Title: Magic Marks the Spot (The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1)
Author: Caroline Carolson
Narrator: Katherine Kellgren
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Acquired Via: Publisher (print) & Library (audio)
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Admiral Westfield sucked in his breath and released it in a tremendous gust. "My dear," he said, "let me be clear: You are a young lady. You will not tell silly tales and you will never be a pirate."
Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors. She particularly enjoys defying authority, and she already owns a rather pointy sword. There's only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.
Girls belong at Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies, learning to waltz, faint, and curtsy. But Hilary and her dearest friend, the gargoyle, have no use for such frivolous lessons—they are pirates! (Or very nearly.)
To escape from a life of petticoats and politeness, Hilary answers a curious advertisement for a pirate crew and suddenly finds herself swept up in a seafaring adventure that may or may not involve a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn't exist, a rogue governess who insists on propriety, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous—and unexpected—villain on the High Seas.
Will Hilary find the treasure in time? Will she become a true pirate after all? And what will become of the gargoyle?
My Review
I promised myself a blog hiatus, but here I am writing this review. It's an illness, I tell you - very similar to the pleurisy that has taken over my lungs and breathing. But you're here to read my thoughts about Magic Marks the Spot. I'll start off by saying that this book is unbelievably, painfully, and wickedly adorable, with my new favorite middle grade character. However, I started this book back in May, which means that it took me approximately seven months to read. I started with an eARC, but I got accosted with All The Life Things and finally had to finish with an audiobook. Let me tell you something - the audiobook is SO GOOD, that you're missing out if you read Magic Marks the Spot any other way.