Book Review | “The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk” (The Pirates of Ile Sainte Anne No.1) by Sally Malcolm #ChocLitSaturdays

Posted Saturday, 7 May, 2016 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

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Why I feature #ChocLitSaturdays (book reviews & guest author features)
and created #ChocLitSaturday (the chat via @ChocLitSaturday):

I wanted to create a bit of a niche on Jorie Loves A Story to showcase romance fiction steeped in relationships, courtships, and the breadth of marriage enveloped by characters written honestly whose lives not only endear you to them but they nestle into your heart as their story is being read!

I am always seeking relationship-based romance which strikes a chord within my mind’s eye as well as my heart! I’m a romantic optimist, and I love curling into a romance where I can be swept inside the past, as history becomes lit alive in the fullness of the narrative and I can wander amongst the supporting cast observing the principal characters fall in love and sort out if they are a proper match for each other!

I love how an Indie Publisher like ChocLitUK is such a positive alternative for those of us who do not identify ourselves as girls and women who read ‘chick-lit’. I appreciate the stories which alight in my hands from ChocLit as much as I appreciate the inspirational romances I gravitate towards because there is a certain level of depth to both outlets in romance which encourage my spirits and gives me a beautiful story to absorb! Whilst sorting out how promote my book reviews on behalf of ChocLit, I coined the phrase “ChocLitSaturdays”, which is a nod to the fact my ChocLit reviews & features debut on ‘a Saturday’ but further to the point that on the ‘weekend’ we want to dip into a world wholly ideal and romantic during our hours off from the work week!

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Acquired Book By: I am a regular reviewer for ChocLitUK, where I hand select which books in either their backlist and/or current releases I would like to read next for my #ChocLitSaturdays blog feature. I received a complimentary copy of “The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Why Jorie loves ‘Pirate Fiction’:

You see, Pirates of the Carribbean arrived on the silver screen at precisely the right timing for me – so much so – I went to see the original film four times before it finally left theaters! I would have gone back for the fifth showing if my theater hadn’t pulled the film the morning of All Saint’s Day! Ironically, they were meant to keep it on the 1st of November but apparently the plans fell through – otherwise, I would have had the pleasure of saying I had spent four months with that blessed film! I went back for each successive sequel, completely caught up in the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow and full of laughter as he made me smile, chuckle and laugh crazily right along with him!

Most of the appeal is how the actor Johnny Depp brought Captain Jack to life – as let’s face it, he singularly knew how to give personality and spunk to Jack! Even when he’s half off his rail and being completely irrational, there is something charming about Captain Jack! I loved the supporting cast as well – finding likeable portrayals in all of them, but especially Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom! I went on to follow their careers and appreciated how they continued to bring unique characters to life. Depp has had such a strong array of characters since Captain Jack Sparrow, the bloke will surely never be pigeon holed by any character he’s ever played! The diversity of his choices and the ability to remain true to each of them as if no other character ever existed before them is true craftsmanship!

However, my love of pirates in fiction did not start with Captain Jack, although he does give a girl a reason to swoon after him – if only for the humour, the adventure and the crazy appeal of living in the moment whilst you try to sort out where his true alliances lie – no, my love of pirates in fiction began with Gabriel Bryne! Yes, dear hearts – it was the film Shipwrecked! I was so caught up inside this film, I wished it had spun out a sequel! The back-story alone was worth every inch of it’s cinematic experience, but it’s a clever adventure where pirates can be outwitted by teenagers!

From there, I’ve had a twinkle in my eye for pirates in fiction and every blue moon I find a new film or a new book where I find myself charmed by the pirate in question! I become invested in the adventure first and foremost, but it’s also seeing how the choices in lifestyle also motivated the character to become the rebellious rogue they are as the story progresses forward! Depending on the story, I am either rooting for the pirate (oy – you should have heard me encouraging Captain Jack in the darkened theater!) or I’m rallying behind those who are trying to overcome the pirates hold on whichever circumstances they had the upper hand upon! A good instance of this would be Swiss Family Robinson where your championing the Robinsons and their homemade assault on the pirates climbing the cliffside mountain!

I knew there would be more High Seas adventures from ChocLit because I was already convinced of their stories as soon as I read Zana Bell’s Close to the Wind! And, in regards to Captain Jack Sparrow – had no idea truly, I’d get a fifth installment on the 26th of May, 2017! Eek. Too. Wicked. for Words!

Here’s one of my first s/o tweets on behalf of the then-new Digital Release:

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Book Review | “The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk” (The Pirates of Ile Sainte Anne No.1) by Sally Malcolm #ChocLitSaturdaysThe Legend of the Gypsy Hawk

Come then, and I’ll tell you the tale of the Gypsy Hawk and her wily captain – the infamous Zachary Hazard …

To Amelia Dauphin, freedom is her most prized possession and she will stop at nothing to keep it. Daughter of a Pirate King and the youngest captain in her father’s fleet, she lives on the island of Ile Sainte Anne, where pirates roam free and liberty reigns.

Zachary Hazard, captain of the Gypsy Hawk, hasn’t been seen on Ile Sainte Anne for six years but his reputation precedes him. To Zach, liberty is the open water and he has little time for the land-bound pirate island.

But when he hears that Amelia’s people could be in danger, he has no choice but to return. And what begins then is a desperate fight for freedom and a legend in the making …

A swashbuckling pirate adventure. Pirates of the Caribbean for adults with a sizzling romance at the heart!


Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Book Page on World Weaver Press

ISBN: 9781781892657

Series: Pirates of Ile Sainte Anne


on 16th March, 2016

Pages: 315

Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLituk)

Available Formats: Paperback  & E-Book

Originally published as Beyond the Far Horizon (2012)

Follow the tag for the novel to see my previous tweets on this novel’s behalf!

Converse via: #LegendOfTheGypsyHawk and #ChocLit

About Sally Malcolm

Sally Malcolm

Sally lives in London, England with her American husband and two children. She is co-founder and commissioning editor of Fandemonium Books, the licensed publisher of novels based on the American TV series Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe.

Sally is the author of five of the Stargate novels. She has also written four audio Stargate dramas. And recently she completed work on three episodes of the video game Stargate SG-1: Unleashed which were voiced by Stargate SG-1 stars Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Chris Judge.

The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk is the first in the Pirates of Ile Sainte Anne series.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Atmospherically a pirate’s tale:

Malcolm has found a way to ignite your imagination inside a pirate tale by the smallest of details, tricking your mind into believing exactly what your heart is willing to acknowledge – she’s found clever ways of tucking in certain descriptive details that level themselves believable for the era but also, for the setting of a pirate’s locale! I loved the little touches she granted the opening of her trilogy – to root you where you were taken and to give an assurance that you could settle inside this pirate’s tale with the atmospheric touches you’d expect to find! It was in the manner of speech inasmuch as the necessity for firelight illuminating great niches of space where the pirates resided whilst eluding to the expanse of their reign over the region they controlled.

Even the manner of how the salt air mingled with long hair, and how bare feet graced Amelia’s feet as she causally walked about both ship and land – it gave you a proper glimpse of where the Gypsy Hawk had taken anchour! I could nearly have smelt it for myself, as Malcolm kept encouraging your imagination whilst building the back-stories of Captain Hazard and Amelia (a Captain in her own right of her father’s fleet) to where each would intersect and collide paths into one another. Fitting really, as they each had such a spark of defiance intermixed with a challenging will to seek adventure at all costs.

My Review of The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk:

I quite fancied the way this novel starts – it has the curious tie-in to the mysterious Gypsy Hawk – a pirate ship of infamous legend, and as Malcolm begins her tale, she’s cultivated the very reason why I was so happily entranced by Captain Jack Sparrow’s mistress Black Pearl! She’s found a way to entice a reader to step through her portal in time and find themselves curiously curious about the legacy of the Gypsy Hawk – the chest and journal washing against the hull of a ship some fifty years after the Hawk was last seen – granting us an entrance and a wee bit of lore!

There is darkness brewing as we step into the shoes of a lady pirate named Amelia, outspoken and with determined grit to do a man’s work as a woman, she’s the pride of her father but also the ire of his eye; as part of him I believe would like her to defer to his guidance. She’s independent and fiercely so, not budging a bit when in company with her peers nor of a long-lost son now returnt bearing news that will not bode well for the pirate colony on Ile Sainte Anne. An isolated place by half, it’s set itself apart by having it’s own boundaries and laws; true freedom without constrictions and yet, it’s future is hung by the news a certain Captain Hazard has brought forth from beyond it’s fair shores.

Amelia is surprised by her attraction to Hazard, but only just so, she has more inclination to rub him the wrong way about her ideals and the motivations she has to believe in her father’s belief they are safe here on Ile Sainte Anne – where they have struck out on their own and created a haven for those who would else wise be unwanted or cast aside or worse. They provide for everyone who lives on the island but more to the point, they’ve created an equal caste of men, women and children; where the majority thrive and the few are not left behind. It’s a curious situation and it is easy to see why there would be those who would seek to disrupt the serenity of their lives.

Hazard on the other hand is at direct conflict with his heart and his instincts – his return hasn’t gone the way he fashioned it would before he went ashore – and now with the arrival of someone he recognises, his desire to leave post haste is dwindling as he contemplates what truly would be the right course of action to take if all upturnt itself overnight. Amelia unlike Hazard, doesn’t quite see the world painted black and bleak – Hazard is weary due to his hours on sea and sail, whereas she isn’t as experienced in the world; holding to truths she believes could dispel the negative reaches of nefarious sorts who choose only to harm. She’s as proud as her father but not as unwilling to hear an opposite truth to her own outlook; seeing where her loyalty and her conviction will take her as the story proceeds was part of the allure.

Honour and duty can blur when you cast your heart into the thick of a line chosen for you – a line that will test your resolve and the merit of everything you stand for in your life. Such a choice is hard to make for a man, but Amelia was forced to choose between family, honour and saving as many lives as she could in one focused effort to stave off an assault against her home; her island. Captain Hazard’s warning had rung all too true in the wake of the reality of what the visitors demanded – visitors whose hearts were not honourable and whose reputation for deceit proceeded them; if only more had believed Hazard!

You’re quite betwixt the truth and the challenge playing out before you – you see what needs to be seen, but your unable to change what is happening as your reading the pages – it’s such a curious dilemma as your so captured by the strength of the characters and of their own will to survive, how to choose amongst them who is strongest of all?

Malcolm hit me with more than one twist of a turn in the direction of the story-line – so much so – I was lurching into the second part with a bit of a confused shock only to find myself curiously inspired by the revelation awaiting me! I liked how she took me for a loop and then gave me an added bonus of suspending what I felt was going to happen become worse than I could have imagined! Sometimes stories feel like there is a predictable shifting about to jettison you away from where you felt the story might go – in this case – I felt it was working in opposite effect! I thought Hazard and Amelia might have found a way to join forces prior to what happens at the end of the first part of the story rather than where I alighted on page 142! This is good though – as I actually applauded where Malcolm shifted the story forward, as did fit within the context of what is probable for the time in which they were living. In fact, perhaps moreso than where I had hoped the story would take a turning!

Such a stirring and evocative love story – Malcolm wrote a tale befit a pirate and a the lore surrounding a life on the high seas where life, liberty and freedom were most endured towards living a life well lived for those who dared to be different from their peers. It’s guttingly realistic in places and heartwarming in others – you feel stirred by the events befalling the lead characters as much as your in earnest hope they can overcome the difficulties their facing. Malcolm does well to pull back from the hardest scenes whilst remaining honest about their historical accuracies as well.

For me, this is will be remembered most as a love story between two souls who never felt they deserved any sort of happiness that would be based solely on love and love alone. It’s one of the best stories to give these characters because it’s the least likely outcome they ever feel they shall have in their lifetime. How uplifting of a read and how lovely it was told in the true spirit of it’s historical inspirations!

On the historical writing style of Sally Malcolm:

I liked Malcolm’s ease of manner in telling her tale – she purports you so completely inside the story, it’s nearly not known if you stepped through a portal or were simply ‘elsewhere’ the moment you picked up her story – this feeling I had whilst I was reading about the Gypsy Hawk was most welcome indeed – as it was a lovely reprieve and a quicker read than most historicals will grant you! I liked how right from the turning of the beginning chapters, your so settled inside the thickening plot as to beg the pages to turn faster to learn more of how any of the growing tension and conflict can resolve! I like a well-told story but what is keen is to have a quicker read told equally as well – sometimes it’s nice to take-on lighter faire in historicals – reads where you can let your mind play a bit round the edges of a story and not lie heavily on plots that tug at your heart or still your soul due to the dramatic revelations.

Malcolm has written a delicious historical for readers who want to take an adventure on the high seas and combine their love of pirates from motion pictures with their love of story-tellers who can capture their heart on the written pages of a novels!

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ENJOY the Book Trailer:

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This book review is courtesy of:

ChocLitUK Reviewer Badge by ChocLitUK.

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In case you’ve missed my ChocLit readings:

Please follow the threads through #ChocLitSaturdays!

And, visit my ChocLit Next Reads List on Riffle

to see which stories I fancy to devour next!

I celebrated my 3rd Blogovesrary on 31st of March, 2016 wherein I revealled my Best of the Best Reads for 2015 via my End of the Year Survey. More than one ChocLit novel made the cut and received a special Award from me to acknowledge how lovely it was written!

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

My ChocLit readings this May 2016:

Starting with this reading of The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk

You Think You Know Me | No. 1 of the London & Cambridge Mysteries | by Claire Chase

The Golden Chain | No. 2 of Charton Minster series (see No.1) | by Margaret James

Some Veil Did Fall | No.1 of the Rossetti Mysteries | by Kirsty Ferry

*Part of my focus on serial ChocLit Fiction!*

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#ChocLitSaturdays May 2016 badge created by Jorie in Canva.

Topic: “Second Chances, New Beginnings” inspired by ‘Learning to Love” by Sheryl Browne (view my Cover Reveal with Notes) discussed on 7th of May, 2016 during #ChocLitSaturday!

UPCOMING:

Topic: “How to write an emotionally dramatic story but maintain a bit of levity” inspired by “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” by Jane Lovering to be chatted about on 14th of May, 2016

Topic: Vampire Romance & the Highgate Vampire series by Berni Stevens to be chatted about on 28th of May, 2016

I hope we’ll see you chatting with us! Spread the joy of #ChocLitSaturday to your bookish friends! Visit my post on #ChocLitSaturdays vs #ChocLitSaturday for more information! And, the words I expressed about #ChocLitSaturday on my spotlight for The Wild One by Janet Gover. We regularly meet-up directly on Twitter following the tag #ChocLitSaturday. You can use TweetDeck to follow the conversation or tweetchat.com where the app auto-adds the tag for you!

Remember you can also drop in on the conversations are your able too!

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I look forward to reading your thoughts & commentary! Especially if you read the book or were thinking you might be inclined to read it. I appreciate hearing different points of view especially amongst bloggers who picked up the same story to read.

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{SOURCES: Book Cover for “The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk”, Author photograph of Sally Malcolm, Author Biography, Book Synopsis and ChocLit Reviewer badge were provided by ChocLitUK and were used by permission. ChocLitSaturdays Banner Created by Jorie in Canva. Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. #ChocLitSaturdays May 2016 badge created by Jorie in Canva. Book Trailer for “The Legend of the Gypsy Hawk” was embedded due to codes provided by YouTube.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2016.

I’m a social reader | I tweet as I read

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 2016 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Saturday, 7 May, 2016 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 18th Century, Action & Adventure Fiction, Blog Tour Host, Caribbean, Caribbean History, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Indie Author, Modern British Author, Modern British Literature, Pirates and Swashbucklers, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Rebels and Rogues, Romance Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Treasure Hunt, TV Serials & Motion Pictures, Vulgarity in Literature




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