I received a copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
★★★★☆
This was a solid debut historical fiction book! It was obvious not only that the author did an immense amount of research, but that she is truly passionate about the people she's writing about here. I appreciated that she included the Cast of Characters in the beginning so that we could know what characters are inspired by real historical figures and which were completely fictional. The author's note was very insightful into the research that went into the novel and the enthusiasm the author has for the time period and these characters specifically.
I was enraptured by the story most of the way through. I am generally not a fan of dual POVs where they are recounting events completely separate from one another, but in this case it made sense because it was a lost love/second chance romance story; also, it was based on true events so I can't dock the author for writing it this way. I was extremely intrigued by Sam's pirate escapades, including the Articles and just in general the way the society on his pirate fleet was so far progressed beyond that of the land dwellers' of his time period. This is definitely a part where I appreciated the author's note because it was pleasantly surprising to find out that this part of the book was inspired by the truth. I was also very fascinated by Sam's consistent reluctance to piracy; this combined with his self-proclaimed sense of pride made him a more complicated and thus likeable and believable character to me.
That brings us into the characterization. I found both our protagonists to be compelling characters. I won't go into the "they're too modern for this time period" viewpoint because their progressive viewpoints are what I like about them. To me it is very entertaining to read characters who notice injustice and speak out against it, even if it makes them stand out in a bad way. I did think there was room for improvement when it came to introducing the characters; there was a bit of "telling not showing" in the beginning which was unnecessary because the showing part did come naturally and we could have just done without the telling. At one point, Sam says "I know I'm prideful" or something like that, and I would eventually see this fact without needing to be told it from the outset. The same is true of Maria's characterization. I loved her haughtiness and resilience, but I felt her initial introduction was a bit too heavy handed on these facts.
I wanted to talk about the telling-not-showing thing in the characters section so that I could reserve my paragraph on the writing for praise. I really liked how this was written. The internal monologues, the characters' actions and thoughts, it was all very engaging. There were several moments that very lightly referenced Taylor Swift lyrics (in the inspired-by way, not the plagiarism way) and sure enough the author thanked T-Swift in the acknowledgements. I hope the author is happy to know I had "Love Story" playing through my head the entire time I read this book! The influence definitely shows in the best way because I found this tale almost lyrical in its prose while not sacrificing the agency of the plot to do so.
Final verdict: While there is some slight opportunity for improvement regarding the characterization, this is a very solid debut historical fiction with an engaging plot, earnest characters, and beautiful writing.
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