Natalie's Good Fortune: A Tale of Piracy and Adventure: The Adventures of Natalie Brennan (Volume 1)

A tropical island paradise might as well be a prison when you’re marooned; so learns sixteen year old, Natalie Brennan Satterfield, a proper English lady of London society. Set in 1722, NATALIE’S GOOD FORTUNE follows Natalie’s adventures after the death of her mother in London when she sails for the colonies of America to join her father. Halfway across the Atlantic, the ship is beset by pirates. Managing a daring escape, the girl is marooned on an island only to face perils of which she little equipped to handle. To her good fortune, she finds a former privateer and pirate living on the island who teaches her to cope with the savage new world into which she has been cast. Determined, she learns she must work, she must think for herself, and she must fight. Everything the young English socialite has been taught she cannot do she is compelled to learn in order to survive and to escape her island prison. Natalie discovers more dangers ahead, the kind a pampered and privileged society girl should never know. Fleeing capture by pirates, escaping bloodthirsty cannibals, encountering a ship of half dead madmen, struggling to survive raging storms at sea, battling buccaneers on the open ocean, and finding a new family in those with whom she shares her adventures, Natalie lives the adventures of a lifetime, all packed into the year before her seventeenth birthday.ADVISORY – The stories in these books often describe graphic violence, strong sexual situations, nudity, alcohol consumption, drunkenness, smoking, and questionable morals which are generally applied to people who are underage in today’s society.

Stuffed full of adventure, this coming of age tale is a fast-paced roller coaster ride. Nat slowly matures from a spoiled, rich kid into a young woman who can stand on her two feet and use her head, rather than sit around being waited on. The author s knowledge of wooden sailing ships and eighteenth-century pirate lore are deftly woven into a thrilling journey that doesn t disappoint. Readers who take the plunge with Nat in Natalie s Good Fortune will look forward with eager anticipation to her next quest. - Cindy Vallar --Pirates and Privateers - The History of Maritime Piracy

I was impressed with Fanning s characterization. Natalie is not treated as a stereotypical female character one might consider for this time and for this type of plot. Sure, she s slowly made into a hero of sorts, but Natalie becomes much more than that. She definitely holds her own at a sea full of men. Fanning keeps the underlying sexism to a minimum, and says himself that he wanted to create a fun story that was reminiscent of tales of adventure like Treasure Island. And he has indeed done just that! - Shannon Yarbrough --The LL Book Review

Natalie's Good Fortune is a darn good classic adventure story with nothing dull about it. Although unlike them in plot and characters, fans of Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates!, Bloody Jack Adventures, or Stevenson's Treasure Island will thoroughly enjoy Natalie's Good Fortune. The characters are easy to see in your mind's eye and the scenes and sequences that unfold keep your eyes wide with excitement. Mr. Fanning's debut novel is utterly readable and highly entertaining. --The Magic of Ink