Blood and Oak is an epic tale based on the Sullivans, an Irish family who owned a small fleet of ships used for trade . The story opens with their ship being boarded by pirates and folds out accounting what happened after that fateful day. Bettencourt uses a diary type format; each paragraph starts with a date mostly going back and forth j. A five year span but with incidents between. The point of view changes between characters to give a fuller insight to the whole of the story and what seems to drive the characters, especially John the main protagonist. Although the story is over 15 hours, I was captivated and the time flew by. Apparently, the story continues; that surprised me since so much happens in this initial volume. I am intrigued.
Travis Baldree does a fantastic job of narrating Blood and Oak. There are numerous characters from all over the globe, men, women and children. He does justice to all of them including accents. Men doing women’s voices can come across sounding silly, but Baldree makes them believable.
If you enjoy a great historical adventure with pirates, slavery, revenge shortly after the American Civil War and the French Revolution, this story covers globe with John Sullivan and his family and friends. I would recommend Blood and Oak. I was given this audiobook, at my request, in exchange for an honest review.