Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

This is a wonderful overview of the history of women in piracy. Each woman gets several pages dedicated to them, definitely enough for you to gain an understanding of each one. This also helps you determine if there are any particular people or topics you want to look into further.

Definitely would recommend!

This book was a good starting point for those interested in learning about women in piracy. The biographies were rather short, but they provided enough information to get me interested in the women being discussed.
The writing itself was very choppy and disorganized, making it difficult to follow. Furthermore, some of the sources for information in the bibliography appeared questionable. Definitely a good read as a jumping-off point for research or interest, but not the best in terms of organization or scholarly authority.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Pen & Sword Publishing for the eARC!

This is not a book for pirate lovers nor a book for female empowerment; it could possibly become a book for people who literally didn’t know there were female pirates.

It’s my opinion that this book is not close to being finished. It reads like a mandatory school essay where too many words were substituted by longer words found in the thesaurus.

There are interesting facts in here but they are not presented in a compelling way. The bland, factual statements paired with a rough unintelligible formatting in the kindle edition unfortunate did not make this a great read for me. The kindle edition shows lines of text that do not make sense. Many full pages are look like the information copied below

Gráinne O'Malley, Pirate Queen of Connacht Pirate:
Also known as:
Date of birth: Place of birth: Married:
Date of death: Place of death: Gráinne
O'Malley
Bald Grace
Dark Lady of Doona
Granny Imallye
Grace/Grainne O'Flaherty
Grace/Grinne Ó Fhlaithbertaigh/
Ó Flatharthaigh/Ó Flaithbertaigh/
Ó Flaithbheartaigh
Grace of the Gamblers
Gráinne/Grace O'Mallie
Grany O'Maly
Grinne Mhaol
Gráinne/Grace Uí Máille
1530
Umhaill, Ireland
Richard-na-Iarainn Burke
Dónal 'of the Battle'
Ó
Flatharthaigh
(also known as Dónal Ó Fhlaithbertaigh and
Dónal Ó Flaithbheartaigh)
1603
Rockfleet Castle, Ireland

I really enjoyed going on this historical journey, it had that piracy element that I was looking for and had that historical element that I was hoping for in a nonfiction book. I learned a lot about women in piracy and enjoyed getting into this world. Roxanne Gregory has a strong writing style and can't wait for more.

4.25 stars

I've been very intrigued by piracy and pirate women so this instantly grabbed my attention.

This book contains the biographies of the most famous women pirates throughout the ages, from BCE until the 1800s, but especially during the golden age of piracy. It is no surprise that the majority of stories of pirate women were scarce and/or may have had different accounts in order to make their story less than it was or erase them from records to favor someone else or because they were a bad example to follow.

I enjoyed that not only we did get a biography of each pirate, but we also got a detailed historical background of the context where they dared to have agency in a world mostly ruled by men. These women were inspiring and it would've been cooler to have more information about their missions and their lives.

At the end of this short volume there are also several illustrations of some of the women and their castles, maps, and other places that were mentioned in the bios. There are also more appendices that are more like a Q and A about pirates. This, too, would've been cooler to me if it contained more info about pirates and their life.

The author divided the biographies by geographical area, starting from the Tortuga Islands. But I feel like a chronological order would've been more effective (personal opinion).

I appreciated the format of this book in that each woman had her own self contained chapter, which made this book very easy to pick up and just read a bit between errands etc. I also really appreciated that the author wrote the common thoughts on what happened to each person, but then stated that it can’t be known for certain, whereas other authors are just content to go also with the popular myths, which added weight to the rest of the information written. Due to the formatting the stats at the beginning of each chapter didn’t come across well, but I didn’t view these as essential reading, so didn’t feel the loss of them. Overall an interesting book

A series of short stories and biographies about the most famous female pirates, this book is an amazing read. You can very easily see that this one has been well researched and written in snack-sized sections to allow for a brief eye view into the lives of these trailblazing women. As educational as it is entertaining, you will find yourself envisioning Geena Davis from Cutthroat Island with a higher level of respect and knowledge for that a female pirate was not a myth - but rather - real.

For anyone who loves pirate lore and all things of the Golden Age of Piracy, I highly recommend this one.

A diverse history of the many women that were granted the title of pirate. I appreciate Gregory’s insight teaching the difference between pirates and buccaneers. Furthermore, learning the complexities of female pirates and why they were extraordinary for their time. There are snippets of historical context for each pirate we are introduced to. I appreciate the location and various aliases associated with the women. Finally, the only thing I wanted to see was some famous or infamous law each women inspired!

For more recommendations and reviews visit https://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com

I really, really loved reading this. As a woman who loves pirates, this was a perfect and entertaining read. Personally, my favourite was the chapter about "Jacquotte Delahaye, Real or Phantom?". It was a wonderful read.