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    Pirates!
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    Pirates!
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    Pirates!
    Audiobook8 hours

    Pirates!

    Written by Celia Rees

    Narrated by Jennifer Wiltsie

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    It is the dawn of the eighteenth century, when girls stay home and sew while men sail the high seas finding adventure, danger, and gold. But two unusually adventurous girls--a rich merchant's daughter, Nancy Kington, and her former plantation slave, Minerva Sharpe--take to the high seas from Jamaica on a shop the crew renames Deliverance. Not just any trading ship, the Deliverance flies black flags from its mast, proclaiming to all that the newly named, hijacked ship is a pirate vessel, striking fear into the hearts of those she approaches. Or so they hope.

    For Nancy, the Deliverance is her escape from an arranged betrothal to a controlling and devilish man. For Minerva, it is an escape from slavery, as well as from the fearsome overseer on Nancy's family plantation. But in the end, the money, the adventure, the companionship, and the chance to see the world not as women, but as bold and daring pirates, is an opportunity neither can deny.

    A powerful, thrilling, and ultimately inspiring journey of two women who break the bonds of gender, race, and position to find their own way to glory.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 27, 2004
    ISBN9780807220740

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    Reviews for Pirates!

    4/5

    370 ratings27 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Excellent and intriguing. Rees' characters are alive and detailed. Great adventure ! Female pirates caught in rare circumstances surrounding the history of the times.
    • 2/5
      started well, got worse and worse
    • 2/5
      started well, got worse and worse
    • 3/5
      Nancy has been promised in marriage to a cruel older man in order to save the family business. It's 1820, and she runs away to become a pirate, but he has vowed to catch her.
    • 4/5
      This review contains plot details. Pirates! is a young adult novel about Nancy Kingston, an upper class girl with no worries in the world until, one day, a story hits wiping out her family fortune. In the aftermath of the storm, her father passes away but not before setting up a plot to marry her of to rich man with a dark reputation. Rather then marrying this man, Nancy finds herself running of to sea with a pirate crew. I enjoyed the first half of this book a lot, it had a lot of good setup. Nancy is shown as a free spirit who isn't afraid to defy her gender role and has strong ideas about what she wants but it loyal and caring. Her world comes crashing around her and she does the best to cope, even as she realises how the men around her have betrayed her. The second half, I had some problems. A lot of them come down to the two girls here and how they're portrated. We have the two women, Nancy and Minerva. It's blatantly obvious from when Minerva steps onto the page that she's Nancy's illegitimate sister, so that big dramatic revelation later is a bit of an anti-climax. When Nancy joins a pirate ship as crew, Minerva comes with her. Minerva, the back girl, takes to the sea like a good one. She does real sailors jobs like climbing up in the rigging and seems to be respected by the men. She also acts as a companion and carer for Nancy, offering sage advice and soothing her nerves. Nancy, by comparison, doesn't seem to do anything around the ship other then keep books and hang out with the surgeon. Her role in the various plots and battels seems to be to sit still and look pretty. In fact, several times her role is shown as expressedly that, such as in the final fight where Nancy looks pretty and Minerva chops of a man's head and becomes a pirate queen. This is present right from the moment they join the pirate ship where Nancy is tested by having to care for a wounded sailor and Minerva has to shoot things. And, of course, Minerva inevitably falls in love with the black man on ship and has a baby and goes of to live in a village, while Nancy returns to England to marry her love and presumably live a comfortable life on her profits from piracy. So racism and some sexism. I spent most of the second half of the book hoping Nancy would show some of the backbone she'd shown in the first half of the book and gone out and done something, anything other then wishing for her lost love and looking sad. It wasn't helped by the fact that I hated the lost love. When he shows up half way through the plot he acts like he owns Nancy, like she's property. Not nice. I also took exception to Nancy's worrying specific prophetic dreams. I waited for most of the second half for Nancy to show some fire, to do something for herself, but she never does. The only decision she seems to make entirely for herself in the second half is to go home and get married. Good start but faltered in the end.
    • 4/5
      Boy, she tells a good story.
    • 3/5
      Rather disappointing, given how much I enjoyed her other books. The pacing is all over the place and the plot comes across as wimpy.
    • 3/5
      A most interesting book.
    • 4/5

      This was a fun historical novel describing the events surrounding the pirates of the Caribbean.  Nancy is a wealthy business owner's daughter who is sold in marriage when her father died.  This novel gives excellent descriptions of the role of women and slaves in the 18th century.  There are excellent descriptions of the code of pirates, mutinies, and battles.  I particularly like how Rees ended the novel.  There was not a true happy ending" for Nancy but there was hope for one.  It made the story feel more real.

      "
    • 5/5
      Awesome girl pirate book. Both my daughter and I love this one.
    • 3/5
      Piracy, shipwrecks, mutiny, swordfights, duels!

      And yet it was somehow still really dull. This never leapt off the page (well, CD, I guess; it was an audio) at me. I listened dutifully to the end, but I'm not super-inclined to pick up any of her other books.
    • 5/5
      Nancy Kington is a rich merchant’s daughter in eighteenth century England. Her father suddenly passes away and leaves their Jamaican sugar plantation to her in his will, prompting her to move there and learn the harsh realities of slave ownership, thus befriending the slave girl, Minerva Sharpe. After Nancy is told of her arranged marriage to a terrifying man, she and Minerva run away amongst a pirate crew. The book is written from Nancy’s point of view which made it a lot easier to empathize with her character and feel like you’re a part of the story. And although the title was a little deceiving - as pirates are hardly even mentioned until about halfway through - it kept me interested and entertained, and I thought it was a really great book.
    • 4/5
      This book is about as girl-power as it gets. Nancy Kington's father has made his fortune by growing sugar cane and shipping it all over for trade. She never thought much about it (although she objects to the way her brothers treat the slaves in her family's employment) until a devastating storm destroys most of her family's fleet and her father dies soon afterward. She finds herself on a boat bound for the island where the sugar cane is grown, and she eventually learns that her father and brothers have pledged her in marriage to an evil Brazilian with a neighboring plantation. To escape her unpleasant fate, she takes her slave Minerva and runs off with pirates, all the while hoping that her true love, the hopelessly middle-class William, will still love her as a pirate. To its credit, the story doesn't linger on the star-crossed lovers bit. Instead, it detail just how bada** Nancy and Minerva become.
    • 3/5
      Not that impressed with this book. Its ok as historical fiction goes, and does a good job of depicting what life was like for women and slaves in this era. However, I felt like the author went way too deep into descriptions sometimes, with too much fluff and not enough plot. Ok for a straight adventure story.
    • 4/5
      Not a well known book but still very good. About two woman pirates and their adventures.
    • 4/5
      "I was of a roving frame of mind, even as a child, and for years my fancy had been to set sail on one of my father's ships. One grey summer morning, in 1722, my wish was granted, but not quite in the way that I would have wanted."So begins Pirates by Cecilia Rees. Though sixteen-year-old Nancy Kington is dressed up like a doll and drilled in the ladylike arts, her heart cries out for more adventure than an eligible match. When misfortune devastates the family fortune, Nancy’s brothers attempt to use her as a bargaining chip. But, Nancy is no fool. She taught herself how to read and write, and she is determined to teach herself how to survive independently—even if it means turning to a life of Piracy!This historical novel opens in 1722 coastal England. Nancy is horrified to discover that her family fortune is derived not just from a sugar plantation in Jamaica, but from slave trade. Consequently, freedom is explored through the perspective of multiple characters. Nancy and her fearless friend Minerva, are not content to live lives of luxury built on the broken backs of others. They risk everything to escape and make for the high seas. Beautifully worded descriptions and spicy dialogue practically allow readers to taste the salty tang in the air. Nancy and Minerva find adventure sailing from confederacy ports, to tropical climes, and through harrowing storms in the company of daring and dangerous characters. In pursuit of plunder, they quickly learn that the greatest treasures—love and friendship-- come from the heart.
    • 3/5
      Nancy has been promised in marriage to a cruel older man in order to save the family business. It's 1820, and she runs away to become a pirate, but he has vowed to catch her.
    • 5/5
      An action-packed, girl-power story of adventure on the high seas. Nancy, the daughter of a wealthy sugar-plantation owner, finds her comfortable world turned upside-down after her father dies. Sent to Jamaica and set to be traded in marriage to a cruel and devious landowner to profit her stepmother and brothers, Nancy looks for an escape--and finds it on the pirate ship Deliverance. What follows is a year of adventure, great fortune, a little romance, and a lot of danger.
    • 4/5
      I picked up this book because I had be seeing it on shelves for ages and was curious. It ended up being a pretty darn good book.This book tells the story of a young girl, Nancy, who is the daughter to a sugar plantation owner. When Nancy's father dies. Nancy is spirited away by her brothers to live on their sugar plantation in Jamaica. Upon her arrival she finds that she has been promised to a horrible man for marriage. Certain circumstances come about and Nancy ends up fleeing for her life and signing up to be serve as a pirate on a pirate ship. The majority of the book is spent on her adventures.This was a very good book. The writing style is very straight forward, the whole book is from Nancy's perspective. The plot moves slowly at the beginning with the the first third of the book telling about how Nancy and Minerva got onto the pirate ship. The pace picks up from there and hurtles from adventure to adventure. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.I have one small complaint about the book and that was that it dealt with pirates from a very romantic point of view; the violence of a pirate's lifestyle is somewhat muted. I think young girls would have been hard pressed to serve as women on a pirate ship in reality. Of course, this isn't reality, it's just a very good story that definitely sways toward fantasy. It reminded me a lot of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It is a very solid young adult novel.I liked the book and will be checking out more books by this author.
    • 5/5
      You definatly have to be patient with this one, but it is so worth it. It took me a few time to gain the patients to read it through, but once I did I went right back to the beginning and started over. Worth every bit of waiting. Celia Rees has a lot to offer us readers!!!
    • 4/5
      Nancy and Minerva get swept into the piratical life by chance, and face adventure at sea. The characters are typical pirate personalities, and it is interesting to watch the girls grow and change as they adjust to their new environment. The setting and plot are quite accurate as to the whereabouts and activities of pirates during that time period. The theme is constantly repeated throughout the book, being that you shouldn't be afraid of the future but live for today, and this still is true today. The style is very descriptive of pirate life and uses all those words concerning ships that so many are not familiar with, but the storyline and events almost seem too stereotypical of a pirate story, like she got her ideas from "Pirates of the Caribbean". Overall, it is an interesting story, but not unique enough to be guaranteed a spot in my collection.
    • 4/5
      Soon after her father dies, Nancy Kington is sent to Jamaica as the inheritor of his sugar plantation. Little does she know that her brothers and her recently deceased father had plans for her to marry a neighboring plantation owner, Bartolome. On her sixteenth birthday, Bartolome gives her a ruby necklace and earrings, and asks for her hand in marriage. Nancy flees with Minerva Sharpe, a slave on her father’s plantation, and they both go “on the account.” As pirates, Nancy and Minerva dress like men. steal from merchant vessels, and free slaves. It is a life of freedom for them. But every night, Nancy is haunted by dreams of Bartolome searching for her on the seas. Is it possible for her to find true happiness as a pirate, especially since the man she loves serves in the Royal Navy? And what is the secret that both Minerva and her mother have sworn to keep, even from Nancy? Though this book seemed a little dry to me at times, I thought it had an excellent story. As a pirate fanatic, I got my fill of “piratical adventures,” but I also got a taste for a “real life” version of a pirate’s life. Nancy’s first task as a pirate is to assist the ship’s surgeon as he removes a gangrenous leg from a young man. Rees’s descriptions are quite vivid and remove any notions of romanticism. Some parts of the book were predictable, and part of that is the style Rees writes in; there is a great deal of foreshadowing to the point of giving plot away. However, the strong relationship between Nancy and Minerva was wonderful.
    • 5/5
      What a great adventure story! One that's sure to appeal to both teen boys and girls. Nancy Kington, a young woman, disguises herself as a pirate and joins a band of pirates after escaping the sleazy Jamaican plantation owner who she was supposed to marry.
    • 4/5
      I do enjoy this book quite a bit. It's very suspenseful and I love the detail at the manor, though quite gruesome. Satisfies a bit of the pirate in all of us!
    • 4/5
      Following the death of her merchant father, 14 year old Nancy Kington learns of his plans for her to leave England and take up residence on the family's Jamaican plantation. What she doesn't know until she arrives is that he also arranged a marriage with a rich, but cruel neighbor in order to save the family from financial ruin. Her older brother, Joel, intends to force the marriage for his own selfish gains. Unwilling to enter into a matrimonial relationship with a man she despises, Nancy flees with her house slave, Minerva, who has nightmares of her own to escape. In order to leave the island, the two girls join up with a band of pirates on board the ship Deliverance and live a life of nautical adventure and romance!
    • 3/5
      a rich young girl and her slave form a deep friendship when they are forced to go through hardship together
    • 5/5
      5 stars! I think this book had alot of detail in it. Or at least enough so that I felt like I was aboard with them! It was really different than I expected it to be! I can't wait to read this book again!