SERIESous Spoilers: Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

SERIESous Spoilers: A feature where we discuss what happened in our favourite (or maybe not so favourite) books. Did you like the plot changes? The romance? What surprised you? What angered you? And what do you think will happen next?

This month’s SERIESous Spoilers Pick:

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman | My Review

–A Pirate Prequel, not a Pirate Tale–

Were you expecting the early sailing tales of Blackbeard when you picked up this book? I had read a review on another blog prior to reading this novel so I knew that that wasn’t going to be the case. Thank goodness! Or I would have been disappointed in the lack of pirate sea-time.

If you want a novel about the early life of a famous pirate, I recommend Never Never by Briana Shrum.

–Blackbeard ≠ Bluebeard–

I will admit that I spent the first few chapters of this book going, Teach becomes the pirate that had lots of wives and murdered them? No! That can’t be right! I actually like him! I can’t like someone like that!

Then I remembered it was BLUEBEARD who did that to his wives and I calmed down a whole lot!

–Less is More!–

So while I wasn’t expecting a pirate novel per-say, I wasn’t really sure what the plot was going to be otherwise. Normally, I like a lot happening in my novels but here I liked the “less is more” mentality. I liked watching Anne and Teach grow as characters and in their relationship. It was definitely a romance focused novel but with characters that have many interesting layers. You have Anne struggling to find her identity while Teach is struggling to be his own person. And because of that, they compliment each other so well and it becomes so addicting to read.

Or maybe that was because Teach could be rather swoon worthy when he wanted to be.

–The Ending!–

Totally me after finishing Blackhearts @nicolecastroman –I want more!!! Fabulous book! pic.twitter.com/XLNcmY65ov

— Lauren (@SERIESousBooks) March 9, 2016

I mainly wrote this whole post just so I could freak out over the ending. I hate when books finish abruptly and that was so the case with this one! I turned the page thinking, “oh will they ever find each other” and BAM “Author’s Note”. At first I thought my eReader skipped a page (sometimes I do that) but NOPE! It ends like that!

I spent the last half of the book thinking it was not going to be a happy ending for these two. I figured, Anne must die or get married off somewhere and in his misery, Teach becomes Blackbeard and reigns on the seas until the end of his days in an attempt to get over her. I suppose I am a romantic like that. But near the end, I started to think “maybe they do find each other and she becomes a home base for him when he becomes a pirate or she joins him at sea”. Again, the romantic in me wants that finality.

When I finished the book, the sequel Blacksouls had not been announced. So after I had some time to think about it, I kinda liked the idea that we may never know if they find each other. It adds to the enigma of Blackbeard–there really is so much we don’t know about him in history and I like the mystery that maybe he did have a lady love that was the inspiration for his ship’s name? But I love the fact that maybe we will get some closure that fills in the gaps of what happens to the young man Teach before he becomes Blackbeard…and how.

What are your thoughts? Agree or disagree?

 What was your reaction when you finished the book? Do you think they ever reunite?

Please leave a comment below!

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