Loretta C. (Reader-in-Beverly) - , reviewed on 9/8/2010

Helpful Score: 1

Picked this book up at a used bookstore as I was searching for books by L.A. Meyer, in the Jacky Faber series. As the subject matter is similar: young female teen in the late 1700s/early 1800s dresses as a male to take to the sea - in both books she does it to escape dire circumstances and possibly death - I decided to read Pirates! However, my opinion of this book was very influenced by the aforementioned books about Jacky Faber - stories which sparkled and came alive, the heroine being very likeable and a bit more lively than this main character named Nancy Kington. Perhaps Nancy is truer to a female of the actual times, and so behaves in more moderate lady like fashion, except for when she decides to kill a man or two. The bad guys are a little too obvious in Pirates! - an alcoholic brother and an evil neighboring land owner who seems to have bargained with the devil to appear almost legendary & who Nancy spends the second half of the book fleeing to avoid marriage to him. The story line of the slave Phillis and her daughter Minerva were nicely done, and made the book more interesting to me. At times the story slowed but overall, if you have finished all 8 of the Jacky Faber YA fiction books, then this book will satisfy cravings for similar tales of historical pirates until L.A. Meyer writes another Jacky Faber book!

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