CURSE OF THE BLUE TATTOO

The sequel to Bloody Jack (2002) is a rousing adventure, short on character development but perfectly delicious in all other ways. Our heroine, London-born Jacky Faber, having been found out as a girl, must leave her ship and the boy she loves, taking her pirate money for tuition at an exclusive girls’ school in Boston, 1802. Cheeky as all get out, Jacky sings (lyrics of famous ballads and chanteys throughout), plays the penny whistle and concertina, learns to paint miniatures on ivory, ride a horse, and curtsey. Jacky gets busted to the servants’ quarters, but is raised up again, finds herself a good lawyer, and writes many letters to her true love Jaimy. He writes back, and various events are conveyed, but not to their recipients. Jacky wins a horse race, escapes from a predatory preacher, even saves her starchy headmistress from the thrilling end-of-the-story conflagration. But she doesn’t reach Jaimy, and the end finds her aboard a whaler, headed toward England. Breathless readers don’t have to know the first installment to thrill to this one, but they will long for the next. (Fiction. YA)