Bloody Jack Adventures

Being Full Accounts of the Life of the Notorious Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, Pirate, Keelboat Captain, Lily of the West, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy, and Queen of the Ocean Sea
by L.A. Meyer

This series centers on spunky Mary Faber, who gets into—and out of—every kind of scrape imaginable. In the first book she starts out as a London street orphan who signs aboard the H.M.S. Dolphin to make an honorable living. Disguised as a boy and newly christened “Jacky,” she hopes to voyage to far lands and see the Bombay Rat and the Cathay Cat. But it’s not that easy: life on a royal warship during the Napoleonic Wars is harsh in many ways, including cruel officers and bloody battles with pirates.
In a strange turn of events, Jacky is discovered as a girl by the Dolphin’s crew, separated from her true love, Mr. James “Jaimy” Emerson Fletcher, and sent to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls to be gentrified.
But learning to be a lady by all odds won’t keep Jacky Faber inside making samplers or away from her beau. No way, she roves the world from the streets of London to a gaol in Boston, the hills of Ireland to the mud of the Mississippi, the swells of the Caribbean Sea to the guillotine in France, and everywhere in between.

Along the way Jacky makes friends in high places and in low (very memorable and almost over the top, but never annoyingly so characters), and the acquaintances of many handsome young men....

There is something for everyone in these novels: adventure, romance, humor, sentiment, drama, even a little action. They are filled with lots of fun little references to legends, characters from classic novels, historical figures, and—most particularly—songs from the period. Like most series, Jacky’s adventures have high and low points, but over all are simply amazing and can be described in one word: WOW. The series is definitely one of my favorites, and has its own small fan club on the Bloody Jack Boards (which I don’t recommend visiting until you’ve read the series because of spoilers).
Fans of Celia Rees’ Pirates! and the Piratica Trilogy by Tanith Lee will love Jacky Faber!

Note: These are definitely at least age 12-and-up books due to mature content matter (some violence and sexual references).

Check out this awesome fan-made trailer!

Read every one of Jacky’s exciting adventures in:

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy
Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber
In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
Mississippi Jack: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, and the Lily of the West
My Bonny Light Horseman: Being the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War
Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy
Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Adventures of Jacky Faber, on her Way to Botany Bay
The Mark of the Golden Dragon (working title)