The Sweet Trade

Anne Bonny, a pampered Southern belle, hungers for a life more exciting and dangerous than she knows keeping her father's household together. When she convinces a hapless sailor boy to marry her and take her to Nassau, that seething cauldron of piracy, prostitution and all things wicked, she alters the course of her life forever. . . Calico Jack Rackham, a devious pirate, returns to Nassau with hopes of accepting the governor's pardon and leaving the sweet trade. When he first lays eyes on Anne Bonny, however, he realizes that she is the one woman who could convince him to put aside his fear of the noose and take up the trade again, no matter what the consequences. And Mary Read, a sensible Englishwoman who has been living as a man and earning her livelihood as a merchant sailor, must make a decision when her ship is overtaken by Calico Jack and she is invited to join the band of thieves. When she tastes the freedom of a pirate's life, she realizes what she has been missing during all her years of toil... and when she joins forces with Anne, they form a union that will carry them to the ends of the earth, through births, deaths, and battles more exciting than even Anne Bonny could have dreamed.

Samuel Bellamy, Maria Hallett, and the Whdyah Sam Bellamy is a sailor and willing to work, but he'd like a return on his effort that isn't available to the people in his social class. He objects to living with laws he has no voice in making that favor the wealthy, and exact unjust punishments on the poor. To take a stand, he becomes an outlaw. He is a pirate, and the sweet trade of piracy is a capital crime. Mariah Hallett is a talented weaver with an unusual skill for healing animals that her neighbors both fear, and use when convenient. She is at the center of a controversy between two religious men, each determined to save her soul: One believes she is blessed, the other believes she is a witch. When she is accused murder, she is banished to live alone on the high moors overlooking the sea. The Whydah is a slave ship returning to England, her hold filled with the golden profits from trading in human beings. Captured by Sam and his crew, she is refitted as a pirate ship, heavily armed and loaded with plunder. Sam and Mariah are lovers and kindred spirits. He returns to her in the Whydah, and she's waiting for him. But gold doesn't float. Based in part on the little-known life Samuel Bellamy (1689-1717), Master of the Sweet Trade is set against portraits of pirate life on the high seas and the hardscrabble life on Cape Cod in the early 1700s. Elizabeth Moisan pulls together strands of history and legend, and with imagination, spins a tale of patience and trust between lovers; the struggle for liberty; and honor among thieves. _________________________________________________ "Master of the Sweet Trade is, at its heart, a very human drama, honestly and sensitively observed and imagined. We are drawn in as two gifted young people fall in love and suffer loss, yet hold on against all odds as they defy the powers of their society. Despite all the swashbuckling action, Elizabeth Moisan gets as close to the heart of darkness as any writer I have read - and she does so in an openhearted, open-minded, easy-to-read novel. What an amazing canvas she paints."

History of the first British colony in the West Indies.

Set in the early 1700s, this fictional account of the pirate Samuel Bellamy chronicles his lust for gold; for the accused witch, Mariah Hallett; and for the treasure ship, the Whydah. Sam Bellamy's simple quest to find enough lost Spanish treasure to offer Mariah a secure future quickly becomes an insatiable desire for gold. For eighteen months he sails the Caribbean under the black flag, allowing this means to an end-this sweet trade of piracy-to claim him. In February, 1717, he seizes the Whydah, a slave ship returning to England with incredible riches in her hold. With more than enough plunder to line his pockets, he turns the Whydah north to Cape Cod and his greatest prize, Mariah. While Sam is away, Mariah Hallett's secret is discovered and she is not only charged with murder, but faces accusations of witchcraft, as well. Confronting a harsh winter and an uncertain future, she struggles to survive alone on the rough Cape Cod moor that edges the sea. With unshakable faith that Sam will return to her, she walks the cliffs overlooking the wild Atlantic and watches for his ship.

In 1670 Henry Morgan sacked the city of Panama with an army of 2500 pirates, buccaneers and adventurers. This is the story of one of them... Orphaned young by Spaniards who raid his Caribbean island home, Dirk van Cortlandt enters piracy-the Sweet Trade-to seek revenge. His ambitious violence wins him a captaincy, but with that power come responsibilities, and he must accept that to be a man he must have more than size, strength and skill with a cutlass. Then, for the sake of a girl he hopes to marry, he joins Morgan's raid on Panama. The voyage, meant to be Dirk's last, endangers his ship, his friends and beloved, and brings him face to face with the personal weakness that may prove fatal to them all.

A warlord killed Caledonia's parents and kidnapped her brother. Now, on the deadly Bullet seas, Captain Caledonia Styx and her all-female crew are ready for revenge. "This is Mad Max by way of Davy Jones, a high-energy, breathless adventure [about] a group of damaged girls who find home in one another." --Booklist "The pace of the book is fast and relentless, and the action sequences tense and believable, but the best moments are the ones in which the female relationships shine." --NPR "One of the most spell-binding adventures of the year. This is female piracy at its best." --The San Francisco Chronicle "The best kind of fantasy. . . . impossible to put down." --Paste After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, who have lost their families and homes because of Aric and his men. The crew has one mission: stay alive, and take down Aric's armed and armored fleet. But when Caledonia's best friend and second-in-command barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all...or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for? The first in a heart-stopping trilogy that recalls the undeniable feminine power of Wonder Woman and the powder-keg action of Mad Max: Fury Road, Seafire reminds us of the importance of sisterhood and unity in the face of oppression and tyranny.

“Imagines the lives of queer teens throughout different time periods, often playing with genre (retellings, fairy tales, magical realism, fantasy) as well.” —Vulture Seventeen young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens. From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier . . . to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain . . . to forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent . . . and an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods, and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten. Featuring original stories from: Malinda Lo Mackenzi Lee Robin Talley Kody Keplinger Elliot Wake Anna-Marie McLemore Shaun David Hutchinson Dahlia Adler Tess Sharpe Kate Scelsa Natalie C. Parker Sara Farizan Nilah Magruder Tessa Gratton Tehlor Kay Mejia Alex Sanchez Scott Tracey “Readers searching for positive, nuanced, and authentic queer representation—or just a darn good selection of stories—need look no further than this superb collection.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Exceptional in scope and quality . . . gives voice to the experiences that have long existed but often go unrepresented.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Read the entire set of companion anthologies featuring queer teens in the past, present, and future . . . All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages Out Now: Queer We Go Again! Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder

One of the 1990s' rising stars of crime fiction delivers a bold, brilliant tale of mystery, revenge, and survival in the 1980s, when cocaine and money ruled the city streets and even the good guys wanted a piece of the action.