book-reviews

Book Review: The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye

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Sorry I have been away, but I have had a few health issues, so my mind has been elsewhere. On the plus side, as I needed a distraction, I have been doing a lot of reading. 

The first novel I have been reading is The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron. When I first picked up this book, I must confess that despite my love of all things pirate, I had never heard of the legend of Jacquotte Delahaye. Maybe due to the fact that I wanted to be Anne Bonny when I was child, I refused to look at any other female pirates. 

Now there is no evidence that Jacquotte Delahaye existed, but her story exists through folklore and oral storytelling. It is said that Jacquotte was born in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) to a French father and a Haitian mother in the Seventeenth Century and took to piracy after the murder of her father. Known as ‘Back from the Dead Red’ due to her striking red hair and that she faked her death to escape her enemies, the legend has it that Jacquotte was the leader of gang of pirates that took over the island of Tortuga in 1656. 

Briony Cameron takes this legend and weaves a brilliant story about loss, identity, colonialism, friendship and love. Her Jacquotte is intelligent, multilingual and a skilled shipwright, who despite her many talents and aristocratic father, is not fully accepted by society due to her mixed heritage. But when the treacherous plotting of her father and the ruling Spanish come to head, Jacquotte must take to the High Seas with her band of friends and families, who are also outsiders on the island they call home. 

The story of Jacquotte is told as flashback, as the battered and broken Jacquotte lies in a prison cell awaiting the hangman’s noose. Whilst the book contains a fair amount of tragedy, it reminded me slightly of Thelma and Louise as the despite the pain, amongst it there is strength and beauty as Jacquotte, friends and those they meet along they away, breakaway from the constraints for society and find a voice for themselves. The plight of women is a particular focus and I adored and cheered the moments, when the female characters found their strengths and their voices. 

If you love swashbuckling adventure with romance and feminism then you will love this book!  

A Review of Emma Newman’s ‘The Vengeance’ Novel

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Emma Newman’s The Vengeance, which is the first in her Vampires of Dumas series, has everything I need in a book. A female protagonist, adventure, pirates, vampires, LBTQ+ characters, mystery, a gothic chateau and werewolves-it’s almost all my favourite things rolled into one. Yet somehow this novel left me a bit flat. 

The plot is fun and intriguing, which in many ways oozes adventure and excitement. The daughter of the infamous pirate captain Anna-Marie, Morgane sails with her mother and her crew around the Caribbean on their ship the Vengeance, striking fear into the all they meet. Anna-Marie is as a fearsome pirate, who is obsessed with attacking ships belonging to the Four Chains Trading Company. However, when a raid on a Four Chains Trading Company ship goes spectacularly wrong, Morgane discovers a shocking truth about her past and sets out on a journey to her land of birth, France, to discover her heritage. 

I liked Morgane. She is feisty, blunt speaking, loyal and good person to have on your side in a fight. But despite Morgane’s tough exterior, she is in many ways extremely naïve and struggles to see the reality of things, despite the facts. She is a great heroine and in fact the book is full of great characters created by Newman. I particularly like Anna-Marie, despite only being a small part of the book and in fact I enjoyed all the female characters. They were all different, fun and complemented each other. However, other than Morgane and perhaps one other character, I felt I didn’t really get to understand them and what made them tick. Also, there were some characters whose appearance I felt was rushed and I think that is my main issue with this book.

The story is fun and is in the vein of Alexander Dumas’ swashbuckling storytelling but the storyline felt rushed, especially the ending. It could have been longer and the ending, which had me on the edge of my seat, felt particularly rushed. However, the book is the first in the series and I am hoping that future books will answer all my questions about these brilliant characters and I can carry on this swashbuckling adventure for a bit longer.