Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

Image by Scott Vandehey available through a Creative Commons license

Ahoy, mateys! Get ready to sail the seven seas with the plucky Jacky Faber! He has all the characteristics you'd want in a ship's boy serving in His Majesty's Royal Navy in 1797. Jacky's brave, resourceful and plays a mean pennywhistle.

Only problem? Jacky is really a Mary.

How did this come to be? Find out in L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (YP FIC MEYER and YP AD FIC MEYER). When she is left abruptly without a family, Mary seeks out alternate means of survival. In doing so, she discovers that taking on the guise of a boy simplifies the already harrowing demands of an orphan left to the mercies of the street.

It's easier bein' a boy, 'cause when someone needs somethin' done like holdin' a horse, they'll always pick a boy 'cause they think the dumbest boy will be better at it than the brightest girl, which is stupid, but there they are.

Mary ends up on the docks, where the Navy ship the H.M.S. Dolphin is assembling its crew. She relies on her inherent charm to earn her passage on board as a ship's boy. Soon enough, though, she learns that passing as a boy — let along a ship's boy — is only the first of many challenges she'll face in such tight quarters. She doesn't know the first thing about ships, and not all her shipmates are friendly. There'll be secret handshakes to learn, pirates to battle and adolescent love to navigate.

Bloody Jack is a rollicking beginning to the adventure series, which thus far encompasses 10 books:

1. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy
2. Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
3. Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber
4. In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
5. Mississippi Jack: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, And Lily of the West
6. My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War
7. Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy
8. The Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, On Her Way to Botany Bay
9. The Mark of the Golden Dragon: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Jewel of the East, Vexation of the West, and Pearl of the South China Sea
10. Viva Jaquelina: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away
11. Boston Jacky: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Taking Care of Business

Perhaps what I like most about Bloody Jack is how it puts a girl at the front and center of the action. Jacky comes across as a young woman realistically relying on her wits to get her through tough, scary situations. She's funny and fearless, a combination that manages to both get her into trouble and out of it. No fainting flower, is our Jacky.

The audiobook, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, is dynamite. Kellgren voices Jacky's rough, streetwise elocution perfectly, with its outrageous grammar and colorful patois. She portrays Jacky with jaunty confidence while not neglecting honest depictions of the fear and distress Jacky feels in battle or at the thought of discovery. The narration is a wonderful way to experience the story.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray YP FIC BRAY

A plane full of beauty queens crash lands on a desert island, but this isn’t the start of a cheesy joke!  They must band together to survive the elements and a dangerous cabal of drug dealers using the island for less than noble purposes.  More importantly they must struggle to find their inner beauty and common strength or be trampled by the misogynistic hegemony of the patriarchy!  Also, they need to get their dance routines down in case they are rescued.

Libba Bray has hit it out of the park.  Her last book, the hallucinatory bizarre epic Going Bovine won raves and adulation and acclaim and other good things.  Beauty Queens has all the wit and daring of Bovine but with a more straight forward (and to me more enjoyable) narrative.  The James Bondesque adventure plot actually is thrilling and action packed, it’s just also filled with hilarious social satire and genuine emotion.  The genuine emotion and satire can come from the same characters because Bray makes what seem like stereotypes at first (like Miss Texas the brash go-getter with big hair and big dreams) evolve into real young women.  A good deal of humor and satire comes from footnotes added by the corporate sponsors of the pageant. This isn’t JUST a super funny and exciting book. The problems it tackles of how companies sell young women horrible ideas of beauty and how that affects female identity are really intelligently and bravely addressed. A great read for anyone looking for a lighthearted dark comedy with adventure and Big Ideas!

Hexed by Michael Alan Nelson YP FIC NELSON Art by Emma Rios

Luci Jennifer Inacio Das Neves, Lucifer for short, is a good thief. She steals magical items for her employer and only friend, but when a former employer she ripped off finds her and forces her to pull a job she unwittingly starts a war of the magic using underworld.

this is great new hero that uses intelligence more than raw power. She’s troubled, feisty, and cool. The book is a mix of fantasy and crime fiction, which has been done to DEATH, but Hexed makes it fun and fresh. A lot of the praise goes to Emma Rios. The art has a manga inspired look but with a European flair. This first adventure is fast paced and has loads of good twists. It introduces a lot of interesting characters and ideas that we don’t get to learn about, but that’s what future volumes are for. If you like Anita Blake, Buffy, or other chicas that kick monster butt check Hexed out.

Gotham City Sirens: Union by Paul Dini art by Guillem March YP FIC DINI

While the Bat’s away the lovely and lethal women of Gotham will play. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn team up to try and use their powers to make money (mostly) legally. But a murderous Batman imposter and a group of deranged ex-sidekicks are all out to end this new partnership as soon as it’s begun…permanently…with DEATH!

This is a good super hero comic, but kind of seems a little silly and old hat when compared to the very super awesome Batwoman: Elegy (YP FIC RUCKA) that I recently reviewed. Catwoman is a strong and morally ambiguous leader, Poison Ivy is a human hating plant lover, and Harley Quinn is the Joker’s psychotic on again/off again girlfriend. The three femme fatales are really strong characters, but spreading the story among three leads makes for less interesting reading than Batwoman or the Rucka penned Catwoman stories. But taken on its own Sirens is a really clever and entertaining super-villain/hero romp with really good art (but not as good as in Batwoman). This is a good read if you’re jonesing for new comics and Batwoman: Elegy is already checked out.

A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee YP FIC LEE

Mary Quinn was a 12 year old pickpocket sentenced to die by hanging (England in the 1800s was STRICT!), but is given a last minute reprieve and sent to Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. There she learns to be a proper lady and eventually is hired as a teacher at 17. The life of a teacher bores her, but adventure finds her when she is chosen to join a secret spy society that works through the school calling themselves the Academy. Her first mission is to solve the mystery of missing cargos ships by pretending to be a lady’s companion in a wealthy merchant’s home. Soon the mystery deepens and Mary must face serious peril to uncover the truth, uncover a murder, and discover secrets of her own past.

First impression: It’s like a Jane Austen murder/spy mystery! This turns out to be a very good thing. Mary is a wonderful character; she is resourceful, bright, and tough without seeming entirely out of place with her time. The mystery has plenty of twist, but at times seemed a bit dry. Fortunately the romantic subplot is very well done and reminded me of the previously mentioned Jane Austen. I would say it is a good read for mystery fans, but mainly for fans of character driven mystery books. It is also a great read for historical fiction fans because the author has impeccably recreated Victorian, London with both high and low society represented. So if you are looking for some romance, danger, and intrigue this is your book.

Personal Beef: The cover! Why does it have “The Agency” in much larger print than the book’s actual title A Spy in the House? And it also has “A Mary Quinn Mystery” up top! Which is the title of the series “The Agency” or “Mary Quinn Mysteries”? Maybe I’m just easily confused, but I had to look up what the real title was.

The Ring by Bobbie Pyron YP FIC PYRON

15 year old Mardie is one step from Juvie and ready to snap. She never used to get in trouble, but bad friends and bad choices have put her in bigger trouble then she thought possible. To make things worse her friends abandon her, her boyfriend dumps her, and her family treats her like a criminal. So when she finds out her local gym has a girl's boxing class she thinks she finally has a place where she can fight. She soon finds that boxing is not about fighting but about discipline, inner strength, and strategy and uses these new gifts to fight her personal problems outside the ring.

I liked Mardie right away and really wanted to root for her. She makes the same mistakes that many teenagers make (lying to parents, shoplifting, sneaking out at night), but is too new at being 'bad' and almost always gets caught. The fact that she's a good person drawn to doing bad things was interesting. Most of the secondary characters were developed and added to the story. I especially liked her boxing teamates and how their characters were developed. The training scenes are exciting and the sparring and boxing chapters really drew me in. This is a great read for anyone that likes girl power books with a punch (sorry I couldn't resist it).