Under The Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer Review

Sorry about being MIA to anybody who is reading this. I had my 21st birthday this week...and in the American Tradition, I spent the week fluctuating between total intoxication, sleep, and hangoverville. I also had to work 40 hours this week, so I really got behind in my blogging...SORRY!!! but here I am, back, and much more sober that I have been all week. (believe me, you wouldn't have wanted to read any posts I attempted anyways lol) So heeerrrress my new review!

Under the Jolly Roger (L. A. Meyer)

Under the Jolly Roger

(The Bloody Jack Adventures, Book 3)

L. A. Meyer

Harcourt 

Fiction, 

YA Adventure/Historical Fiction

Goodreads Description:

A pirate at heart, unlikely heroine Jacky Faber returns to the sea in a truly swashbuckling tale filled with good humor, wit, and courage.
After leaving the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston--under dire circumstances, of course--she boards a whaling ship bound for London, where she hopes to find her beloved Jaimy. But things don't go as planned, and soon Jacky is off on a wild misadventure at sea. She thwarts the lecherous advances of a crazy captain, rallies the sailors to her side, and ultimately gains command of a ship in His Majesty's Royal Navy. But Jacky's adventures don't end there. . . .

My Review:

Jacky is at it again in what is probably my favorite book of the series so far. I love that Jacky is back on the open ocean and away from land for most of the book. As much as I loved her visit to Boston, she just has her bearings more when upon the deck of a ship. This book is EXTREMELY full of action and adventure and Jacky’s crazy cunning and bewitching nature. The best part is that of all the adventures she has yet had, none of them get repeated! It is all new, hilarious, sometimes terrifying and fantastic. Jacky has this way about her of getting into insane amounts of trouble, then somehow miraculously wriggling her way out of it. 

Here are a few things that I adore about this book and the series in general. 

I love the fact that some of the previous characters come back into play in Jacky’s life. It is cool to see how they have changed (or not) in the times since Jacky has seen them. I LOVE Liam! I loved him in the first book, and he’s even better in the second. I also enjoyed seeing Muck again, despite him being a dirty, lying, stinking waister. Some new characters were pretty memorable as well. Higgins, a man servant that will become a key character in the series finds his introduction as a mad captain’s steward. Also, Mairead Delaney is a high-spirited and well deserved(after spending so much time with boys and men) girlfriend of Jacky’s. 

FINALLY, Jaimy (sort of) starts measuring up to his femme fatal of a fiancé. Until now, I kind of thought that he doesn’t deserve Jacky. I don’t want to give too much away, but there are some good scenes where he finally stands up to his mother, or does something else that is cool. He also is pretty funny at times. I love seeing both of the character’s letters to each other. It is so starcrossed knowing how they barely miss each other several times .

We get some new male pursuer’s of Jacky’s heart Robin Raeburn, a dashing and honorable midshipman who is absolutely adorable, A Lecherous Irishman by the name of Arthur McBride, and JOSEPH JARED!!!!! I now introduce you to my favorite male hottie in all of literature!! I can’t do his coal black hair, build physique, and cocky personality justice, so I will just quote one of my favorite parts of the book ;)

            "Charging in with sword drawn, I see a well-dressed man hurriedly stuffing papers into a cloth sack.       There is a small fire on the desktop into which he has already thrown some letters. There is a pistol on the desk next to the fire and when he sees me, he picks up the pistol and aims it directly at my face.

My mouth drops open and there is the roar of a pistol firing, but it is not that pistol, no, it is the pistol in the hand of Joseph Jared, which he has just fired next to my ear.

            I’m seeing all this as in a dream. A small hole has appeared in the well-dressed man’s forehead. He stares sightlessly forward for a moment, then crumples to the deck, the pistol falling from his hand. I stand stunned, my mouth still open. 

           Jared whips me around and puts me up against the bulkhead. He grins his damned cocky grin and says, “That’s at least three times I’ve saved your life, Puss-in-Boots, and now I’m gonna collect some reward.” And he kisses me hard on my still-open mouth. Long and hard.

Finally, he backs off and looks at me, smiling. “First time you’ve ever been kissed by a man, Puss? A real man?” 

I come back to my senses and say, breathlessly, “Put out the fire, Jared.”

“If you mean the fire down below, Jacky, that will never go out…,” he says, coming for me again.

“The fire on the desk, you fool!”

*SWOOONNNNNS* OMG I Love Jared so much!!! He comes off really cocky and kind of lecherous, but in the end it turns out he really cares for Jacky and I totally love him. Plus I love his nickname “Puss-in-Boots” that he comes up with for our darling heroine. It totally fits!

Warning (kind of) Spoiler Alert: I ended this book crying my eyes out. Meyer has a way of making Jacky’s world come alive so that if a character dies in the book, you feel it as if it happened in real life. The battle scene at the end was so awful that I was crying as much as I did when Fred Weasley (May He Rest In Peace) died in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  When you read this book, make sure you have the next book in the series In the Belly of the Bloodhound on hand so you don’t spend your night wallowing in misery like I did. Heaven forbid I would have read these books before the fourth one came out. I can’t imagine how agonizing the wait for the next one would have been had I been left with that burning imagery of death for a whole year.(Meyer publishes a Jacky book usually at the end of August/ early September every year) 

I didn't even put up a copy of the new cover...I hate the new one...it is horrible. It absolutely in no way whatsoever captures Jacky's awesomeness or the feel of the book. The illustrations are again SO much better. 

--Overall Report---

Originality: 10/10

Ending: 9/10

Characters:10/10

Plot: 10/10

My reaction/enjoyment: 10/10

Theme: 10/10

Imagery: 10/10

Setting: 5/5

Voice: 5/5

Style: 5/5

Tone: 5/5

Cover: 10/10

Total: 99/100

ABSOLUTELY ADORED THIS BOOK!!!

Alright, that's it for me today...I promise I will get back to posting things more often! I even have a giveaway coming up soon, yay me! lol

Andra