It's always been my opinion that books that end mid-story should have a warning label on them. I have nothing against series books, I've written enough of them myself, but I despise reading books that leave you hanging at the end. Because Jolly Rogered appears to be the first book in a series, one that cuts off mid-story with no explanation whatsoever about what becomes of the two main protagonists, I'm only giving it three stars. The writing was tight, the descriptions lovely, but the ending killed it for me. My rating would have been entirely different if there'd been some warning ahead of time that this was the first in a new series. Then I would have had the option to wait and read the books together as opposed to being left hanging with no answers and a lot of frustration.