At last I return to sea-faring adventures of one impulsive Jacky Faber. Last seen fleeing the Great Battle at Traflgar with a pricy bounty on her head, Jacky escapes back to Boston, leaving her beloved Jaimy Fletcher behind. While she intially plans to be a girl and continue her learning at the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls, it is not too long before she returns to sea and is in over her head.

Before Jacky gets into more exploits on the seas, she returns to Boston where she picks up a new coxswain and repairs her friendship with Amy, clearing up the latter’s betrayal. From there, things are pretty calm for Jacky as she returns to school even though she nearly gets into a few fights with the slave-holding Clarissa Worthington Howe.

However, calm is not where Jacky state lies even though it’s in her best interest not to get caught and sent off to Britain to be hanged. But lucky or not so lucky for her trouble comes to her this time when an innocent field trip for the ladies turns into a greedy scheme by the vile helper-man Dobbs to send them into the slave trade in North Africa.

As one can imagine that at first these highborn ladies do not react well to being imprisoned in the belly of a slave-ship, eating bugaboo and being leered at by men. At most they can pray but luckily for them, they have the street-wise and sea-wise Jacky to toughen them up and make a plan for their escape.

Meyer does an in-depth job as usual in creating his nautical scene filled with plenty of informational tips on knotting, ship design and bow-and-arrow construction taken from his own background. He also adds historical details on the horrific conditions that slaves are forced to endure. While the Lawson Peabody girls are suffering, it is not comparable to how Africans were treated and Jacky firmly impresses this on their minds.

I enjoyed how the girls were able to use their school learning of dance, French and choral as a distraction method while keeping up their spirits. Thus highlighting the duality as they grow in muscular strength, emotional strength and knowledge. As Jacky says in the end, the girls have changed after this ordeal and likely won’t be able to just accept what their families/societies/fates have in mind for them. They’re Amazons now.

Additionally, even though there are about thirty girls chapter, Meyer manages to imbue enough of them with distinction and depth that they are memorable in their own rights and one can see their growth which is especially prominant in Elspeth and Clarissa. Yep, slave-owning Clarissa gets some nuance and moves herself from Jacky’s enemy to her frenemy. Baby steps.

Plus we get to learn a bit more of Jacky’s London past when her old friend Hughie turns up as the unwitting servant to the slavers. Inspired, she entertains the girls about her past exploits, revealing the time she cared for a baby and the great street urchin turf wars. It’s at turns heartwarming and sad to listen to Jacky’s poverty and her caring heart throughout it all.

Also, readers see how Jacky’s resolve falters and swells during her time on the ship as her past adventures and the numerous friends dying in front of her has started to take their toll and she enters these dark moods. Understanable but sad nonetheless.

As one can imagine Jacky and the ladies manage to get themselves out of the Bloodhound before they reach the auction block but Meyer ends the account with another riveting cliffhanger that will make you wonder how many chances can Jacky get before she sees that hangman’s noose.