Orphans and Pirates, but not quite Peter Pan. Not a bad tale, not for young kids with subject matter and language. A few hard to believe details, but mostly a good story. Part I of a two part series. ( )

Orphans and Pirates, but not quite Peter Pan. Not a bad tale, not for young kids with subject matter and language. A few hard to believe details, but mostly a good story. Part I of a two part series. ( )

I won this from a goodreads giveaway.
The back of the book had a short summary that I almost wish I hadn't read. I think it would have been more enjoyable going in with no ideas about the characters.

This is part one of a two book series basically about the Revolutionary War, Piracy, Love, Sin, and Redemption.

The main character Fin Button is left at an orphanage for not being a boy, and thereby begins her journey through life of not fitting in. She lives life by her own rules. There are only two people who ever seem to accept her the way she is: The orphanage cook with a mysterious past and her best friend/love Peter.
It took a few chapters for me to like Fin and be able to fully understand her. Looking back, I don't think the beginning was too slow, its more that the book was like a snowball rolling and it took time to gain momentum. The writing throughout was so beautiful. The author definitely has a gift with words. I thought the book was very exciting, sad in parts, and completely realistic, although I usually don't read pirate books. Probably the weakest part for me was the romance and strangely that only effected how much I liked the book a little bit. I thought the plot was well planned out and executed nicely with a few twists and turns that kept me reading way too late into the night. I would like to read the sequel. ( )

Summary: Phinea Button was abandoned at a South Carolina orphanage by parents who had already produced twelve girls. Fin grows up to be quite a tomboy, more interested in playing with her only friend, Peter, and getting into fights than in becoming a proper lady. The sisters in charge of the orphanage, despairing of her behavior, place Fin in the kitchen to assist Bartimaeus, the aging cook. Bartimaeus takes Fin under his wing, but when his dark past catches up to him, Fin's life is thrown into turmoil once more. And it's not just Fin's life; the entire colony is in a state of unrest, chafing under British rule on the eve of the American Revolution. Fin has a series of encounters with British soldiers before she makes a rash decision that has her fleeing from the orphanage, and finding work on a sailing ship. But while Fin loves the ocean and its accompanying sense of freedom, she's still dogged by her past and her new-found reputation... and the accompanying danger that will come to threaten everything she holds dear.

Review: On the whole, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It had a number of story elements that I tend to really like, including girls dressing as boys to join the military (well, a trading ship with a letter of marque in this case, but same difference), and nautical adventures and piracy. The prose is well-written, very lyrical and evocative yet still easy to read. Fin's a great character, and watching her funnel her insecurities and loneliness and heartbreak into her fierce stubborn independence felt familiar and real. I found myself thinking about her when I had to put the book down, and I was always eager to pick it back up, which is a good sign for any novel.

However, I had a few issues with this book that are only cropping up now that I've finished. First, while Peterson uses the American Revolution as a backdrop to his story, it doesn't come into play until late-ish in the book, and in the early chapters, his setting is not as clearly evoked as it could have been. If I hadn't known better, I might have thought that the early chapters in the orphanage took place in the Great Depression rather than pre-revolutionary times. It's not the kind of story that requires large swaths of description about the furniture and the dresses, etc., but if the setting's going to be important later, it's worth talking about the furniture and the dresses at least a little to properly set your stage, y'know?

Secondly, I can't help but compare Fin to Jacky Faber from the Bloody Jack series. They're about 30 years apart, and hail from different sides of the Atlantic, but otherwise Fin and Jacky are just so similar. Both orphans, both disguised as a boy to join the crew of a sailing ship, both somewhat unwittingly turn pirate, both have a fearsome bloodthirsty reputation (with appropriate nickname) back on shore, both in love with a boy they don't see for months or years at a time, both wanted by the British for their crimes, etc., etc. The books are obviously geared towards different demographics, and are very different in tone, but their narrators are so similar that it's impossible for me not to compare them... and while Jacky's just as fierce and courageous and stubborn as Fin is, she's also a lot more lively. Not that I didn't enjoy The Fiddler's Gun - I did, for sure - but in comparison it just felt like it was missing the tiniest bit of spark. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Worth reading for people who like historical fiction, books about the American Revolution, orphans, and/or pirates. ( )

Thank you to author Mr. Peterson for giving me a copy of The Fiddler's Gun. This is a fast-paced and fun book for anyone who wants to read about orphans and pirates, the days of America's fight for independence, and one tough female protagonist. Fin was originally named Phineas by a mother hoping to soften a father's heart to the birth of yet another daughter. Still, she ended up in a Georgia orphanage, wild and rebellious, with only fellow orphan Peter for a friend. So where do the pirates come in? Where did the fiddle come from? I'm not telling. And if you like to discover plot for yourself, don't read too much of the back cover.

Although not marketed as a YA novel as far as I know, I think The Fiddler's Gun would be an excellent story for teens old enough to handle some violence – hey, there are pirates, who's ever heard of pacifist pirates? It certainly beats reading yet another vampire book, and the history thrown in for good measure is interesting and painless. I've got the sequel, Fiddler's Green, on my nightstand and ready to read, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Recommended for pirates at heart of all ages. ( )