Bloody Jack

So I've been obsessed with the Bloody Jack series for a while now. There are 8 (soon to be 9) of them so I am trying to pace myself. I could easily read one after another but then a) I wouldn't read anything else and b) I would be at the end, which would be sad... I'm not sure how many books are planned which is scary (will I have to keep reading to #23? Will this become some multi-generational epic that in no way resembles the books I liked in the first place? (doubtful) Will the author leave me hanging with no ending?) Please L.A. Meyer, give me an ending!

Anyhoo, Mary "Jacky" Faber is orphaned (all the good ones involve orphans don't they?) and instead of staying on the London streets circa 1790ish, she disguises herself as a boy and joins the Royal Navy as a ship's boy.

The original cover is good I think. Is that small child on the cover a boy or girl? There is action clearly. Also, pirates and some historical merit. The cover is a winner. Then they re-marketed them with the first book looking more like this.

Wind-swept haired girl's half turned face with a blueish tint? I get it, they are trying to appeal to the teen girl market. But the new cover is a deal breaker for me. Clearly she is a girl with that long hair, there appear to be ships in the background but she might be waiting for her lover who is lost at sea. She may be a siren or a mermaid in some new supernatural romance...I have no idea. Also, I'm not sure this is what Jacky is supposed to look like.

So now I am listening to book 3 (Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber) and loving it.

There was some question about which section to put these in a the library work at. The ones we have are J but other libraries in the system put them in YA. Well after reading some, I'm confident they should be YA. Jacky gets herself in to some terrible situations, they are action packed and sometimes bawdy.

I'm eager to see how the rest of the series goes. Many, many times I find myself shaking head and saying "oh no Jacky, don't do that". This could get annoying, but for now I'm still hoping that things will turn out OK for Bloody Jack.