After the death of her mother,
Natalie
Satterfield sails to
South Carolina to live with her father, a wealthy
merchant who hasn’t
seen his
daughter in years. When pirates attack her ship, Natalie
barely escapes
with
her life. But three of the rogues chase her to a
deserted island.
Unable to
land there, one of them believes he shoots her dead.
Once they row back
to
their ship, Natalie regains consciousness. The pampered
soon-to-be
sixteen year
old hasn’t a clue how to survive. After several days of
solitude, she
smells a
fire and thinking some of her shipmates have survived,
she heads toward
them. Instead
of finding friends, she stumbles upon cannibals and runs
for her life.
Black John Hayes, marooned on the
island
sometime before,
can’t allow the newcomer to be someone’s meal. A pirate
he may have
been, but
he does have a code of honor. He dashes into the midst
of the cannibals
and
quickly slays them all. Then he takes Natalie under his
wing and
teaches her
how to survive.
A former shipwright,
John
enlists Natalie to help him build
a boat to take them from the island. After each hard
day’s work, he
teaches her
to fight so that if the pirates return, she won’t be
defenseless. In
return for
her assistance on the project, he promises to take her
to her father.
But that
meeting is a long time off, and in between she
encounters numerous
exploits. Once
she reunites with her father, things don’t go exactly as
planned.
Stuffed full of adventure, this
coming of
age tale is a
fast-paced roller coaster ride. Nat slowly matures from
a spoiled, rich
kid
into a young woman who can stand on her two feet and use
her head,
rather than
sit around being waited on. The author’s knowledge of
wooden sailing
ships and eighteenth-century
pirate lore are deftly woven into a thrilling journey
that doesn’t
disappoint.
Readers who take the plunge with Nat in Natalie’s
Good
Fortune will look forward with eager anticipation
to her next
quest.
Pirates
and Privateers
