The Curse at Pirate's Cove by Rita Monette - Middle Grade Adventure/Mystery

Follow the Tour for Reviews, Guest Posts, Exclusive Excerpts, and Spotlights!

“When one man’s treasure is another man’s curse"

Book Information:



Title: The Curse at Pirate’s Cove



Series:  Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, Book 2



Author Name: Rita Monette



Genre(s): Middle Grade, Adventure, Mystery



Tags: Middle Grade, Adventure, Pirates, Bayou, Louisiana



Length: Approx. 208 pages



E-book:  978-1-987976-02-1

Paperback:  978-1-987976-01-4



Re-Release Date: Nov.17, 2015



Publisher: Mirror World Publishing







About the Book:


Nikki Landry is turning eleven years old, and is looking forward to riding her bike to school. That is until it falls apart. Papa can’t afford a new one. Is she doomed to ride the smelly old school bus from now on?



Hearing of an old pirate ship, and a legend about long-ago pirates burying treasure on a nearby swamp island, Nikki sees a way out. But when she makes a birthday wish for the pirate’s gold, things go terribly wrong. Did her wish trigger an ancient curse?



Join Nikki and her friends as they find themselves sailing away aboard a haunted schooner with ghostly pirates into the Gulf of Mexico … and into the year eighteen fourteen.



How will they ever find their way back home?



Follow the Tour:

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/book-tour-schedule-curse-at-pirates.html

Purchase Links:

Amazon:
http://amzn.to/1HG1d39

Mirror World Publishing:
http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/adventure/products/the-curse-at-pirates-cove

Chapters:
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-curse-at-pirates-cove/9781987976021-item.html?ikwid=Rita+Monette&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0

Barnes and Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-curse-at-pirates-cove-rita-monette/1120806662?ean=9781987976021

Meet the Author:







Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. She loves to write stories set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state.



Her middle grade series, The Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, is based on tales told by her father—who made his living in those bayous—of reasons to stay out of the swamp.



She currently lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee. Besides writing and illustrating, she loves watching the many birds that make their habitat on the Cumberland Plateau, working in the garden, and frequenting waterfalls.


Guest Post by Rita Monette:

Jean Lafitte, Pirate or Hero?

by Rita Monette

What? You’ve never heard of him?

Well, from New Orleans, Louisiana to Galveston, Texas, every child grows up knowing the legends of treasure that is supposedly buried all along the Gulf coast and the inland bayous and swamps. The quests to locate the booty of Jean Lafitte have been ongoing for almost two hundred years.

So who then was Jean Lafitte? One thing is for certain. Lafitte is such a legendary figure, it is hard to separate fact from fiction. I’ve compiled just a short summary of what I have learned while researching for my novel, The Curse at Pirate’s Cove. Most of it is based on fact, but as with all legends, fact can morph into its own reality over time.

Lafitte was born in Bordeaux France in seventeen eighty of wealthy parents, and sailed the high seas at an early age with older brothers. Interestingly enough, Lafitte, an educated man, always maintained that he was never a pirate, but actually a businessman and privateer working for various governments. After coming to America, Jean and his brother Pierre took on a contract with the government to attack ships that posed a threat in the Gulf of Mexico, and were allowed to keep whatever spoils went along with that task. Starting with only one ship, the Lafittes built a small fleet from confiscated vessels.

Of course, his activities began to cross many illegal lines as he saw opportunities for profit, such as selling slaves and bounty from ships he captured. He set up a colony in Barataria bay, on a small island near New Orleans. On certain occasions he would sell his loot and slaves at a market in New Orleans. When it became illegal to sell slaves in the state, he started selling them directly to plantation owners that could only get them illegally.

The governor of Louisiana, tired of his antics, declared him a pirate and put a bounty on his head. His compound in Barataria was destroyed by the American navy, along with most of his fleet.

However, Lafitte got the chance to redeem himself with America when he offered his assistance to Colonel Andrew Jackson to help fight the British during The War of 1812.

Lafitte learned the British were planning to attack the City of New Orleans from the Gulf, which would have given them access to the Mississippi River. He offered up his band of pirates to help defend the city. After all, they had much gun powder, and they knew the bayous like the back of their hands. In return he asked for a pardon for all of his men. Was it because he was loyal to America? A patriot? Or as legend suggests, did he do it for a woman he loved? Whichever the case may be, Andrew Jackson and Governor Claiborne reluctantly accepted the offer.

The Battle of New Orleans became a turning point in American history, when the formidable British army was defeated by Jackson’s army, Lafitte’s pirates, and the ordinary citizens of the city.

~~~~~

The Curse at Pirate’s Cove, a novel for ages eight and up, is a fictional tale of what might have become of one of Lafitte’s ships, as they scattered from Barataria in the fall of eighteen fourteen.

When one man's treasure is another man's curse.

Nikki Landry and her friends encounter a ghostly pirate ship, along with its ghostly crew, on a swamp island near their home, travel back in time to eighteen fourteen, and experience a history lesson first hand.

Social Media Links:

Website  http://ritamonette.com

Twitter  https://twitter.com/RitaMonette