Publication Date: Out now!!!
Formats: Paperback & Ebook
Price: Pb £9.99/ Ebook £5.99
Publisher: Pan
I would like to say a huge thank you to Random Things Tours (Anne Cater) for organising this wonderful book’s tour. I would also like to say a huge thank you to Pan MacMillan for allowing me to read and review a physical Paperback copy of this book. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the creative genius, Kate Mosse, for creating such a fantastic saga in this the 3rd book of the Joubert family chronicles and one that’s swashbuckling and piratical and one that explores sexuality and genders in a society that didn’t allow or even recognise. Intrigued? Let’s head to the blurb and find out a bit more.
The Barbary Coast, 1621.
A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water – its hull splintered, and its sails tattered and burnt. For months the Ghost Ship has hunted pirates to liberate enslaved prisoners. Now, it too finds itself hunted.
But the ship’s crew hides a secret, and the stakes could not be higher. The bravest amongst them are not what they seem: if arrested, they will hang for their alleged crimes. Can they survive their journey and escape their fate?
From the first page I was hooked into the story and swept up in all its glorious adventure on the high seas. As this is the third in a family saga series I feel sure that you are introduced to the Main Female character within this book to one from the second, but if you have come to the book cold it won’t stop you from enjoying and getting into this adventurous tale. You might get an inkling of certain twists but the vast majority of this tale feels a little bit different to the first two. In this one, we follow the life of a young, bored heiress, who yearns to be commanding of a ship and travel to far distant lands and feels especially hard done by to be born a girl. There is also another character who is just as important but has a much harder and tougher life, this person also has a lot to live up to after their brother dies it forces them to be used (and abused) by their mother to con a relative of theirs, only they try desperately to use this opportunity to escape their mothers clutches.
Both are happening at a similar time and as these two people start to head towards one another we see how intricate these threads are bound to them and that their meet up when it happens is inevitable. I won’t spoil much more, but to say that these two characters Louise and Gilles are adorable is putting it mildly and Gilles is much more than they appear. There is so much in this book that I absolutely love, the mystery, the adventure and tension when it becomes apparent that the danger they face comes from within and from a rather strict and religious town.
I also have a connection to La Rochelle, as when I was young my father, who loves sailing and we had so many adventures out on yachts, decided for a family holiday to sail around Brittany and if possible head further down and see how far we could go, I am a bit hazy in whether we did reach La Rochelle but what I do remember is Ile De Re. So for me to read a book that is set in and around La Rochell and of course other places, I felt I could visualise it more and have a little emotional connection to the characters.
This book is absolutely marvellous, gripping and also shows courage in standing up for yourself and those around you and that sometimes the past has a way to reach out and offer peace. For those who love a bit of adventure, a diverse cast of characters with a sweet romance cutting through. I cannot wait to read the final instalment.
Ratings: 5 🌟s with a large 🍹 (that should be rum 😂) or two 😉
Author’s Blurb:
Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. The author of ten novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy, The Joubert Family Chronicles (the number one bestseller The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, and The Ghost Ship), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction. Her highly-acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World. The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, she is the founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign and has her own monthly YouTube book show, Mosse on a Monday. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is also a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and President of the Festival of Chichester.
I hope you have enjoyed this buccaneering tale full of swashbuckling action and romance on the high seas along with some disturbances by family with connections to a tragedy in the past. If you are looking to get your hands on a copy, you can find this in Waterstones and on Amazon, but independent stores do have a rather beautiful sprayed edge version to tempt you. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you soon.
Zoe's Book Nook 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
LikeLiked by 1 person