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Readers can head back to the swashbuckling golden age of epic romance on the high seas with this story of pirates, maidens, secret identities, warring factions, and lusty love. Pirate Captain Armoles Black and down-on-her-luck lady Gwendalynn Taylor meet in a tavern where they cuddle chastely and plant mutual seeds of affection and attraction. Across a series of battles, captures, missed meetings, vengeful enemies, presumed deaths, and other thorny complications, the strength of their love and luck is tested and stretched. A detailed cast of supporting characters act as friends and foes as the lovers resolve their dangerous conflicts and attempt to find each other before it’s too late.
Armoles is the kind of pirate fierce enough to dominate and destroy on the high seas, seasoned enough to know his way around a saucy wench, yet ultimately tender enough to revere his virginal bride-to-be when he happens upon her in a tavern. Lesser romance novels were built atop this age-old literary fantasy of an alpha male whose only discernable softness is his love for and treatment of his chosen woman. For her part, Gwendalynn is likewise a classic romance novel heroine, with her alabaster shoulders and emerald eyes, tipping the reader that beauty and virginity are her currency, even when she’s near the end of her rope. She’s a nice girl, too, even as she first flirts her way into Armoles’ line of vision.
Weighing in at more than 1,000 pages, the sweeping arc of this love story is satisfying in its conclusion, if lengthy in its delivery. With many friendly pirates and two feisty heroines, it’s a shame they spend so much time warring and wounding. Still, a pirate must make a living, and nothing stops a cannon to a ship like a shot of love through a pirate’s heart.