Nightingale's Song [Paperback]

Thirteen-year-old Maggie Nightingale is known in York for her beautiful voice, which she uses nightly at her father's inn. The inn is a favorite haunt for smuggles, thieves, and other rogues, and Maggie and her father are often privy to many secrets and plots. Maggie's life changes one night when infamous smuggler Tom Hague takes her as a safeguard on a smuggling operation that goes awry. When Maggie's father dies as a result, Maggie is left an orphan with no one to champion her - so when she is captured along with Hague, she faces hanging although she is innocent. She and Hague escape to America to start a new life, but the shadows of the past keep looming over their heads.

I found this book in the YA section and thought the premise sounded interesting. After reading the book, though, I think it should have been more appropriately shelved in the children's section. It makes for a fun adventure story, but older and more critical readers will find it sadly lacking.

If you're looking for a historical novel, this is not it. While it is set in England and America during the time of exploration and settlement (1600s/1700s), the author doesn't really describe the historical setting. The focus is entirely on Maggie - and since Maggie is a character that leaves something to be desired, it makes it a hard sell.

The problem is, Maggie is not admirable. She's not anything, she's just sort of there. Perhaps it's her youth, but she just lets herself get caught up in the events that unfold around her and doesn't try to fight back in any way. For a good portion of the book, she keeps saying, "My fate is caught up with Hague's. Whatever happens to him happens to me." So while he hatches scheme after scheme (to escape jail, to get to the New World), she just goes along with it. Hague doesn't have some big secret to blackmail Maggie into staying with him, or hold some sentimental item of hers. All he has is the fact that he kidnapped her and that everyone thinks they're both guilty.

I would have liked to see Maggie fight back a little - perhaps, when she makes friends on ship, to entrust them with her secret. Or maybe to try to dupe Hague in some way. But she spends the majority of the novel in fear, and the latter half on the run (and in fear), and it's hard to respect her, since she doesn't seem to have the spirit of adventure needed in, well, an adventure novel.

It's a good book for a younger reader (ages 7-10, maybe) who wants a light historical adventure. But if you're older or a critical reader, skip this one.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see the review  2.0 out of 5 stars