Blacksouls

January 18, 2016
The infamous pirate Blackbeard gets a romantic origin story in this historical drama set in 1697 England. Edward "Teach" Drummond, son of a wealthy English merchant, and Anne Barrett, a biracial orphan working as a maid in the Drummond household, fall for each other despite numerous obstacles. Teach wants to defy his father and return to sea; Anne has been stealing from her employer in order to run away and start a new life. United by their distaste for their current predicaments, the two overcome an initial clash of personalities and station to form a deeper bond. When Teach is accused of piracy, and Anne's financial circumstances improve, it seems as though neither will get the dream he or she desire, but hope springs eternal in Castroman's debut. The author plays fast and loose with the legend of Blackbeard, taking advantage of the lack of available details about his early life to craft this soap operatic adventure. An entertaining if unsurprising page-turner that is clearly set up for future installmentsâwhich readers may hope are less landlocked than this outing. Ages 14âup. Agent: Tracy Adams, Adams Literary.

April 1, 2017
Grades 8-12 Tracing the origins of Blackbeard the Pirate, this sequel to Blackhearts (2016) reunites Teach and Anne, but not before each of them crosses the Atlantic in separate, grueling journeys to Nassau. On the island, dark-skinned Anne's friendship with enemies of Governor Webb leads to her being nearly kidnapped into slavery after a savage beating. Teach's own trouble with Webb forces him into a dangerous mission to save the lives of his men. The journey is complicated when he smuggles an unconscious Anne aboard his ship and encounters more seasoned pirates with their own beefs with Webb. The swashbuckling romance is tempered with bracing brutality, political trickery, and discrimination inherent to the era. Depictions of whippings and bloody battles are vivid, and so are the passion and complexity of the main characters in their dedication to one another and in doing what is rightor as close to right as burgeoning pirates can muster. Sell it as an action-packed romance or adventure-laced historical fiction; there's something here to please almost everyone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
Castroman's second tale (Blackhearts) further develops a foundation for Teach's legendary career as pirate Blackbeard. Teach is framed as a mutineer, while his beloved, Anne, fights the corruption and cruelty infecting Nassau. Together they outwit rivals, slavers, and politicians while cementing alliances with other piratical outcasts. The novel showcases the injustices of the colonial era even as it revels in romantic, if soap-operatic, adventure.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)