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Sea Witch (Capt. Jesamiah Acorne Book 1) Kindle Edition
The Place : The Pirate Round - from the South African Coast to the Caribbean.
Escaping the bullying of his elder half-brother, from the age of fifteen Jesamiah Acorne has been a pirate with only two loves - his ship and his freedom. But his life is to change when he and his crewmates unsuccessfully attack a merchant ship off the coast of South Africa.
He is to meet Tiola Oldstagh an insignificant girl, or so he assumes - until she rescues him from a vicious attack, and almost certain death, by pirate hunters. And then he discovers what she really is; a healer, a midwife - and a white witch.
Tiola and Jesamiah become lovers, but the wealthy Stefan van Overstratten, a Cape Town Dutchman, also wants Tiola as his wife and Jesamiah's jealous brother, Phillipe Mereno, is determined to seek revenge for resentments of the past, a stolen ship and the insult of being cuckolded in his own home.
When the call of the sea and an opportunity to commandeer a beautiful ship - the Sea Witch - is put in Jesamiah's path he must make a choice between his life as a pirate or his love for Tiola. He wants both, but Mereno and van Overstratten want him dead.
In trouble, imprisoned in the darkness and stench that is the lowest part of his brother's ship, can Tiola, with her gift of Craft and the aid of his loyal crew, save him?
Using all her skills Tiola must conjure up a wind to rescue her lover, but first she must brave the darkness of the ocean depths and confront the supernatural being, Tethys, the Spirit of the Sea, an elemental who will stop at nothing to claim Jesamiah Acorne's soul and bones as a trophy for herself.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMay 20, 2019
- File size10528 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Sea Witch gives us everything we want in a grand pirate adventure - swashbuckling action, great villains, lovely women in distress, sea fights and adventures on land, all grounded in solid research that gives the book a real feel of authenticity. This is a terrific read for lovers of pirate tales, lovers of historical fiction, and lovers of great adventure stories. --James L. Nelson
In the sexiest pirate contest Jesamiah Acorne gives Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow a run for his money. --Sharon Penman
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B07S1XG348
- Publisher : Penmore Press LLC (May 20, 2019)
- Publication date : May 20, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 10528 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 360 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0857780379
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,753,450 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,878 in Witch & Wizard Thrillers
- #5,735 in Sea Stories
- #9,056 in Paranormal Suspense
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Hello, welcome to my Amazon Author Page. I am Helen Hollick a USA Today bestselling author. My website is https://helenhollick.net/ where you will find my latest news and how to subscribe to my newsletter. Thank you so much if you were kind enough to click the 'follow' button above. Your support is very much appreciated.
Please do consider leaving a review or comment for any or all of my books.
About me and my books:
I moved from London to Devon in January 2013 (in the snow!) to live in an18th Century farmhouse with thirteen acres of land. I live with my husband, adult daughter and son-in-law, several pets (dogs, cats, hens, geese, four horses, three Exmoor ponies, two pigs) and a few friendly ghosts.
I write historical fiction, getting to the nuts and bolts of the 'what might have really happened' story of King Arthur in my PENDRAGON'S BANNER Trilogy. There is no Merlin, no Lancelot, knights in armour, round table or holy grail - just the story of a warlord who has to fight hard for his kingdom and even harder to keep it.
Book One - The KINGMAKING
Book Two - PENDRAGON'S BANNER
Book Three - SHADOW OF THE KING
(these are also published in German)
'Helen Hollick has it all! She tells a great story, gets her history right and writes consistently readable books!' (Bernard Cornwell)
My Saxon Series - HAROLD THE KING (I AM THE CHOSEN KING is the US title) and its prequel, A HOLLOW CROWN (The FOREVER QUEEN is the US title) tells the story of the twilight years of Anglo-Saxon England immediately before the Norman Conquest. Stripping the Norman propaganda from what we think we know of that most famous date in English history - 1066 and the Battle of Hastings - my novels portray all the honour and dignity that history remembers of its fallen heroes and heroines.
With eight other inspiring authors, I am a co-author of 1066 TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, a selection of 'what if alternative' stories about the year 1066.
I also contributed a short story about the pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read to a free anthology with the theme of BETRAYAL.
To balance the 'serious' books I have my SEA WITCH VOYAGES: pirate-based adventure fantasy. The Voyages are a blend of Sharpe, Hornblower and Indiana Jones all stowed in the one boat.
Voyage One - SEA WITCH
Voyage Two - PIRATE CODE
Voyage Three - BRING IT CLOSE
Voyage Four - RIPPLES IN THE SAND
Voyage Five - ON THE ACCOUNT
Voyage Six - GALLOWS WAKE
And a novella short read: WHEN THE MERMAID SINGS - how Jesamiah Acorne became a pirate.
This title has received a BRONZE AWARD for the Coffee Pot Book Club Book of the Year Award 2022
Several of my books have been awarded the B.R.A.G Medallion and CHILL WITH A BOOK awards.
"In the sexiest pirate contest, Captain Jesamiah Acorne gives Jack Sparrow a run for his money" (Sharon Penman)
If you liked the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies and enjoy a good sailor's yarn, then in the words of author Elizabeth Chadwick "You'll love this to pieces of eight".
My latest venture is branching out into the 'cosy mystery' genre with my library assistant 'Jan Christopher Mysteries' series set in the 1970s. The first two being A MIRROR MURDER and A MYSTERY OF MURDER with episode 3 A MISTAKE OF MURDER scheduled for spring 2023.
I have two NON-FICTION books: PIRATES TRUTH and TALES, a lighthearted look at the truth and the tales about pirates, published by Amberley Press, and SMUGGLERS IN FACT and FICTION - again exactly what the title says!
***
I run several blogs, including one for our village of Chittlehamholt and my own 'Let Us Talk of Many Things'. https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/
I am a member of the Society of Authors, The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) and the Crime Writers Association (CWA)
I enjoy hearing from readers. You can contact me via my website
( or email me on: author AT helenhollick DOT net )
'Lege Feliciter' (read happily)
Helen
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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He's a pirate.
She is young and lovely, and learning the extent of the power of her Craft, and he is flamboyantly handsome, with blue ribbons braided into his long black hair, and a golden acorn in one ear.
What more could the reader in search of romance, adventure and excitement expect?
But wait. There's more. There's a wonderful creation called the Tethys, a supernatural sea-creature who rules "her water realm with unchallenged power and a terrible omnipotence." In Maori myth she would be known as a Taniwha -- a mighty Taniwha, a taniwha nui.
The three powerful spirits clash and intertwine right from the start of this rousing adventure. The witch, young Tiola, has taken passage on a Cape Town-bound ship, fleeing from the Cornwall mob that would have hanged and burned her. The pirate, Jesamiah Acorne, is in hot pursuit of that same ship, determined to seize it, ransack the holds, rob the passengers, and vanish like smoke into the far horizon. In the midst of the frenzy of action that accompanies this, their souls link and cry out to each other, a spiritual questioning that Tethys, the taniwha asleep in the depths below, overhears, rousing her to dangerous awareness.
And so the complicated story begins. There is conflict, there are battles, there are remarkably well described love scenes, marriages of convenience, vendettas, and vivid characters, many of them evil. Real historical figures appear on the same page as the supernatural, and of course there is plenty of rum. It is Pirates of the Caribbean with a twist.
Helen Hollick's forte is her ebulliant imagination. Everything is original, from her writing, which is vivid and yet as economical as conversational French, where unnecessary words ("the", "and") are dropped for fluency. Notable is the lavish use of the color blue, so expensive and cherished at the time, that the cheeky blue of Jesamiah's ribbons is almost eclipsed by the sheer arrogance of painting his ship -- Sea Witch -- the same blue that was the prerogative of monarchs and prelates! And there are wonderful jokes, snitched from real history, such as the raid of a merchant ship by a crew of pirates who merely needed a haul of hats for their heads.
This book is strongly recommended for young adults who want a rousing story, and also for those who want a thought-provoking new approach to the traditional pirate yarn.
There’s lots of lusting and whoring in the book, which will endear it to some readers, though I have to admit that none of it was to my taste. No doubt the attitudes and behaviour of the time are accurately conveyed here, and I appreciated the unflinching depictions of the lives of prostitutes. However, I felt pretty queasy at the celebratory tone with which our hero’s whoring was covered. (Ask a sex worker: I have it on good authority that they really don’t enjoy it or find it satisfying, even when the customer is young and handsome).
The plot is intricate and well worked out, and touches on recognisable places and figures, with historical details carefully researched but never heavy handed – despite being nicely anchored in history, the adventure is firmly fiction and the fantasy components are delicious – the empathic and magical connection between Jesamiah and the mysterious Tiola were my favorite passages of the book, and I loved the relationship between them. The conclusion leaves some questions open – not a cliffhanger exactly (I really don’t like it when a book ends on a cliff-hanger, makes me feel very cheated) but enough unrevealed that one is tempted to go further through the series. Masterfully done.
So at first, I was a bit disappointed - it felt forced. But I found the second half much better than the first and the last quarter of it in particular I couldn't put down. The characters have good back stories and it has an interesting plot, although I didn't really get into until the second half. This isn't Hollick's best work and I don't think I'll read the rest of the series (at least not right now) but it wasn't bad.
Top reviews from other countries
The Sea Witch is perfect for readers who love a rousing good tale and who love historical fiction and a bit of fantasy. The Sea Witch is the first novel in a series of Captain Jesamiah adventures. It’s truly one of my favourite series. Eagerly awaiting more.
So when I came across this series of pirate tales, I had to give it a try.
Sea Witch is the first book about the adventures of Captain Jesemiah Acorne and adventures they are. Reading this book took me back to my early love of swashbuckling films and of stories such as he prisoner of Zenda and Man in the Iron Mask. It’s an exhilarating tale of love, off and on the high seas.
In the author’s notes she states that she has taken some small liberties with details and dates but the narrative feels very well researched with nautical terms and references freely being used. Very cleverly, these terms enhance the story and never feel forced or clumsy.
This first in the series shows the reader how Jesemiah became a pirate and gives a real flavour of what dangers were faced by such a lifestyle. It also illustrates the hardships for everyone living in the far outposts of the world as it was in the 1700’s.
There is a ‘mystical’ element to the story which, just through personal preference, would usually put me off but actually in this case the magic is woven well into the main story and didn’t distract.
Sea Witch is good tale, well told and a thoroughly enjoyable read.