Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman
Summary: 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.
Before he was known as Blackbeard, the pirate who could strike fear into hearts of men without striking a physical blow, he was Edward, nicknamed Teach, a boy who wanted nothing more than freedom. Before there was Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, there was Anne, the girl who became the queen of his heart. This is the story of their unlikely yet inevitable romance. Prepare to be swept away.
BLACKHEARTS is out now.
Kathy MacMillan 