Blackhearts

by Nicole Castroman

Blackbeard. Imagine him on the high seas, wreaking havoc and terror with his name alone. Now think of Edward “Teach” Drummond, a restless young man who has heard the call of the sea and who is bound by the society he was born into in Bristol, England, late 17th century. This is where Castroman’s novel, "Blackhearts," begins. Blackbeard was once a teenager, and this is how Castroman reimagines him.

Enter Anne Barrett, whose father was British and whose mother was from the West Indies island of Curaçao. Orphaned and penniless, she works as a maid in the Drummond household. Stealing from her masters to save for the sea journey to her mother’s homeland, she doesn’t expect to fall in love with the very man who might offer the key to her freedom or captivity.