A rousing, sprawling yarn about two indefatigable pirate women.
A famous pirate captain tangles with the Dutch East India Company in this final volume of a swashbuckling adventure trilogy.
It’s been a year since the legendary Irish pirate Capt. Bloody Mary was swept from the deck of her ship, Phantom, during a freak storm off Florida. Since then, her young protégé, Elizabeth Cortés, has taken her place as the head of Mary’s crew. After failing to bring in the sort of haul Mary usually managed, Elizabeth outfits the crew members with a new flagship—the Ghostrunner—and enlists them in an emerging Dutch venture in the Far East. Sailing for “the Company” means transporting spices instead of stealing gold, but the work turns out to be just as dangerous. Elizabeth makes the mistake of trusting a Macau sea lord named Féng Wú and soon finds her small fleet decimated by Chinese pirates and their Portuguese allies. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Mary returns from the dead. Pulled from the sea by Tequesta fishermen, she’s betrayed by sailors, sold into slavery, rescued by the Cimarrons of Panama, and eventually makes her way back to Ireland. When she hears of Elizabeth’s deal with the Company, she immediately strikes out to find her ships and her sailors—or whatever is left of them. McMillin’s prose—which alternates in perspective between Elizabeth and Mary—is muscular and direct. Here, Mary finds herself arrested and imprisoned immediately upon her arrival in Amsterdam: “My predicament appeared bleak. But I did not panic. I refused to give my captors the satisfaction. The Dutch left me tied to the chair for the night within reach of a privy bucket, a loaf of bread and a jug of water. I whittled away the hours deep in thought, plotting my escape.” The novel is paced like an adventure movie, filled with sea battles, colorful bit players, and double crosses, and readers will feel as though they have circumnavigated the globe several times by the end of it. There isn’t much dimension to these characters or their schemes, but fans of the golden age of Piracy will appreciate the verve with which McMillin replicates its milieu.
A rousing, sprawling yarn about two indefatigable pirate women.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9838179-8-7
Page Count: 428
Publisher: Hephaestus Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
