It's a 4.5 star read mostly because "pirate speak" annoys the H out of me and there's a lot of it here.
I get that it's a story about pirates, but did they really have such poor and annoying grammar?
Apart from that, I really enjoyed the bait-and-switch Kenyon plays with who the main couple will be and there's tons of little hints that the universes will be colliding and all the separate series are all related.
Devyl Bane is a cool character and I particularly love that Thorn is getting some much needed page time. The little bits that get tossed in there about the rest of the pirate crew are choice tidbits to catch the reader's attention and definitely worked with me.
My one bone of contention (aside from the dreaded pirate speak) is that so many story threads get left up in the air. I get that this is the introduction to the Deadman's Cross universe, but couldn't there have been a few more pages to wrap things up a bit more?