Book Review: Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Book: Blackhearts (Blackhearts #1)
Author: Nicole Castroman
Published: February 9, 2016
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Number of Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating: 1.5 Stars
Tags: Retelling, Historical Fiction, YA, Why?

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Synopsis: Blackbeard the pirate was known for striking fear in the hearts of the bravest of sailors. But once he was just a young man who dreamed of leaving his rigid life behind to chase adventure in faraway lands. Nothing could stop him—until he met the one girl who would change everything.

Edward "Teach" Drummond, son of one of Bristol's richest merchants, has just returned from a year-long journey on the high seas to find his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high society he was born into, Teach dreams only of returning to the vast ocean he’d begun to call home. There's just one problem: convincing his father to let him leave and never come back.

Following her parents' deaths, Anne Barrett is left penniless and soon to be homeless. Though she’s barely worked a day in her life, Anne is forced to take a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks, and Anne longs for escape. How will she ever realize her dream of sailing to Curaçao—where her mother was born—when she's stuck in England?

From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn to each other, they’re trapped by society and their own circumstances. Faced with an impossible choice, they must decide to chase their dreams and go, or follow their hearts and stay. 

 ~My Review~

“Henry had said he would make her pay if he heard she’d caused any problems for Master Drummond. Hitting the master’s son between the legs with a pail was certainly problematic.”

What happened to this girl? What happened to the girl who was going to escape, and find her ancestors? There was a question on Goodreads that asked if there was instant love in the book. The author replied by saying that there was no instant love. Well, I have to disagree.

The book started good, and I really liked Anne. I thought that she was going to be a strong, fierce, and bad-ass character. Well, I was wrong. The only good thing she did in this book was hitting Teach in his genitals with a pail. For 96% of the book, Anne was whiny and a big complainer. She constantly overlooked everything Teach did, even though he had tendencies of stalkers and sexual predators. And the worst part is that I didn’t even see this at first.

I WAS BLIND!! I was reading when I got to a certain point, and everything clicked. I knew that I was liking the book less and less as it went on (you can only read about a person cleaning for so long), but honestly, the characters just weren’t that good. I don’t find joy in reading about instantaneous romance (you can't say that you love someone after a week of knowing them), creepy men (Teach), possessive men (Teach), and naïve women (Anne).

The biggest problem I had with this book was the way Anne and Tech treated Patience. Patience and Teach were betrothed, and when Teach fell in love with Anne, they both started treating her like a piece of thrash. 

“She was quite sure no one had ever put Patience in her place like that.”

“And yet your father expects you to marry a fancy peacock with a pea brain.”

Honestly? Just because you don't have similar interests doesn’t make her a horrible person. Also, because she is following the standards set by society, doesn’t make her stuck-up. That’s like if someone went up to a girl who didn’t shave her legs and called her disgusting, wierd, and arrogant, just because she didn’t shave her legs. That’s horrible, and it’s what Teach and Anne did.

Also, there was no adventure, no fights, and no pirates in this book at all. This was just a romance between stalker boy and cleaning girl. I wanted death, and epic battles, and thieves, but I guess that I was expecting too much. There is a second book that is going to be released, and I might actually read it (even though I gave this book a horrible rating). The book ended in a place that makes it look like there will be actual adventure in book two. Also, there were two characters introduced at the end of this book that look good. And maybe we’ll actually get to see Teach become Blackbeard. Hopefully.

So, overall I didn’t like this book. I found the characters to be annoying, and the story to be bland. Though for some strange reason, I might pick up book two when it comes out.