ABOUT THE BOOK

Based in part on the real-life adventures of Sayyida al Hurra, Legend of the Pirate Queen is a historical fiction book involving piracy, mayhem, murder, sex, and women’s empowerment. Keela has a good life in Ireland, painting pictures and fishing. But in 1594, her village is raided by brutal slave traders. Keela’s daughter, Caitlin, is ripped from her and taken to the Canary Islands, where the traders’ evil leader, John Deas, takes her as his own daughter. And Keela is shipped to Haiti, where she begins her new life as a slave.

Vowing to find her daughter no matter the cost, Keela eventually leads an uprising of slaves, who overtake the slave traders and commandeer a ship, becoming pirates. With Keela assuming a natural leadership role, her legend grows over the subsequent decades as she relentlessly pursues reunification with Caitlin and takes out scores of slave traders in the process. The more slaves Keela frees, the more power and influence she gains. But pirating is a treacherous game. Will Keela survive long enough to be reunited with her daughter and end the slave trade for good? Read and find out.

WARNING: Legend of the Pirate Queen is a fictionalized account of life as a slave and pirate in the 1500s and 1600s. As such, this book necessarily contains language and scenarios related to murder, torture, and abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) that might be triggering for some audiences. Reader discretion is advised.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MELISSA SAARI grew up in Butte, Montana, which is Evel Knievel’s hometown, and Montana is the setting of her romance novel Mystic Lake. She graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a Master of Arts and Literature, with a concentration in screenwriting. Melissa loves animals and has taken care of many cats and dogs, including her two current dogs, Marla and Leo. She loves dogs because of their loyalty and protectiveness, which are traits of the characters in Melissa’s young adult novels Curse of the Lion People and Curse of the Black Dragon and her horror novels The Red Satin Shoes and Blue Satin Diary. Melissa currently lives in Central Washington, where the wild and mighty currents of the Columbia River flow past her door with an air of power and mysticism that further informs her writing.