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Blog Tour: Blacksouls by Nicole Castroman

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I’m so very excited to be able to take part in the Blacksouls Blog Tour! Y’all know I love almost anything with pirates, so requesting a spot on this blog tour was a no brainer. There may have been screaming. I regret nothing. Let’s get started with what Blacksouls is about.

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

Nicole Castroman brings the dangerous pirate ports of the Caribbean to life in this vibrant sequel to Blackhearts—the reimagined origin story of history’s most infamous pirate, Blackbeard.

Edward “Teach” Drummond is setting sail to the Caribbean as first mate on the most celebrated merchant ship in the British fleet—until he rebels against his captain. Mutiny is a capital offense and Teach knows it could cost him his life, but he believes it worth the risk in order to save his crew from the attacking Spanish ships.

Sailing on the same blue waters, Anne barely avoids the Spanish attack, making it safely to Nassau. But lawless criminals, corrupt politics, and dangerous intentions fill the crowded streets of this Caribbean port. Soon, Anne discovers that the man entrusted to keep the peace is quite possibly the most treacherous of them all—and he just happens to hold Teach’s fate in his terrifying hands.

Life and death hang in the balance when Teach and Anne are given a dangerous mission. It’s a mission that will test their love, loyalty and devotion, forcing them down a path neither one could have ever imagined.

 

Are you excited for this book yet? I’m so excited! As a special treat, FFBC asked me to include a few of my favourite quotes. This was difficult because oh my bookworms this book is quotable! But I tried my best and here’s the result.

 

My Favourite Quotes:

Page 24

“A brave man dies only once. A coward dies a hundred times.”

Page 86

John reached forward and dragged the postol out of Teach’s grasp. “You’re better than this, Teach. You can’t shoot a man from behind.”

“Then bring him here and I’ll shoot him in the face,” Teach said, his voice iced with quiet menace.

Page 116

“You’ll always find people like her. People who must make you feel small in order to feel big. They’ll do everything in their power to keep you in the place they’ve assigned you, but remember, you always have a choice. You can choose to hate them back. Or you can choose to be better than they are.”

Page 150

“Sometimes you have to lose everything you have to get everything you want.”

 

My Review:

I’m super excited to talk about this one, so let’s get the trigger and content warnings out of the way, shall we?

  • Racism (addressed on the page)
  • References to Child Abuse/Murder
  • References to Sexual Assault against a Child

The secondary characters were developed so well that they could easily have been main characters. I was very impressed with how well this was done and how much I genuinely cared what happened to them. The characters that stayed with us from the first book, Blackhearts, gained a lot of depth in Blacksouls. I was especially happy to see how much development Anne got here because she gives such an important point of view to the story. I still feel like Teach could have had more depth but I love Anne and I’ll take what I can get here. Also, I know some of his bigger moments are still to come.

The majority of the story takes place either on a boat or on an island in the Caribbean and I swear I could smell the sea water. It brought back some serious sea time and island memories I had forgotten. The world is built in a way that’s sort of beneath the surface of the story while not being at all info-dumpy. I got specific information at key moments and it made the read so very immersive. In a word: Love!

The story picks up shortly after Blackhearts and, yes, it is necessary to read the series in order to fully appreciate these novels. For those of you who read my recent review of Blackhearts (which you can find here), you might remember my slight disappointment with the less than excessive pirate related action. I will go ahead and say right now that Blacksouls makes up for it!

Without getting spoilery, I can tell you there is plenty of deception, sailing, and violence. Some of the violence is difficult to stomach, but the rest of it is to be expected from a pirate story.

There are layers upon layers of what this story is about and I am so, so happy with it. The ending isn’t really a cliff-hanger per se, but it does end in a way that screams “To Be Continued.” I’ve really enjoyed getting into the story and getting to know the characters though, so I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

Overall, I rate Blacksouls 4 out of 5 bookworms.

Don’t just take my word for it. Order a copy of Blacksouls and enjoy it for yourself! A few places you can go to get your hands on a copy are:

 

About the Author

Nicole was lucky enough to come with her very own best friend…she has a twin sister who can read her mind and finish her sentences for her.

At the age of 13, she went to Europe for the first time and it changed her life. She loves learning about different people, languages and cultures and speaks fluent German. She knows enough Spanish to get herself into trouble and can still read the Cyrillic alphabet from when she studied Russian.

She received her B.A. from Brigham Young University and has lived in Germany, Austria and two different places called Georgia. One is located on the Black Sea. The other is the state of Georgia where she now lives with her handsome husband and two beautiful children who continue to amaze her.

 

I bet you’re ready for that giveaway I mentioned, aren’t you. Of course you are! This giveaway is US Only (Sorry, international bookworms!!) and will run until 3 May 2017.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

You can increase your chances of winning by following the blog tour! Here’s the full schedule so you can be sure not to miss a stop:

24 April

 

25 April

 

26 April

 

27 April

 

28 April

 

29 April

 

30 April

 

Thank you to The Fantastic Flying Book Club for organizing this wonderful blog tour. Another huge thank you to Nicole Castroman for writing this series!!