Our heroine, Sarah, didn’t set out to become a privateer, but she can’t deny it’s in her blood. Captain Sparhawk thought he was making a routine seizure of an enemy ship, but there was nothing routine about the woman who took him hostage. Now both of them have set out on a course bound to irrevocably change their lives.
What I liked
This book hooked me from the start and didn’t let go, always a great sign. The plot lines and characters are complex, but the author kept everything well organized and easy to follow. I was impressed by the sheer amount of history Ms. Thorland was able to convey for her characters, without weighing down the story. New information comes up in the form of plot twists and need-to-know explanations rather than long info dumps, which I appreciated.
This story had an impressive cast, and the reader is given just enough backstory on each of them to make them easy to relate to and realistic. The chemistry between the main characters is instant, yet believable, with a steady lead up to some very steamy encounters.
One unique thing I noticed was the author’s description of the heroine’s reactions to the attentions of multiple men in her life. The fact that the author gave her conflicting emotions toward one of these while we knew she was in love with the hero, made her especially realistic in my opinion. There’s a definite struggle between the heart, the head, and the physical reactions of the body, which I thought the author did a great job of describing.
What I Sorta Didn’t
The only thing I didn’t love about this book was the resolution, but I will say it completely works. By the end of the book, our characters have wreaked such havoc and transformed so completely that the potential fairy tale ending some of us (*cough*) might have formed from initial tidbits of background information had no chance of coming to fruition. That said, the outcome is logical and still leaves our couple with options very well suited to their dispositions and personalities. IMPORTANT NOTE: This is still very much a Happily Ever After ending, even if I found it less than satisfying, so make sure to read it and come to your own conclusions!
Do I recommend it?
Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you like romances with a good bit of action in them. The pacing was great, quality of writing also up to snuff, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down.
The Official Info:
1775, Boston Harbor. James Sparhawk, Master and Commander in the British Navy, knows trouble when he sees it. The ship he’s boarded is carrying ammunition and gold…into a country on the knife’s edge of war. Sparhawk’s duty is clear: confiscate the cargo, impound the vessel and seize the crew. But when one of the ship’s boys turns out to be a lovely girl, with a loaded pistol and dead-shot aim, Sparhawk finds himself held hostage aboard a Rebel privateer.
Sarah Ward never set out to break the law. Before Boston became a powder keg, she was poised to escape the stigma of being a notorious pirate’s daughter by wedding Micah Wild, one of Salem’s most successful merchants. Then a Patriot mob destroyed her fortune and Wild played her false by marrying her best friend and smuggling a chest of Rebel gold aboard her family’s ship.
Now branded a pirate herself, Sarah will do what she must to secure her family’s safety and her own future. Even if that means taking part in the cat and mouse game unfolding in Boston Harbor, the desperate naval fight between British and Rebel forces for the materiel of war—and pitting herself against James Sparhawk, the one man she cannot resist.