The Determined
Set during the Golden Age of Pirates, this luminous novel of historical fiction based on the real experiences of the era’s most fascinating pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, upends all stereotypes of female pirates and excavates these two figures out of the male gaze of history in a story of passion, fierce female friendships, and women confronting the impossible.

1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, 23-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she’ll tell this opportunistic fool her story if he sends a doctor to her friend, Mary Read, who’s battling prison fever.

Prior to their arrest, life at sea had offered Anne and Mary freedom that few women knew. Anne, born into scandal in Ireland, seeks home and elusive safety in South Carolina. Discovering the opposite, she makes a bitter bargain for emergency passage to the Bahamas.

Across the Atlantic in England, Mary confronts her own limitations as an illegitimate daughter. She sneaks into a merchant crew, disguised as a cabin boy. But when war sends Mary into the cavalry, she meets a challenge even she might not rival.

When their paths collide in Nassau, a notorious “pirate den,” Anne and Mary find kinship aboard the Revenge—the fastest ship in the Caribbean. With the governor out for blood, every raid brings more risk. From the high seas to the depths of a Jamaican prison, Anne and Mary must navigate impossible choices, each determined to taste freedom again.
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The Determined
Set during the Golden Age of Pirates, this luminous novel of historical fiction based on the real experiences of the era’s most fascinating pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, upends all stereotypes of female pirates and excavates these two figures out of the male gaze of history in a story of passion, fierce female friendships, and women confronting the impossible.

1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, 23-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she’ll tell this opportunistic fool her story if he sends a doctor to her friend, Mary Read, who’s battling prison fever.

Prior to their arrest, life at sea had offered Anne and Mary freedom that few women knew. Anne, born into scandal in Ireland, seeks home and elusive safety in South Carolina. Discovering the opposite, she makes a bitter bargain for emergency passage to the Bahamas.

Across the Atlantic in England, Mary confronts her own limitations as an illegitimate daughter. She sneaks into a merchant crew, disguised as a cabin boy. But when war sends Mary into the cavalry, she meets a challenge even she might not rival.

When their paths collide in Nassau, a notorious “pirate den,” Anne and Mary find kinship aboard the Revenge—the fastest ship in the Caribbean. With the governor out for blood, every raid brings more risk. From the high seas to the depths of a Jamaican prison, Anne and Mary must navigate impossible choices, each determined to taste freedom again.
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The Determined

The Determined

by Rachel Rueckert
The Determined

The Determined

by Rachel Rueckert

Paperback

$18.95 
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Overview

Set during the Golden Age of Pirates, this luminous novel of historical fiction based on the real experiences of the era’s most fascinating pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, upends all stereotypes of female pirates and excavates these two figures out of the male gaze of history in a story of passion, fierce female friendships, and women confronting the impossible.

1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, 23-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she’ll tell this opportunistic fool her story if he sends a doctor to her friend, Mary Read, who’s battling prison fever.

Prior to their arrest, life at sea had offered Anne and Mary freedom that few women knew. Anne, born into scandal in Ireland, seeks home and elusive safety in South Carolina. Discovering the opposite, she makes a bitter bargain for emergency passage to the Bahamas.

Across the Atlantic in England, Mary confronts her own limitations as an illegitimate daughter. She sneaks into a merchant crew, disguised as a cabin boy. But when war sends Mary into the cavalry, she meets a challenge even she might not rival.

When their paths collide in Nassau, a notorious “pirate den,” Anne and Mary find kinship aboard the Revenge—the fastest ship in the Caribbean. With the governor out for blood, every raid brings more risk. From the high seas to the depths of a Jamaican prison, Anne and Mary must navigate impossible choices, each determined to taste freedom again.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781496747556
Publisher: Kensington
Publication date: 02/24/2026
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rachel Rueckert is an award-winning writer, editor, and teacher who holds an MFA from Columbia University and an M.Ed. from Boston University. On her first visit to Provincetown, Massachusetts, she learned about the true story of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Samuel Bellamy and vowed to write their story, returning to Cape Cod again and again over the years for research and freedom in the shape of solace. If the Tide Turns is her debut novel. She splits her time between Salt Lake City and Cambridge, Massachusetts and can be found online at RachelRueckert.com.
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