Toni Runkle

A swashbuckling coming-of-age adventure with a little pirate history and fantasy mixed in to create a wonderful start to a fresh and unique series, this novel is so much fun! Elements of many social issues are incorporated throughout, such as bullying, grief, finding yourself and your tribe. Plus, who doesn't love a pirate summer camp. Looking forward to the next one!!

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Bonnie is a troubled teen. After getting in trouble one too many times (this time arson to get revenge on her bullies things take a turn for the worse when she is shipped off to a school that is essentially juvenile detention. Despite her hatred of water, a sailing camp sounds like the better alternative. She soon learns that she is descended from pirates (or corsairs as they call themselves) and that this comes with skills she has yet to master. Featuring an old enemy and new friends, this show more YA novel is filled with adventure, danger and all kinds of teen hijinks.

I think I'm a little older than the target demographic and although I did still have fun with this, I think teen me would have loved it even more. I enjoyed the relationships between the characters and the little insights we got into corsair history. Overall, a fun read! show less

Abandoned as an infant, 15-year-old Bonnie Hartwright doesn't know who she really is. And that just might get her killed. After her latest scrape with the law, foster girl Bonnie is abruptly carted off to a "reform sailing camp" on the Carolina coast. There, she discovers the camp is actually a training compound of a centuries-old secret society, all of whose members are descendants of a notorious pirate. The famous female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read are important in this book, show more including their lover Calico Jack Rackham.
Bonnie and her fellow teen internees, all denizens of the digital age, must now master the old ways of sword and sail as they prepare to battle a mysterious, unnamed enemy. During weeks of training, Bonnie finds herself drawn to both Wilder, a charismatic thief, and Reed, the grandson of the group's leader, a boy who carries the weight of a family legacy on his shoulders. But a secret is being withheld from Bonnie, one that could end up proving lethal. Before it's too late, she must uncover the truth about herself or face certain death in a watery grave.

Let me be clear, I am probably not in the group that is supposed to read this book, it's for teenagers and I am far from that :).
But I really liked it, good smooth writing, I liked the pace in the book. I really liked the idea of a group of kids who are trained for something I can't imagine. And I liked that the authors used the story of female pirates for this story.

It ended with a dliffhanger, when is the next one coming?

Disclaimer: I got this book in the Librarything Early Reviewers. show less

What's not to love about this book? Bonnie is a teen who just can't seem to stop getting in trouble, and it seems she doesn't want to. After she stands up to a group of bullies in an unconventional and illegal way, she finds herself being sent to an unusual location where she meets others who seem to be of the same ilk as she is.
From here the adventures keep coming. Every time I say it's time to put the book down, something else happens or another irresistible character is introduced, and show more I'm forced to keep reading.
If you love stories where a wayward, troublesome character finds both their way and their purpose, you'll love this book. show less