AN ORPHAN DISGUISED AS A PIRATE SETS SAIL FOR A MYSTICAL ISLAND IN HOPES OF UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF HER PAST
The year is 1716—the Golden Age of Pirates. An orphan who sleeps in the dusty kitchens of a quayside brothel, Merrin Smith is desperate to unravel the secrets of her past and find the truth about the events that brought her to the Caribbean island of Isla Perla as a child. Disguised as a sailor, and with the help of her longtime friend Claudette, Merrin joins the crew of the pirate ship Riptide, helmed by the notorious Captain Erik Winters. Tenacious and rumored a madman, Winters is known as much for his ruthlessness as for his connection to the enigmatic and beautiful proprietress of the Goodnight Mermaid, Evangeline Dahl, who vanished from Isla Perla two summers before.
At sunset the Riptide sails for the mythical island of Bracile, a place hidden between air and sea and that exists only for a moment every two years, and which has never returned any man who has sailed for its shores. The journey will be perilous and long, and it will take Merrin far away from the only home she’s ever known. Because she can read, Merrin will serve as the Captain’s apprentice, deciphering old texts for clues to the island’s whereabouts as the ship sails through haunted, frozen waters and into the very heart of the ocean. As she struggles to navigate the rough, seafaring life aboard a pirate ship, Merrin must keep her identity hidden from the scrupulous gaze of not only Captain Winters, but also Mister Brandon Dunn, the ship’s surly, legend-spouting quartermaster, and Tom Birch, the charming boatswain Merrin can’t help but feel drawn to.
As the Riptide makes its way to Bracile, Merrin begins to suspect that the men she has worked so hard to deceive may in fact be more connected to her than she would have imagined, and that perhaps her own past might have more to do with the Dunn’s legends and myths than she ever could have guessed.
In The Isle of Gold, Merrin Smith must face perilous waters, cursed sea goddesses, and the embodiments of some of the ocean’s most terrifying legends as she not only struggles to survive her journey, but to find the answers to the mysteries of her past.
A story where history meets fantasy, The Isle of Gold is an epic, emotional adventure of two women—one desperate to save herself, and the other determined to be rescued—and the secret which binds them together.
“For as long as men have sailed the ocean, they have told stories about the sea,” says Jane. “It’s a place of mystery, myth, and magic—and this makes The Isle of Gold a perfect setting for an epic adventure that is not only a tale of historical fiction, but of the very evolution of a woman’s spirit as she seeks to find herself in a world of unpredictability and uncertainty.”
Kindle Edition, 239 pages
Published October 9, 2018
by Black Spot Books
3/5 stars
This is book one in The Daughters Jones trilogy. It’s where fantasy meets historical fiction, meets pirates and mythology. Yes that is a lot but for a short read, 239 pages it does pack in a lot .
This was a fun read in terms of a young woman, disguising herself as a man, a pirate to boot and sailing the high seas in search of a long, lost friend. She gets more than she bargained for on this journey. This book started rather slow for me, and it wasn’t until the last third where things really picked up and I pretty much read in one sitting. I won’t go into details of what transpires, but suffice to say it is an adventure stories on the high seas with a touch of supernatural, romance, and swashing buckling adventure.
Will I continue with the series, for now probably not but who knows I am a mood reader so I may pick it up at some later date.
My apologies to Black Spot Books for the lateness of my review and thank you for a digital copy.
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