This novel immerses the reader into the aftermath of the Salem witch trials and into the piracy of the 1700’s. It is a moving and poignant tale of forbidden love, social justice and freedom. The writing is atmospheric, with vivid descriptions.
Many thanks to Kensington and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Calling all pirate story lovers! And lovers of stories about early colonial America too. If The Tide Turns will satisfy both with this fictionalized version of the life of Samuel Bellamy and his reputed love interest Maria/Mehitable Brown. So if you’re a fan of star-crossed lover stories, this will also appeal to you!

I was sucked into the story right from the start. The time is 1715 to 1717, when despite decades having passed since the Salem Witch Trials, there was still widespread belief in witches and very strict religious and societal pressures to conform in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Maria’s parents want her to marry a much older widower, a wealthy and influential man in their town. Maria absolutely does not want to do this! She was a wonderfully independent spirit, which was not an easy road for a woman in that place and time. (She wants to learn to swim, GASP!) A lot of the story takes place on Cape Cod, in the area in around Eastham and Wellfleet. Once Sam sets out as a pirate, we get to travel with him to various Caribbean locations. Life aboard ship and daily life in Eastham are described so well that I had no trouble picturing them.

Many real historical figures show up in these pages, including famous names like Cotton Mather and Edward Teach (“Blackbeard”), as well as less widely known ones. We get a bit of information about how the indigenous people were treated and how the colonists destroyed the environment on the Cape, turning meadows into farms with methods that depleted the soil and turned many areas into sand. I enjoyed having the perspective of the fictional Abiah, and appreciated learning about the Wampanoag people. While we follow Sam’s travels, we come across the evils of slavery.

The chapters alternate between Maria’s POV and Sam’s.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient, and allowed me to continue with the story even when I could not sit down and read - or when I could not listen. The audiobook is beautifully narrated by Pilar Witherspoon.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book and to Recorded Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to a review copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

When Kensington Books asked me to write a blurb for Rachel Rueckert’s debut novel, I jumped at the opportunity. Although I don’t read many romance novels, I do enjoy stories that take place in or near the water. The feel of the salty breeze and the mist stinging your face---that sort of thing. Set during the waning days of the Golden Age of Pirates (1689-1718; who knew there was such a thing?), If the Tide Turns is the “captivating true story of real-life pirate Samuel Bellamy, combining high seas adventure, star-crossed longing, surprisingly timely questions about social justice and freedom, and the emotionally satisfying tale of one strong-willed young woman
determined to choose her own path.”

This is the blurb I wrote: “Two lovers, separated by their stations in life, fight their way back to each other’s arms. On land and on the sea, Sam and Maria overcome the hardships of the mid-1700s. Rueckert’s new novel is a tale of daring, courage, aching loneliness and two people willing to face any obstacles to be together.”

It’s 1715 in Eastham, Massachusetts. Maria Brown is the beautiful, hard-headed daughter of a wealthy family who has arranged a marriage for her. She doesn’t want any part of the much older (shall we just say old?), also wealthy and abusive John Hallett.

Maria has her heart set on a young, orphaned sailor, Sam Bellamy. They met as Sam had been laid-off (yes, laid-off from his previous ship when it docked and no longer needed his services) and searched for another ship. The two are drawn together. Sam to Maria for her beauty and her self-determination. Maria to Sam for his idealistic opinions. The two are smitten with each other. Sam wants to marry her, but her father forbids it, in fact banishing him from their home. Maria, characteristically, vows to wait for him, to wait until he can make his fortune and offer everything her father deems, she should have.

Eager for success, Sam becomes involved with a pirate ship. But Sam isn’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill pirate. He is only interested in taking other ships’ bounties, not lives nor ships. His reputation as a “nice” pirate precedes him.

Maria leaves home, bent on following him from port to port. It’s a dangerous path she has chosen--- a woman traveling alone.

If the Tide Turns has all the aspects of a swashbuckling delightful read as Sam and Maria fight for their love. If the Tide Turns gets 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

This is my first book by this author. I thought the story started off strong. It is a well written historical romance fiction involving a dual POV between Sam and Maria. It was set in a time (1700s) when women were being ostracized for stepping outside the typical norms of society. Examples of Unwed mother and being considered a witch. I enjoyed the historical look at that era, but I had issues connecting with the characters.
Thank you NetGalley, Rachel Rueckert and Kensington Books for providing me a copy of the ARC for an honest review.

If The Tide Turns by Rachel Ruekert
Stars: 5

I am fully in my pirate days at the moment apparently. Just as I was finishing Woodward’s Republic of Pirates and Gibbin’s History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, I saw this book on NetGalley. The tagline read “A Thrilling Historical Novel of Piracy and Life After the Salem Witch Trials” and I thought, fun, swashbuckling adventures and just requested it without reading the blurb. I received both the audio and the ebook and so I began immersing myself in the world of Sam Bellamy and Maria Brown.

The book covers a short time period, 1715 to 1718, and alternates between Maria and Sam’s POV; these two meet, fall in love, and then part, vowing to reunite in a year. Sam promises to return to Maria after he has made his fortune, so they can live together, free from the censure of the town of Eastham on Cape Cod. But in their time apart, Sam becomes one of the most famous pirates of his time. And Maria must endure the shame and banishment that comes to one who steps outside the conventional norms in Puritan society. Woven through their tale is the story of the land that was taken by the white settlers from the Indigenous peoples all throughout Massachusetts. The treatment of not just the Wampanoags themselves but the very land they had lived on for centuries is a shameful reminder of our settler past.

So I went into this expecting pirate raids and a fun story. I came away with an ache in my heart for what women and people of color had to, and continue to have to, endure when they don’t “stay in their lane.” The what could-have-beens associated with Bellamy’s crew and their desire to establish as a pirate republic made me sad for the world that took too long to abolish the slave trade and slavery itself. As a woman, the ostracization that Maria experienced because she wanted different things than she was told to want, how her vibrancy and curiosity was treated as a determent, even an evil, is hard to read. Maria may or may not have been real, but what she experienced could not have been unique to her in the eighteenth century and the fortitude she exhibits is the heart of this story, one that I hope many people will have a chance to read.

This book has moved me more than I can say and I am going to be singing its praises to everyone! And since I live not too far from Provincetown, I will be making a trip to see the wreck of the Whydah and heading again to Wellfleet to start at Marconi Beach and stare out into the sea and imagine their story.

The Golden Age of Piracy. Salem Witch Trials.

High seas pirate king Samuel Bellamy is bewitched with beautiful and strong-willed Maria Brown. This novel sang to me of social justice and how badly two entwined fates can get so brutally twisted awry from one another.

Wealthy families and disloyal mothers. Sea ports and ships and gossiping wives tales. A forced marriage with an old horrible man because a beautiful soul grows within the womb of a heartsick woman, close to being disowned by parents embarrassed by her love.

A sister who refuses to give up. Whipping and breathless babes. A deceitful, lying letter. Raging waves, stealing the lives that are thrown overboard a ship of a man who left his heart behind. Storms rage on whilst a jilted lover bears the pain of lives lost and the sting of torture marrs her backside.

The power of faith and the power of love keeps a strong woman alive in a cold bitter world content to excommunicate her. A surprising alliance and friendship saves her, unwilling to leave her struggling and gives her purpose, rather than just surviving.

The will of Maria gripped me and I could not look away from this book for a moment. Her tenacity and unwillingness to give up, how she kept going inspired me in my daily life. She is a survivor, with or without the man she swore to never give up on, even when the world stopped at nothing to convince her of his absence.

This is a difficult book to read, with the loss and the tragedy and the torture. It was hard to read, though I am glad I did. I recommend readers finish this book at least once. It is inspiring and encouraging, despite the darkness the world insists upon us as humans. 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Rachel Rueckert for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for If the Tide Turns coming out March 26, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I love pirate stories! So the plot sounded really fun. I thought it started off really well. I loved that Sam was teaching Maria how to swim. I’m not sure how much time really passed, but it was a little too instalove for me. I think the parents weren’t as fleshed out as I thought they’d be. I’m not really sure what their motives were. They seemed to hate their daughters for little reason. There was certainly a lot of tragedy. I don’t want to give anything away, but at times it felt like Sam was having all the fun. I didn’t really enjoy that for Maria and what she had to go through. There was also a lot of time spent apart. I would’ve liked to see a little more adventure together. I liked the story, but wasn’t in love with it. I would check out other books by this author though.

Overall, this is a well written book of historical fiction that tells the story of Sam Bellamy and Maria- two star crossed lovers, based on a mix of historical facts, myths and suppositions, intent on highlighting the desperate and disparate positions of marginalized people in the era of piracy and colonialization in the US.
Sam meets Maria, a woman who's intent on having a few experiences before she must settle down and marry a much older and very uninteresting man who has high standing in her very religious colonial community. He teaches her swimming, they come to love each other, and because of his lack of standing, he leaves on a fool's errand in an attempt at a chance at "quick cash". Unfortunately he leaves Maria pregnant and unmarried, and in the age of bad communication options, this is not a good thing at all (cue storm clouds). Maria hastily marries, and eventually miscarries forcing her to face the shame and punishments heaped on women in that time. After a brave escape, she exiles herself and learns the hard lessons of survival. All the while, Sam becomes Black Sam Bellamy- a feared pirate, which he also feels is somewhat shameful, but needed for his survival. Will the two ever meet again? You'll have to read to find out!
The book had a bit of a YA feel to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, in general I felt like things were possibly made more black and white than the likely actuality of anyone's situation, which made the story very easy to follow, but made it feel as if it lacked a certain depth, and the writing seemed to be at exactly the 8th grade level, which is not to say it wasn’t good, it just seemed sort of perfect for YA.
This book would make a good book club book, it's a fast, easy read with lots of action and adventure to engage the reader. It lends itself easily to topics of discussion of equality, conformity, justice, and community.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

DNF'd at 25%

2.5 out of 5*s
I liked the idea of this book but honestly it was just too mundane for me. The story was so hard to stay engaged with because nothing ever made me go "omg I want to keep reading to find out what happens". The book is split up into 4 sections & through the first section only one kind of big thing happened but the outcome didn't push me to continue. I did continue up until the second chapter of the second part where I just felt like I lost all interest. Another thing that wasn't pushing me to finish was the fact that Sam & Maria are supposed to be madly in love but you really don't feel any connection between them at all & everything about them is very very surface level. I really wanted to love it but it was just not it for me.

Pirates! Based on the life of Sam Bellamy, it's an interesting look at piracy in the 1700s but also at the lives of women in the period. Maria, who fall in love with Sam, is struggling against the expectations of her father and her Cape Cod community, An adventure and a love story all at once, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

This was an interesting story set in a time when suspicions about people practicing witchcraft was very much a part of life. The main character , Maria, is determined to have fun before she ends up in a marriage her father wants for her with an older man who has basically cheated her family. Maria's father, I'm sure, is hoping for a better relationship at the expense of the daughter he adores.It all changes when maria falls in love with a younger, penniless male, and refuses to do what her father wants. .

Well written with good details.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This was a lovely historical romance about a story I knew nothing about. If the Tide Turns is an imagining of the legend of the pirate Sam Bellamy and his lover Maria. The story opens with a gorgeous set up for the romance and you fall absolutely in love with both characters. As the story unfolded I loved the historical details that brought that time period to life. I felt very grounded with the characters and was so invested in their story! Overall, I felt the story had awesome Elizabeth Swan/Will Turner vibes.

I would highly recommend for historical fiction readers who like pirates and romance.

Review posted on tiktok: Historical fiction + romance + PIRATES?! Yes please!! https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8TDv6ke/

A fun, historical fiction/romance story. I've never read a story about pirates, and this is not the type of book I normally gravitate to, but I enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If The Tides Turn is a different kind of pirate adventure, less swashbuckling and more struggling to live free from society’s expectations.

If you like your heroes to go against the grain then Maria and Sam’s story will appeal to you.

The writing was well researched and the reader gets to know the legendary pirate Sam and his love Maria- who has her own story to tell.

Where it fell short for me was modern sensibilities and progressive ideas being discussed by people from the mid 1700’s. Actual speeches by the characters was too much telling instead of showing the inequities taking place.

Everyone loves a good pirate novel, and this one is quite out of the ordinary. Based on the life of the actual pirate chief Sam Bellamy, who lived in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, it explores the events leading up to his decision to, in the terminology of the day, “go on the account” (become a pirate) and his short-lived career. What is most interesting is that these pirates are in many ways the opposite of what we have been taught to expect, whether that is lawless and cruel adventurers à la Blackbeard or would-be comedians like Disney’s Jack Sparrow. These pirates run a fledgling democracy where all decisions are taken by majority rule, and they prefer to avoid killing, as well as harsh punishments such as keelhauling and walking the plank. They would much rather invite the often-downtrodden crewmen of the ships they attack to join the pirate ranks. And that’s the historically attested part.

The focus of the story, though, alternates between Sam’s perspective and the much more fictionalized character of Maria Brown, the most beautiful woman in Eastham, Massachusetts, a small town on Cape Cod. Maria’s wealthy family has every expectation that she will bow to convention, which in 1715 means that she will marry well, take care of her husband’s household, and bear as many children as possible. Maria herself has no such ambitions—at least not if they involve the man her parents have selected for her. She and Sam click at first sight, but his misfortunes and her family’s opposition force them apart. He swears he will make his fortune and return, but as the months go by, Maria’s hope that he will keep that promise becomes harder to sustain.

The third element that sets this novel apart is the inclusion of the Wampanoag, the native people of Cape Cod, who welcomed the Pilgrims shortly after the arrival of the Mayflower but by 1715 have developed far more jaundiced views of the white colonists, who first seize, then destroy, the tribal lands and the economy based on them. Through the character of Abiah Sampson, a Native American healer and activist, we get an additional perspective on the impact of colonization on the people and the environment that had existed in Massachusetts for millennia before the Puritans arrived.

Set a bit more than halfway between that fateful arrival and the 1776 Revolution, this novel reveals the costs as well as the benefits of the American Dream. I look forward to hosting the author on my blog (link below) in late March 2024.

I loved how this was loosely based on facts. I really liked how the book went back and forth between the POVS. I did want to punch him though just a little bit. Men haha Definitely something that will be a hit with the right marketing.

I applaud the author's research and use of historical places, names, and ideas. It was interesting to read something that takes place AFTER the Salem Trials, which is definitely a bit different.

I grabbed this title originally because it promised pirates and witches. As a huge fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean films (and ride), I was intrigued by that combination!

But the writing lags for me. It isn't a fast-moving swashbuckling adventure. It's more of a slow romance type social commentary trying too hard to be a serious version of the Odyssey.

Although it didn't really work for me, I liked that this book is out in the world. Applause for history buffs turned writers!

"Survival alone is not living... It is difficult, the struggle of hope."

Not a bad book but not for me. The writing style was good and the author is obviously a very capable writer. The characters were well-fleshed out too. But the story didn’t really work for me because while I found Sam to be a very compelling character, Maria and her story weren’t that interesting. As for their romance and relationship, it was all right. Again, I found Sam by himself to be the highlight of this book.

Also, I really didn’t care for the constant reference to just how green Maria’s eyes are. It almost had me wondering if he would have cared less about her if she’d had brown or blue eyes.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for this DRC in return for an unbiased review

Trapped by the puritanical standards of her village and family Maria yearns to have the freedom to swim like a boy and not marry who her father chooses for her. When she meets Sam and falls in love this freedom is put to the test. They each make an unconventional choice which leads to a dangerous path. Sam will become the pirate of legends while Maria will be cast as an adulterer and witch. A wonderful seafaring adventure combined with historical fiction revolving around strong women held in contempt by powerful men. It also touches on the dilemma when loyalty to your country disagrees with your own moral compass. A love story for the ages based on true historical figures in Colonial America. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

This story, set in Cape Cod a few years after the Salem Witch Trials, involves the unemployed young seafarer Sam Bellamy and Maria Brown, his true love. On the docks of Eastham searching for work, Sam spots a young woman flailing in the ocean. After coming to her rescue, he learns that all she wants is to learn how to swim and asks him to teach her. As he gives her lessons, he finds a kindred spirit in Maria-they are both courageous and principled and soon fall in love. But Maria's parents have big plans for her as she is to save their family farm by marrying a much older widower and settling down to a life of female subservience. Although Sam asks for Maria's hand in marriage, her parents drive him away and he vows to return a rich man and marry their daughter anyway. Before he leaves, they consummate their love on a deserted beach.
The book then separates into the tale of Sam and the tale of Maria. The only position that Sam could get was that of a privateer-essentially a pirate who did not attack British ships. But he and his fellow sailors gave up the pretense of following these customs and sought the most lucrative cargoes through full-blown piracy. He was soon given captaincy of the ship Wydah and the name Black Sam Bellamy. Life as a pirate was not as bad as being an ordinary sailor-the crew was well fed, there was diversity and egalitarianism, and rules were followed. He never forgot his sweetheart though, and he wrote Maria a letter, asking if she still wanted him. A letter returns to him that tells him to stay away.
Maria spurns the widower Hallett and takes refuge in her mastery of the craft of weaving. She discovers that she is pregnant, and her mother forces her to marry Hallett and convince him that the baby is his. Unfortunately, the baby is stillborn and Maria is cursed as a witch for killing her baby. She runs away to a shack in the forest of a neighboring town where she is aided by a native American woman. She never receives a letter from Sam.
Based on historical records and local folklore, the story of Sam and Maria is a fascinating adventure of a love that has survived through the ages. An enjoyable and enlightening read.