Ahoy there, mateys! If you’re a fan of pirate stories, you may have noticed that many of them tend to focus on male characters. But fear not! There are plenty of fictional pirate stories with female main characters that are just as thrilling and action-packed as their male counterparts. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the best.
Below are just a few examples of the captivating pirate stories that feature strong and inspiring female characters who challenge the status quo and command the high seas. So, if you’re craving a dose of swashbuckling action from a different perspective, set sail with these empowering tales of female pirates and prepare to be enthralled!
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On These Black Sands
(Aisling Sea Book #1)
by Vanessa Rasanen
He doesn’t mind killing people… he just prefers to do it on his own terms.
But the pirates have no say in who they kill on this island.
The council orders. The pirates obey.
This arrangement has kept Declan from setting foot on these shores for years…until a bit of bad luck forces him to return.
But it may prove a lucrative stop, if the rebel’s information is true.
Find the dagger. Escape this life.
But only if this damn stowaway doesn’t ruin everything first.
Cinnamon and Gunpowder
by Eli Brown
A gripping adventure, a seaborne romance, and a twist on the tale of Scheherazade—with the best food ever served aboard a pirate’s ship
The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.
To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he’s making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.
But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot’s madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.
Fable
(Fable Book #1)
by Adrienne Young
For seventeen-year-old Fable, the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home she has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one, and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father, and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.
But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him, and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.
Daughter of the Pirate King
(Daughter of the Pirate King Book #1)
by Tricia Levenseller
There will be plenty of time for me to beat him soundly once I’ve gotten what I came for.
Sent on a mission to retrieve an ancient hidden map—the key to a legendary treasure trove—seventeen-year-old pirate captain Alosa deliberately allows herself to be captured by her enemies, giving her the perfect opportunity to search their ship.
More than a match for the ruthless pirate crew, Alosa has only one thing standing between her and the map: her captor, the unexpectedly clever and unfairly attractive first mate, Riden. But not to worry, for Alosa has a few tricks up her sleeve, and no lone pirate can stop the Daughter of the Pirate King.
The Sneaky Lass
(The Silver Locket Book #1)
by Kennedy Sutton
Jane has been many things in her life. A wife. A widow. A thief. A prostitute. Most recently, a woman seeking any means of escape from Grand Port.
Flying no colors and desperate for crew, Sneaky Lass is a damaged brig in no position to look too closely at any volunteers, no matter how ill-suited to sea life they may be.
After a series of decisions Jane can’t turn back from, she commits one final act of desperation; she dons stolen boots, shorn hair, and the name Dixon Ables to take up with the crew of Sneaky Lass. Now she finds herself in a position where she must keep up her boyish disguise or be thrown into the briny deep.
Concrete plans to leave the ship at the next port turn fluid as Jane becomes enamored by the mystery of the ropes, the lullaby of waves against the hull, and the wind in the sails.
That the crewmen are far from the salty rogues she expected doesn’t help her resolve. Among the filthy men, the roar of cannons, the critical eye of a whip-wielding quartermaster, and beneath the weight of her own lies, Jane finds something she long believed a fantasy—Family.
Even the frequent gaze of the fine and fair-minded captain isn’t enough to send her towards shore… yet. She doesn’t want to sacrifice everything until she is sure he knows her secret, or perhaps his attentions are something else, something more.
The problem is her new life belongs to the man called Dixon, not the woman called Jane.
The longer she stays aboard Sneaky Lass, the closer she grows to losing everything she’s come to value; new friends, the only home she’s ever known, her life.
Deceptions are difficult on land, but in the close quarters of a pirate ship, they can be deadly.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
(Amina al-Sirafi Book #1)
by S.A. Chakraborty
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.
Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power… and the price might be your very soul.
The Assassin’s Curse
(The Assassin’s Curse Book #1)
by Cassandra Rose Clarke
In this thrilling fantasy novel, a young woman named Ananna runs away from her arranged marriage and ends up accidentally cursing the assassin sent to kill her. To break the curse, they must work together and embark on a perilous journey across the sea. Ananna is a fierce and determined heroine who isn’t afraid to stand up to anyone who stands in her way.
Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.
And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.
These Sanguine Tides
by E.S. Barrison
On the sea, nothing changes.
Unless there is blood.
When Leena Davies was a child, pirates took her eye and killed her father. She did not remember their faces, but she could not forget the day. Filled with childlike revenge, she and her brother Tristan ventured every night to the seashore to plot against the pirates who had taken everything from them.
Until her brother committed arson on the night of the blood moon.
To pay her brother’s bail, Mr. Hackney of the Sanguine Tortuga acquires Leena and puts her to work. With a new life onboard a ship filled with magic and talent, Leena sees a potential future of adventure, only to be greeted by redundancy. Locked in a routine, with nothing remarkable about her, Leena’s future lies in the hands of a captain with a vendetta.
After Mr. Hackney acquires an alluring pirate with a secret, and as discontent grows amongst his acquisitions, murmurs of rebellion echo within the belly of the Sanguine Tortuga. Leena must decide where to place her loyalties. Will an act of treason reunite her with her brother? Or will it turn her into the thing she despises?
After all, what is a pirate but a name?
The Mermaid, The Witch, And The Sea
by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.
Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. For Flora, former starving urchin, the brutal life of a pirate is about survival: don’t trust, don’t stick out, and don’t feel. But on this voyage, as the pirates prepare to sell their unsuspecting passengers into slavery, Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, who is en route to a dreaded arranged marriage with her own casket in tow. Flora doesn’t expect to be taken under Evelyn’s wing, and Evelyn doesn’t expect to find such a deep bond with the pirate Florian.
Soon the unlikely pair set in motion a wild escape that will free a captured mermaid (coveted for her blood, which causes men to have visions and lose memories) and involve the mysterious Pirate Supreme, an opportunistic witch, and the all-encompassing Sea itself.
These are just a few examples of the many fictional pirate stories with female main characters out there. Whether you’re in the mood for historical fiction, fantasy, or adventure, there’s a pirate story out there for you. So hoist the Jolly Roger, grab your cutlass, and set sail for adventure with these brave and daring heroines!