Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Historical Fiction
Length: 400 pages
Author: Rachel Rueckert
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: February 24th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A groundbreaking novel of historical fiction based on the real experiences of two of the Golden Age of Pirates’ most infamous women, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who dared to subvert the rules and gender roles of their time.

1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, twenty-three-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she’ll tell this opportunistic fool her story if he sends a doctor to her friend, Mary Read, who’s battling prison fever.

Prior to their arrest, life at sea had offered Anne and Mary freedom that few women knew. Anne, born into scandal in Ireland, seeks home and elusive safety in South Carolina. Discovering the opposite, she makes a bitter bargain for emergency passage to the Bahamas.

Across the Atlantic in England, Mary confronts her own limitations as an illegitimate daughter. She sneaks into a merchant crew, disguised as a cabin boy. But when war sends Mary into the cavalry, she meets a challenge even she might not rival.

When their paths collide in Nassau, a notorious “pirate den,” Anne and Mary find kinship aboard the Revenge, the fastest ship in the Caribbean. With the governor out for blood, every raid brings more risk. From the high seas to the depths of a Jamaican prison, Anne and Mary must navigate impossible choices, each determined to taste freedom again.

Thank you to the author for a gifted ARC.

SOLID HISTORICAL FICTION.

HF that doesn’t involve a romance is not a genre I pick up often anymore, so I’m here to say that The Determined is an exception to the rule and you should absolutely try it out if you’re interested in female pirates. I enjoyed the combination of learning about Anne and Mary’s pasts while flipping to the present timeline and how their stories end. While some of it has to be left up to speculation I liked how the author handled the ending and gave (what I thought) was a good conclusion. I’m a sucker for a thick afterword about the research and commentary surrounding plot decisions and I loved hearing how Rachel Rueckert brought this story to life.

I could have used a little something more? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I did have an enjoyable time and it was easy to pick up the audiobook. The narrator is fantastic too. If you enjoy books that explore women in male dominated field I would recommend this! I loved the imaginings of Anne and Mary as these hard to knock down souls who had to constantly battle against the ideas of their time to survive.

Overall audience notes:

• Historical fiction
• Language: low
• Romance: closed door
• Violence: moderate+
• Content warnings: loss of life, executions, assault, imprisonment, childbirth

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