We have a lot of eARC’s and we want to promote them a little bit more. So we decided to do some more Bookish Beginnings On Friday. Today I wanted to share the beginning of My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows. This is one of my most recent eARC’s and especially after watching My Lady Jane on Prime Video I can’t wait to dive in. I loved the previous books by these ladies and I have high hopes for this one. Let’s take a look!

Perfect for fans of The Princess Bride and A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, New York Times bestselling authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows are back with a fantastical, romantical, and piratical historical fantasy remix that marries the story of The Little Mermaid with the life and times of infamous lady pirate Mary Read.

Don’t call this mermaid “little”—call her “captain,” unless you want to walk the plank.

Mary is in love with the so-called prince of Charles Town, except he doesn’t love her back. Which is inconvenient. Since she’s a mermaid, being brokenhearted means she’ll—poof!—turn into sea-foam.

But instead, Mary finds herself pulled out of the sea and up onto a pirate ship. To survive, she joins them. But Mary isn’t willing to just sing the yo-ho-hos. She wants the pirate life, all of it, and she’s ready to make a splash . . . by becoming captain. But when Blackbeard dies suddenly, Mary has a chance to become so much more: Pirate King . . . or Queen. She won’t let anyone stop her—not Blackbeard’s cute son, not her best friend from back under the sea who’s having a bit too much fun with his new legs, and certainly not everyone who says she can’t be a pirate just because she’s a girl.

She may not be the best man for the job, but she’ll definitely prove that she’s worth her salt.

You definitely know this story. A mermaid saves a handsome prince from drowning and, in the process, falls madly in love with him. An evil sea witch magics her into becoming human – all for the low, low pric of one beautiful singing voice – and it seems (for a minute there) like the mermaid is going to get her much-deserved happily ever after. But then the prince decides he’s madly in love with another girl.
What happens next? Well, there are a few versions. In one, the mermaid battles the sea witch, triumphs, and marries the handsome prince – the story is sweet and satisfying (with maybe a few catchy musical numbers) and everything turn out just how it should be. But in the older, original version of the story (the one that probably shouldn’t be told to children), our heroine loses everything. The prince marries the other girl. The little mermaid dies of a broken heart and turn into sea foam.
That’s right: she dies.
But there’s another version. A better one. Ours.
Yes, our story is about the little mermaid. But it’s also about treasure. And true love. And pirates.

I love these prologues so so much! Just reading this gets me super excited and I want to keep on reading right away. The Lady Janies have a gift with these historical retellings. All of the books have been hilarious! I just know I’m in for a good time whenever I pick up one of these books.

Like I said, I have just watched the My Lady Jane tv show on Prime Video (more on that later, but it was FANTASTIC) and I really wanted to experience another story like it. So it seems like the perfect time to pick up my eARC for My Salty Mary. This will be the final book in the ‘Mary’ series. I truly hope we’ll get another trilogy because I would hate for this to be the final book.