The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates Books in Order

The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates is a three-book middle-grade fantasy series set in the kingdom of Augusta, where magic is useful, pirates have rules, and paperwork can be nearly as troublesome as a sword fight. Its heroine is Hilary Westfield, the daughter of a naval admiral who wants nothing more than a life at sea.

Hilary has the knot-tying skills, the swimming stamina, and the pointy sword for piracy. The League, however, refuses her application because she is a girl and sends her instead to Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies. Hilary soon escapes with her talking gargoyle and joins the freelance pirate Jasper Fletcher on a search for lost magical treasure.

This is piracy with paperwork.

The first book, Magic Marks the Spot, introduces Hilary's misfit crew and the clash between her family's expectations and the future she wants for herself. In The Terror of the Southlands, Hilary is a pirate at last, but a missing Enchantress and questions about her place in the League pull her into a larger mystery. The Buccaneers' Code raises the stakes again as trouble inside the League threatens Augusta and its magic.

The series has a lively, silly tone, but Hilary's choices matter. She wants adventure, yet she also has to decide what kind of pirate she will be, especially when official rules turn out to be unfair or self-serving. Her friends, including the gargoyle, Jasper's crew, former classmates, and adults from both pirate and high-society worlds, give the books their warmth.

The jokes are everywhere. Readers will find fake notices, letters, newspaper items, handbook excerpts, oddball pirate customs, and high-society etiquette treated with the same straight face. Under the fun are stories about friendship, courage, and making room for people who refuse to be boxed into somebody else's idea of proper behavior.

Start with Magic Marks the Spot and read in order. Each book has its own adventure, but the friendships, mysteries, and conflict over Augusta's magic carry through the full trilogy.