Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Romancing the Pirate #2
Publication Date: May 14, 2012
ISBN: 9781426893742
Review Copy: Received from the publisher for an honest review
Pirate captain Thayer Drake lures ships onto reefs for plunder, and business is lucrative. Yet, saving a lass from drowning after her ship wrecks becomes more than he bargained for when the crazy wench dives back into the raging sea for her blasted purse. Tavern songstress Gilly McCoy, penniless and fleeing from the man who murdered her lover, stowed away on the doomed ship. Now at Drake's mercy, Gilly must earn her passage by performing for the captain. And that is not all: she must also kiss the captain at every ring of the ship's bell. But she discovers kissing the handsome rogue is not entirely a bad bargain... Drake is intrigued by the beauty, but there is no room in his black heart for a woman. He has demons that he drinks nightly to forget. Meanwhile, Gilly has her own secrets to keep—including why her purse is more valuable to her than her life...
REVIEW
I was a little disappointed in this book. I'd previously enjoyed most parts of the first book in the series, A Kiss in the Wind. It had drama, action and adventure, and a really great heroine full of grit and tenacity. I just had a teensy little issue with the male lead character being a total womaniser with a predilection for using burning hot wax in his love play....indeed.
So, I figured that was likely just a one-off occurrence, and that I'd have better luck this time. Well, there was no wax involved, thank Davy Jones, but unfortunately, I didn't really like either the hero or the heroine this time.
I'm all for flawed characters, but I found Gilly's flaw(s) very grating and tedious. She's one of those women that twitters incessantly and rambles on when she's nervous. She's also got a substance addiction, which wasn't really an issue in and of itself, but when you learned of the root cause of the addiction and what a weak doormat she'd been in the past (and still is) it didn't help endear her to me any further. And the grovelling and pleading towards the end... ugh! Grow a backbone, love.
The hero, Thayer, was...okay. A hellish past has left him cold and aloof, reluctant to care about anyone or anything. Pretty standard tortured hero stuff. He's also a raging alcoholic, which wasn't particularly appealing but at least his backstory warranted a need to block out painful memories.
And again, just as I was turned off by the sex scenes last time, this time was no better. It was disastrous, really. What happened certainly added drama, but in doing so it completely ruined the romance for me.
The end of the book, perhaps the last 30 or so pages, I largely skimmed as it was so predictable.
2 Stars ★★
Review Copy: Received from the publisher for an honest review.
So, I figured that was likely just a one-off occurrence, and that I'd have better luck this time. Well, there was no wax involved, thank Davy Jones, but unfortunately, I didn't really like either the hero or the heroine this time.
I'm all for flawed characters, but I found Gilly's flaw(s) very grating and tedious. She's one of those women that twitters incessantly and rambles on when she's nervous. She's also got a substance addiction, which wasn't really an issue in and of itself, but when you learned of the root cause of the addiction and what a weak doormat she'd been in the past (and still is) it didn't help endear her to me any further. And the grovelling and pleading towards the end... ugh! Grow a backbone, love.
The hero, Thayer, was...okay. A hellish past has left him cold and aloof, reluctant to care about anyone or anything. Pretty standard tortured hero stuff. He's also a raging alcoholic, which wasn't particularly appealing but at least his backstory warranted a need to block out painful memories.
And again, just as I was turned off by the sex scenes last time, this time was no better. It was disastrous, really. What happened certainly added drama, but in doing so it completely ruined the romance for me.
The end of the book, perhaps the last 30 or so pages, I largely skimmed as it was so predictable.
2 Stars ★★
Review Copy: Received from the publisher for an honest review.
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