS (Stranje House #2)

Author: Kathleen Baldwin

Pub. Date: May 24, 2016

Publisher: Tor Teen

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle,  Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

My Review

A School for Unusual Girls is the first captivating installment in the Stranje House series for young adults by award-winning author Kathleen Baldwin. #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot calls this romantic Regency adventure "completely original and totally engrossing."

Tess can't run far enough or fast enough to escape the prophetic dreams that haunt her. Dreams bring nothing but death and grief, and Tess refuses to accept that she may be destined for the same madness that destroyed her mother. Until her disturbing dreams become the only means of saving Lord Ravencross, the man she loves, and her friends at Stranje House from Lady Daneska and her lover, the Ghost-agent of Napoleon, who has escaped from Elba. Can the young ladies of Stranje House prevail once more? Or is England destined to fall into the hands of the power-mad dictator?

"Enticing from the first sentence." -New York Times Book Review

A School for Unusual Girls is a great next read for fans of Gail Carriger's Finishing School series and Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin series. 

Title: A SCHOOL FOR UNUSUAL GIRLS (Stranje House #1)

Author: Kathleen Baldwin

Pub. Date: May 19, 2015

Publisher: Tor Teen

Pages: 352

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook

Find it:  Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

My Review

It’s 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don't fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies—plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.

After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible—until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads—or their hearts... 

About Kathleen:

Award-winning author, Kathleen Baldwin, loves adventure in books and in real life. She taught rock climbing in the Rockies, survival camped in the desert, was stalked by a mountain lion, lost an argument with a rattlesnake, enjoyed way too many classes in college, fell in love at least a dozen times, and married her very own hero. Together they’ve raised four free-spirited adventurous children.

SCHOOL FOR UNUSUAL GIRLS is her first historical romance for Young Adults. Awarded 2016 Spirit of Texas, it is also a Junior Library Guild selection. Publisher’s Lunch listed it in 2015 YA BookBuzz. Scholastic licensed it for book fairs. Ian Bryce, producer of Spiderman, Saving Private Ryan, and other notable films optioned the series for film.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot calls Kathleen’s romantic Regency adventure, “completely original and totally engrossing.”

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

 
Giveaway:

• 1 winner will receive a finished copy of Harbor for the Nightingale.  US Only. 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Week One:

9/23/2019- Caffeine & Composition- Excerpt

9/24/2019- Dazzled by Books- Excerpt

9/25/2019- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

9/26/2019- Wishful Endings- Review

9/27/2019- Fire and Ice- Review 

Week Two:

9/30/2019- Don't Judge, Read- Interview

10/1/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Review

10/2/2019- Lisa Loves Literature- Review

10/3/2019- Book Briefs- Review

10/4/2019- BookHounds YA- Interview

Review: Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill

Book info:

Title:  Within These Lines
Author:  Stephanie Morrill
Genre:  YA Historical Fiction
Release Date:  March 5th, 2019
Publisher:  Blink YA
Source:  ARC received from publisher which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
Evalina Cassano’s life in an Italian-American family in 1941 is everything it “should be” until she falls in love with Taichi Hamasaki, the son of Japanese immigrants. Despite the scandal it would cause and that inter-racial marriage is illegal in California, Evalina and Taichi vow they will find a way to be together. But anti-Japanese feelings erupt across the country after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Taichi and his family are forced to give up their farm and move to an internment camp.

Degrading treatment make life at Manzanar Relocation Center difficult. Taichi’s only connection to the outside world are treasured letters from Evalina. Feeling that the only action she can take to help Taichi is to speak out on behalf of all Japanese Americans, Evalina becomes increasingly vocal at school and at home. Meanwhile, inside Manzanar, fighting between different Japanese-American factions arises. Taichi begins to doubt he will ever leave the camp alive.

With tensions running high and their freedom on the line, Evalina and Taichi must hold true to their values and believe in their love to make a way back to each other against unbelievable odds.


My Review:
Although this one actually started off slow for me, and I was unsure if I would like it, it really redeemed itself in the end.  I usually love historical fiction like this, especially when it is about certain parts of history that I only know the bare minimum about.  To be honest, the only thing I really  knew about the Japanese detainment camps during WWII had to do with what I'd learned from one of the characters in the original Karate Kid movie.  Yeah, I know, that's sad.  I'm sure I learned other things in school, but that is all that stuck with me.  

The book started out seeming like it was just going to be a pretty simple romance story with some of the historical times that it was set in. But once we got to the point where Taichi got sent to the camp, it really got into what resonated with me.  The fact that here in America we would start a camp, and run it, almost as bad as what the Nazi's were doing in Germany, frustrates me. However, the book reminded me about how the press made sure to only cover what made it look like the camps were nice relaxing, fun places.  That the truth of the matter wasn't really shown.  That kind of detail is so relevant in today's world, when we hear about fake news, and you hear that governments or companies, want to control what is reported.  

But it wasn't just the Japanese interment camp parts that this book really brought up.  There was also the bit that Evalina had to deal with not only as a female, but also as a minority in the country at that time as well.  The fact that inter-racial marriage was so illegal at that time, so much more than really ever occurred to me, a very sheltered girl when I was growing up in the suburbs of the 80s.  

Overall this was a great historical fiction for teens, and I look forward to putting it in my school library for my students to read. 
 

Book Blitz with Giveaway: The Winnowing (Stanley and Hazel #2) by Jo Schaffer

Book info:
Title:  The Winnowing
Author:  Jo Schaffer
Series:  Stanley and Hazel #2
Published by: Month9Books
Publication date: February 26th, 2019
Genres: Historical, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Darkness descends over St. Louis, a city already rocked by the Great Depression. More and more people are disappearing, and some have turned up dead.  A sinister secret society is putting forward their plan known as “The Winnowing,” designed to wipe out those they consider “undesirable.”

After Stanley and Hazel foil the diabolical plans of Charles Chouteau, they become instant celebrities. Hazel is thrust into the role of debutante, and risks loses herself in it. Meanwhile, Stanley must deal with the horrific tragedy of his best friend’s death while being threatened by the unseen forces of the Veiled Prophet.

With things spiraling out of control, Stanley and Hazel’s relationship is tested, possibly beyond repair. As bodies pile up, people become more desperate. The divide between wealthy and poor grows ever wider, threatening to tear their worlds apart. Now, the two must find a way to work together if there is any hope at all of saving their relationship and their futures.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Kobo / Google Play

—

EXCERPT:

“Where do you go, Hazel Malloy?” Gabriel said in her ear.
“What?”
“I can feel you thinking hard.” He chuckled.
Hazel smiled. “I like this song,” she said, embarrassed as though he could actually tell that he’d caught her thinking about him.
“I do too.” He pressed his cheek to hers, and she let him.
As the song ended, there was a slight disturbance from the far end of the room. Hazel glanced up, and her heart paused.
Bananas.
Stanley stood in the entrance of the conservatory, tall and suited up, a hard look on his face, one eye almost swollen shut. He was flanked by some of his Knights, looking rough and out of place in suits, smirks on their faces as they scanned the room. It was like Eliot Ness and his Untouchables about to raid.
The “good people” of St. Louis stared uneasily and made way as the boys stalked into the room. Hazel sometimes forgot what they must look like to everyone else. They were a tough looking lot, battle scarred, and imposing.
The song ended and in the pause before the next one began, Stanley took long strides across the room, toward where Hazel and Gabriel stood, still holding hands.
Stanley’s eye twitched. “Heya, Haze.” He tilted his head toward Gabriel. “If it isn’t soft slugger trying to get to first base.” His jaw flexed, and he breathed in through his nose, and Hazel knew he was counting to ten.
Gabriel released Hazel’s hand and calmly replied, “Good to see you, Fields. You clean up nice.”

Author Bio:

Jo Schaffer was born and raised in the California Bay Area in a huge, creative family. She is a YA novelist, speaker, writer at Patheos.com, works in film production and is a Taekwondo black belt.

She's a founding member of Writers Cubed and co-founder of the Teen Author Boot Camp, one of the largest conferences in the nation for youth ages 13-19. She and a crew of local and international bestselling authors present writing workshops to hundreds of attendees at the Utah-based conference as well as hundreds of others worldwide who view the conference online.

Jo loves being involved in anything that promotes literacy and family. She is passionate about community, travel, books, music, healthy eating, classic films and martial arts. Her brain is always spinning new ideas for books and sometimes she even gets around to blogging.

Jo is mom to three strapping sons and lives in the beautiful mountains of Utah.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Cover Reveal with Giveaway: Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen

Today Jennieke Cohen, Epic Reads, and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover and a note from Jennieke about the cover for DANGEROUS ALLIANCE, her debut YA Historical Book which releases on December 3, 2019! 

Check out the awesome cover and enter the giveaway!

On to the reveal!

Title: DANGEROUS ALLIANCE

Author: Jennieke Cohen

Pub. Date: December 3, 2019

Publisher: HarperTeen

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon

Lady Victoria Aston has always been just as comfortable in a pair of breeches stolen from her father as she has in satin ballgowns decked in lace. And though she is perfectly capable of minding her manners in polite society, she doesn't much see the point. With an older sister happily wed and the future of her family estate secure, she is quite content to while her time away in the fields around her home.

However, Vicky’s comfortable, idyllic life is overturned in the course of one night. Her sister’s husband is a terrible cad and now Vicky must marry, or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, she enters society’s season in a flutter of silks, dances, and pretty words.

But Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky’s particular circumstances: whether the gorgeous and roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend—the much-grown and very handsome Tom Sherborne—is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the bright-orange waistcoat.

Most unfortunately of all, Vicky’s books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her. Accidents that have her wondering if there’s someone trying to prevent a match from being made…or prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.

Note about the cover from Jennieke:

When I got the concept art for DANGEROUS ALLIANCE’s cover, I was thrilled with what designer Jessie Gang had come up with. I’m a little like Elle Woods from Legally Blonde in that pink is my signature color, so the palette was just what I’d hoped for. When the final cover made it to my inbox, my heart sped up as I saw how it had all come together. The artist, Kasi Turpin, did a beautiful job creating the font and I just love how the line through the “A” forms the top of an upside down heart and draws attention to the tagline. The cameo silhouette also happens to be perfect for my main character, Vicky, while still allowing readers to picture her for themselves! I can’t wait to see what it looks like on the shelves, and I hope people love it as much as I do!

About Jennieke:

Jennieke Cohen (JEN-ih-kuh CO-en) is used to people mispronouncing her name and tries to spare her fictional characters the same problem.  She studied English history at Cambridge University and has a master’s degree in professional writing from the University of Southern California. When not writing or researching little-known corners of history, you'll find her singing opera arias and show tunes, over-analyzing old movies, or discovering the best foodie spots in her native Northern California. Read more on Jennieke’s website www.JenniekeCohen.com or find her on Twitter or Instagram @Jennieke_Cohen

Website |Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will win an ARC of DANGEROUS ALLIANCE, US Only.

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Book Bitz with Giveaway: Breaker and the Sun (Paper Stars #2) by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Book info:
Title: Breaker and the Sun
Author:  Lauren Nicolle Taylor
Series:  Paper Stars #2
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: May 8th, 2017
Genres: Historical, Young Adult

Times means nothing. It’s just the sun and moon changing places.
New from Lauren Nicolle Taylor, the best-selling author of Nora and Kettle, comes a fresh take on a classic tale.
Breaker Van Winkle is a recently returned Vietnam vet, struggling with PTSD and the difficulties of readjusting to civilian life with his mother. Sunny is a high-achieving eighteen-year-old Chinese-French immigrant who fled Vietnam during the war. Sunny is usually as cheerful as her name implies, but she has her struggles too. Haunted by violent memories of the bombing that killed her parents, and chafing under the rule of her eccentric grandmother, she finds solace deep in the Catskills, at a place she calls the Ugly Tree.
When Breaker stumbles upon Sunny and the Ugly Tree, things start to change. They are drawn to each other, and feel called to the tree. As they spend more time together and their relationship deepens, they notice that their time at the tree is becoming twisted somehow. Sunny’s mind yawns and her ambitions begin to slip away. Breaker feels safe and carefree, his memories finally burying themselves in the distant past. They are being lulled toward a tempting, peaceful sleep—but there is a cost to this magical serenity, and it may be more than either of them can bear…

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / iBooks / Kobo

—

EXCERPT:

ONE GOOD MEMORY

BREAKER

An older man in full uniform approaches us, looking stern and judgmental. He frowns at Tien, and I feel like I want to stand and defend him. Tien stands and salutes the older man, whose crinkly face cracks into a smile. “No need to stand on ceremony here, Tien,” he says gruffly, ruffling his spiky black hair. Then he looks at me. “Don’t let his looks fool you! Tien will take care of you. He’s one of the good guys.”

I frown then. Not sure how to take that. Tien doesn’t seem to mind though.
When the old guy is gone, I nudge Tien. “Are you cool with that? I mean, shit, this must be a little awkward for you sometimes,” I mutter, watching all the white men strolling between groups, their uniforms in varying states of spit and polish.
He shrugs. “It was at first. And yeah, looking like I do, I have to work harder at getting some people to accept me, trust me, but once you know me, well…” He gulps down the rest of his coffee and crushes the cup in his hand. “You can’t help but love me!”
It doesn’t seem fair that he has to work harder. “Doesn’t seem right, man,” I say, shaking my head.
Tien knocks my leg with his knee. “Nope, it isn’t. But what you just said. That right there is enough of a reason to keep trying. Things will change. Name by name. Face by face. I like you already, Breaker!” He’s intoxicatingly hopeful.
I run a hand through my hair. Who would have thought I’d be on this side of the argument?
Tien knocks my knee again. His laugh is full of light. Not sunshine exactly. More like the light from a cluster of stars. It sparkles with magic.
Heart steady. A smile, tinted green, but a smile just the same.
The sun hits the sand, and it sparkles. Palm trees bristle in the warm breeze. If I squint, if I look past the stacks of wooden crates piled on the beach, the dirty men draped over them, it looks like a postcard.
I snap that image for later.
Booze is poured into tin cups, and we sip. We wipe our brows of sweat and tell stories, swap the most mundane details of our lives with each other, building something. This foundation we have to rely on.
Kicking my shoes off, I bury my toes in the sand, watching it cascade over my white, shriveled skin. My feet look like they’ve been in a bath for hours.
I’m staring at them when a disk with colored feathers sprouting from it lands at my feet.
I look up into the expectant grin of a kid, about the same age as Red. He beckons me with his hand, asking me to join the game he’s playing with his friends.
Sarge nods an okay.
Towering over these little Vietnamese kids, I jog to where they’re playing. Quickly, I realize the aim of the game is to keep the feathered disk in the air using whatever I can.
The kids are amazing, back-flipping, twisting, slapping at it with their hands and feet. I try to keep up, and they laugh but encourage me to keep trying.
We’re just kids, playing a game.
Our shouting rattles across the waves. We kick and slap at the ball, we laugh when someone falls over, but offer a hand to help them back up.
My smile cracks open my chest as some fear spills out onto the sand to be collected by the sea.
Some of the other guys join us, and we play until it’s too dark to see.
The sun sprays red and orange over the water, and the kid who invited me slaps my back and winks. He hands me the feathered disk and runs away, laughing and shouting at his friends.
Tien taps my back gently. “Breaker. Where’d you go?”
My mouth feels strange, turned up into a smile.
I’d forgotten about that kid. That good memory.
“Sorry. I was just remembering something,” I mutter.
“Must’ve been a good something,” Tien says, pointing at my mouth.
I chuckle. “Yeah, it was.”

Author Bio:

Lauren Nicolle Taylor lives in the lush Adelaide Hills. The daughter of a Malaysian nuclear physicist and an Australian scientist, she was expected to follow a science career path, attending Adelaide University and completing a Health Science degree with Honours in obstetrics and gynaecology.
She then worked in health research for a short time before having her first child. Due to their extensive health issues, Lauren spent her twenties as a full-time mother/carer to her three children. When her family life settled down, she turned to writing.
She is a 2014 Kindle Book Awards Semi-finalist and a USA Best Book Awards Finalist.

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Review with Giveaway: Blacksouls (Blackhearts #2) by Nicole Castroman

Book info:
Title:   Blacksouls
Author:   Nicole Castroman
Series:  Blackhearts #2
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: April 11th, 2017
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance, Pirates, Adventure

Synopsis:

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 rating:  5 stars

I loved this second book in the series just as much as I loved the first one!  And just like the first one, even though there is no sequel listed, there just has to be another one, it was totally left with so much more to happen to finish the story.  So I'll be asking the author about it soon!  I was lucky enough to meet the author this past March at Apollycon, when I was able to tell her just how much I loved her first book!  

This second book in the series got a little bit more into the pirate days of Teach, or as we call him today, Blackbeard.  Not only that, it went a little darker with delving into the horrors of the slave trade, and how anyone who was not considered 100% "white", was treated.  Teach and Anne finally got to find each other again, but not until both had been part of drama, drama that would soon keep them apart once again.  Anne's new friends from her ship ride, Coyle and Cara, take her to their uncle Alistair who owns a bar on the island of Nassau, and he takes them in, even Anne, and lets them work for him.  It is here that Anne sees just how horrible the people on the island treat slaves, seeing them beat and even treated herself like one.  When Teach makes it to the island, he's had a treacherous journey with a very horrible captain, who in the end causes Teach to be accused of mutiny, and he'll end up owing a "favor" to Mayor Webb, in order to get his men and himself back out onto the sea where they want to be.  

As I mentioned, there is so much more of the pirate life, with Teach chasing after a pirate, as well as having to become like a pirate himself in the end to save himself as well as Anne.  We lose some beloved characters, and we learn who can be trusted, and who cannot.  All in all, another great story.  One that makes me want to go out and do all the research like the author did, to know exactly what is truly known about Blackbeard's life.  But, since I know that there HAS to be a third book, I will wait.  

If you've got time, you should go back and check out a fun post I did earlier to promote this book where I came up with the top 10 pirate words or phrases HERE.  And for fun, here is a picture of me with the author at Apollycon.

Nicole was lucky enough to come with her very own best friend...she has a twin sister who can read her mind and finish her sentences for her.

At the age of 13, she went to Europe for the first time and it changed her life. She loves learning about different people, languages and cultures and speaks fluent German. She knows enough Spanish to get herself into trouble and can still read the Cyrillic alphabet from when she studied Russian.

She received her B.A. from Brigham Young University and has lived in Germany, Austria and two different places called Georgia. One is located on the Black Sea. The other is the state of Georgia where she now lives with her handsome husband and two beautiful children who continue to amaze her.

• 1 Finished Copy of Blacksouls (Blackhearts #2) by Nicole Castroman
• US Only
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