So I DNF'ed this book just about halfway through. I remember reading My Lady Jane when it first came out and enjoying it, so when I heard this one was about Mary Read I was so excited. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me. For the most part it was fine, although it did kind of skew a little young. My main issue was that modern day references kept being inserted into it and it just drove me insane. I would be reading, everything would be fine, then all of a sudden one of the pirates would be named Captain Crunch or Bill and Ted would be mentioned. I understand it's a fantasy world but it just didn't work for me. In fact it drove me insane. I'm sure there are some people who will enjoy all of those little easter eggs, but I found it really cringey. I honestly can't remember if things like that were included in My Lady Jane or not, but if they were I guess they didn't bother me back then like they do now. It's a shame though, because aside from that it was a fairly decent story from what I read, if not slightly juvenile (almost more like MG to me than YA).

It’s no secret that I love a good retelling and Hand, Ashton, and Meadows are masters of marrying alternative history with comedy. Mixing The Little Mermaid with the life and times of the infamous lady pirate Mary Read means the reader is in for quite a tail er… tale. The strength of this series is the witty, sassy narration and dialogue, and My Salty Mary does not disappoint. This book is hilarious!

The POV’s rotate between Mary Read aka “Littlest,” her partner in crime Tobias Teach, and her cousin Calico Jack. With lots of “ahoys” and “yo-hos” Mary and her crew try navigating pirate life in the Caribbean.

Unfortunately for them, they must escape the perils of the high seas (aka notorious pirates and pirate hunters) if they want to succeed in their quest to make Mary the new pirate king, or queen in her case. The captain who returns with the most treasure will claim Blackbeard’s title and define the future of piracy. If Mary where to win, she could stop hiding her gender and declare that women are allowed to be pirates, The narrative is whimsical and adventurous, while still driving at themes of feminism and equality. This book is an instant new favorite!

I absolutely loved this book! I read it in one setting because it was so good and I could not get enough of the characters. I really loved the characters the author created and there journey that they took. The story was fast paced but detailed where I felt immersed but not bored. I will be recommending this book to all of my family and friends.

Yet another FABULOUS entry in the My Lady Jane series. This book has pirates and sass and adventure! What more could you ask for? I continue to love the humor and all-around fantastic vibes of this series. Every protagonist is engaging and entertaining. I love this series.

My Salty Mary is a fantastic addition to the Mary series. Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean with Hand, Ashton, and Meadows’ tongue-in-cheek humor I have come to love from these authors. Students who love excitement, love, humor, and adventure will go head over heels for this book.

When I first saw My Salty Mary had three authors I was a little wary about the quality of writing. Thankfully, this wasn’t something I needed to worry about. The tone and quality of the writing was consistent throughout. Which is fairly impressive given this book has three authors, who I assume wrote one POV each.

I love a retelling, we all know this by now, and My Salty Mary was a really great one, although it’s not an outright retelling, so don’t expect to see an evil sea witch and a handsome prince. It pulls from multiple stories for inspiration and plot events, but the The Little Mermaid parts were my favourite, as this was one of my favourite stories as a kid - the original version and the Disney one.

Some of the dialogue that was used to reference other mediums (at one point the “don’t let go Jack” line from Titanic was used) was pretty funny most of the time. But some were a little forced and made me cringe just a tiny bit. These were easy to overlook though as the action was so fun.

I also really loved the “narrators” talking directly to the reader. At first, I thought these would take me out of the story and get annoying, but they were great. They added personality to the book and the tidbits of history were fun to read. I didn’t really know anything about real pirates before reading My Salty Mary and now I feel like I’ve learnt quite a lot.

Apparently, I love pirate books, which isn’t something I knew about myself until recently. Well, I like the ones that aren’t too brutal. This one definitely had elements you’d expect from a book back then (racism, sexism, slavery), but as the authors said themselves, they didn’t want to erase these parts of history so they have been included but they made them slightly lighter. I personally think they handled these topics in a considered manner.

I really liked all of the main characters. Mary was strong-willed and her development from the first chapter to end of the book was incredible - we love a strong woman. Speaking of strong women, Anne Bonny was by far my favourite character. I don’t know anything about the real life Anne Bonny, but this one was incredible. She was bloodthirsty and hilarious, two traits that make a great character if you ask me.

Every character had a distinct personality that came across in their dialogue and actions no matter which perspective you were reading and they were all just super fun and likeable.

I would highly recommend checking out My Salty Mary if you love funny, fairly light hearted books about pirates. It has a lot of pop culture references and the writing feels very fresh.

“My Salty Mary” by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows is technically part of the “Mary” series, but this is completely a stand-alone book. This book is a mashup of “The Little Mermaid” and Pirates - what is there not to like? I know a smidgen about “lady pirates,” and this book did take some historical liberties (but why not have some fun?) and there is some magic involved (hello Little Mermaid), but the reader meets a number of fun characters along the way. I liked the nods to trends and I know I missed many, but that was okay - the point of this book was to have a wild fun ride. There’s romance - and broken hearts - and feisty women - and general fun. I wasn’t sure how I’d like this book (maybe I’ll try My Lady Jane again), but it was a wild and fast and fun ride. And a book that makes me chuckle aloud (Taylor Swift lyric drops! Princess Bride lines!) is always worth its weight in gold (pun intended). Strong recommend!

What a fun book! I read My Lady Jane relatively recently and, while I enjoyed it, it didn't inspire me to immediately pick up the rest of the series (or the spin-off series). This one did. I laughed a LOT while reading this, and while the writing style felt pretty juvenile given the ages of the characters, I actually kind of liked that. I think it made the book better and kept things very lighthearted. This book is chock-full of comedy references (I caught many to The Princess Bride, and at least one to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), which, as a millennial reader, I loved. I'm not sure how many teenagers would get all the references, but I certainly enjoyed them. I also loved the inclusion of Anne Bonny. She's been a character I've been interested I for a couple of years now, and while this book's portrayal of her is obviously not historically accurate, it was still so much fun to see her causing mayhem and chaos. The mermaid aspect took me a little longer to get into, but I think the authors pulled that together with the rest of the story quite well. My only complaint is, as is often the case with historical fiction, the modern feminist attitudes held by most of the characters, long before most of modern feminism had even been thought of. I get that the book was lighthearted and not taking itself seriously at all, which is why it bothered me much less in this book than usual, but I don't think this will ever stop being a pet peeve of mine. All in all, this was a really fun and funny YA alternate history/fantasy novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you like absurdist comedy, like Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy or The Princess Bride, I think you'll love this.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperTeen for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid with some pop culture references throughout (think of "famous" captains, the Titanic movie, and Disney). This was the first book from this series that I've read, and I really like the author's writing style (addressing the reader, the pop culture references).

Instead of marrying the handsome shipwrecked man, the little mermaid becomes a pirate in a time when women pirates aren't welcome. Mary discovers what she truly wants from life.

"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."

If you watched and fell in love with My Lady Jane and are desperately awaiting a season two pickup, good news, the authors who wrote that book have written tons of others, including this new one!

Pirates. Mermaids and Bad-woman, what more could you ask for!? A crossover. The title. The end.

There is so much to talk about. I absolutely adore the Lady Janies and Mary series. They take sad tales and make them better. These books are categorized as historical fiction, but they want you to look into the real facts and events they are talking about. Everything about this book works out in its favor. If you know these ladies, tune in, because there are better tides ahead.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole series, but especially this book, because it was amazing.

Thank you for Netgalley and HarperTeen for this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

This is the twisted and rewritten history of Mary Read (If you've never heard of her, highly recommend looking her up. There's not a lot of information about her because she was a woman in a man's world, but what there is is absolutely fascinating) so of course it has pirates but also some mermaids. So weird and wonderful.

I have not read any of the other Mary books but I have read all of the Jane books and they were always so fun with corky supernatural twists on history and this is definitely no exception. It follows that same pattern.

If you're looking for a fast-paced fun read to kick back and read by the pool or the beach, then I would definitely recommend picking this book up. From the second you pick this book up you are in for a journey and a delight.

This had potential but fell pretty flat for me. It seemed to drag on and on and nothing was really happening. I love the wit and charm that the authors bring to these books but it didn't help me get through this one. I ended up giving up around 50% done.

Everything about this works, but is not a terrific jumping off point for the uninitiated. If you are looking for a little mermaid retelling and are unfamiliar with these authors: This is not the book you are looking for. If you know these ladies already: Tune in, good times ahead.

This novel, a collaborative effort by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, is a fantastical remix of The Little Mermaid and the life of Mary Read. Is it historically accurate? Hardly. Is it romantically believable? Maybe. Is it a rip-roaring, laugh-out-loud romp? Absolutely.

Cue the yo-ho-hos and a life of high-seas hijinks.

When Blackbeard bites the dust, Mary sees her chance to enter the Pirate King contest and seize the pirate throne. Her competition? Captains Obvious, Crunch, Morgan, Penzance, Ahab, and Vane (real). She sets sail with a motley crew that includes Blackbeard’s annoyingly cute son and her overly enthusiastic mermaid-turned-human bestie, to find Blackbeard’s treasure.

What ensues is a whirlwind of swashbuckling shenanigans, perilous pirate politics, and enough gender-role defying to make you want to throw your corset overboard. The authors excel at blending whimsical fantasy with historical flair. Mary herself is a standout—fierce, clever, and unyieldingly ambitious. Mary’s tenacity is infectious, and her refusal to be anything less than captain material is both inspiring and downright hilarious. She navigates the treacherous waters of pirate politics and the perils of the high seas with equal parts daring and charm. Her interactions with Blackbeard’s son and her sea-creature best friend add layers of intrigue and fun, making the story both heartwarming and entertaining.

This book is a fantastically fun read that delivers on its promise of adventure, romance, and pirate mischief. The authors—Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows—deliver a swashbuckling adventure that’s as much about finding oneself as it is about finding treasure. The novel's humor is sharp, the dialogue witty, and the characters richly drawn. If you’re a fan of historical fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, then this book is your treasure chest of delight.

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperTeen for this review copy!

The latest in the series by this author trio does not disappoint.

My favorite thing in these books is always the humor, they never fail to make me laugh out loud. The sea setting was lovely. The swashbuckling immense.

A good series closer, though I hope they keep adding more books!

This book was a fun, nostalgic kind of YA fantasy/historical adventure. This is the third book I’ve read in the Lady Janie’s series and maybe my new favorite. As always, the narrative voice is so strong - it is quippy and witty, which really keeps the story engrossing and fun. This book was full of adventure and reimagined history told in a way that was genuinely funny and fast-paced.

I loved the banter between the main characters. The narrator when they interject in the most surprising places. The "in-jokes" or rather, the IYKYK moments. I loved seeing Mary's growth from start to end, and Tony's steadfastness. The story was a little drab in the beginning, but Mary quickly made up for that. Overall an incredibly pleasing read and unputdownable.

This is my first time reading a book by the Lady Janies authors, but their books have been on my "to read" list. I was excited to finally experience one, and I was impressed from the start! I love the humor, combined with history, combined with fantasy and fairy tales. Following the character Mary through her initial heartbreak and rebirth as a pirate fighting for Pirate King status was a wonderful story that hooked me. There were so many humorous "zingers" throughout this novel that kept me coming back for more. I really enjoyed it.

I loved all the previous books in the Jane and Mary series, and My Salty Mary is no exception.

The description for this book--The Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean--is spot-on, and it's an amazing mash-up. Hand, Ashton, and Meadows continue to pull bits of inspiration from a variety of sources to tell a funny, adventurous, and sweet story about Mary Read, former mermaid princess and current pirate. Faced with the challenge to become the next Pirate King (err, Queen) or be forced to return to her underwater home, Mary leans on her friends and her own smarts and courage to hunt down Blackbeard's treasure. The multiple POVs do a great job of giving depth to the characters, and Mary, Jack, and Tobias are all fun characters who bring their own strengths to a swashbuckling adventure.

Full of the trademark humor, strong female characters, and laugh-out-loud references (I caught The Princess Bride and National Treasure among others), My Salty Mary is a strong addition to this fun series of retellings.