Once A Pirate by Diana Bold

Once A Pirate

Diana Bold
Historical Romance
Published in 2017 (originally 2006)

H/h - Talon Montgomery/Lady Kathryn Sinclair
Setting: London, 1810.

Read in February, 2017.

My rating:

                                                      [spoiler alert]

I picked up Once a Pirate pretty much on a whimsy. I liked the cover and was quite intrigued by the blurb. I thought it was going to be a darker-toned historical romance and I wanted to find out more. Even though this didn’t quite turn out to be what I was expecting for, I’m not disappointed at all. On the contrary, I enjoyed the story a lot.

As the blurb mentions, the current Earl of Sutcliffe was going nuts to have an heir. His own son, the heir to earldom, Daniel, isn’t up to the task. He’s not interested in women. Even though the Earl had married him rather forcefully to a pretty, young and well-bred girl, his worthless son has not shown one ounce of interest in her. And it was pretty much killing the Earl that he couldn’t get his much coveted heir to the earldom, to extend the Sutcliffe name to another generation. But that can really go on forever! To get what he wanted, the Earl makes a plan and promptly puts the wheel of this into motion. This is where our actual story begins...

Falling for the Pirate by Amber Lin

Falling for the Pirate
Men of Fortune #2

Amber Lin
Historical Romance
Publication: July 21, 2014 (ARC review)

H/h - Captain Nathaniel Bowen/Juliana Hargate
Setting: London, 1820.

Read in July, 2014.

My rating:

                                               [spoiler alert]

I have to admit first that Amber Lin’s Falling for the Pirate, book 2 of Men of Fortune, had much potential to be superb. I really liked book 1, which is why I wanted to continue with the series. Sadly, all those potentials weren’t met to my liking. Instead, I had quite a confusing time trying to figure out the buildup of the H and h’s relationship.

In book 1, the company run by the Duke of Sinclair, Adrian with Nate, Hale and another buddy of theirs was mentioned, even if only a snippet of it. Letters at Christmas was Hale’s story, a ship’s captain, who returned home after a long time to win his childhood sweetheart, Sidony, back. It was very short yet sweet. There weren’t much about his friends in that installment, except that they attend Hale and Sidony’s marriage.

Promo Spotlight and Giveaway: Rescued by the Buccaneer by Normandie Alleman

The VBT of Normandy Alleman's Erotic Historical Romance, Rescued by a Buccaneer (Pirates of the Jolie Rouge Trilogy #1) is going on. I'm hosting a promo spotlight feature as a part of this tour. Find the complete promo info and an excerpt in the following post. Don't forget to comment and check out the giveaway via rafflecopter below!

Normandie Alleman will be giving away a $50 Amazon/BN.com GC to one randomly chosen commenter during the tour 

Rescued by a Buccaneer
Normandie Alleman
(Pirates of the Jolie Rouge Trilogy #1)

When Frederica Beauchamp boards a ship for the Americas, she dreams of a life filled with adventure, but she gets more than she bargained for when her passenger ship is attacked by pirates. The heartless men kidnap her and force her to serve their captain—a fate that might be worse than death, since though he does not have his way with her, the captain delights in baring her, shaming her, and thrashing her bare bottom as punishment for every imagined disobedience.

After the pirates bring aboard an injured man found floating in the sea, Frederica tends to his wounds and learns that he is Gaston Galette, a survivor of a shipwrecked vessel. Gaston seeks her help to overthrow the vile captain, but when their plan goes awry he is forced to use all of his wiles to save them. As the naïve girl and the seasoned sailor navigate one perilous situation after another, he informs Frederica that the only way they can survive is if he is in command, and that if she thinks things can be otherwise, she will be taken over his knee for a bare bottom spanking.

As he watches the proud, willful Frederica bow to his authority, however, Gaston worries that her growing hold on his heart will be his downfall. He knows he cannot take a woman with him when he returns to his ship and crew, but when Frederica accepts his lustful dominance completely, submitting to him with grace and beauty no other woman could match, Gaston realizes that he may never be able to let her go.

Publisher’s Note: Rescued by the Buccaneer is the first book of the Pirates of the Jolie Rouge trilogy. It is an adventure and erotic romance novel that includes spankings, sexual scenes including elements of BDSM and humiliation, and more.

Buy Links:

Amazon | Amazon UK | B&N | Kobo | ARe

The Captive Pirate by Alison Shaw

The Captive Pirate (novella)

Alison Shaw
Historical Romance/Erotica
Published in 2013

H/h - Thomas Ashdown, "The Black Orchid"/Lady Letitia Howard
Setting: The Caribbean, 18th Century.

Read in Oct, 2013.

My rating:

                                                        [spoiler alert]

You know what? I REALLY enjoyed The Captive Pirate by Alison Shaw! I just love how sexy her heroes are, not to mention the HOT love scenes! My only regret, this didn’t have as many love scenes as I would’ve loved to read (after reading the The Earl and the Governess, this seemed rather mild to me lol). Better yet, she was able to deliver a rather dashing pirate story and give me that sense of completion that novella length books usually lack.

Lady Letitia traveled to the Caribbean from England with her husband a few months earlier because this is where he wanted to start anew. Letitia doesn’t really like this environment, too hot and full of mosquitoes but she had no other option. Worse, her husband passed away a couple of weeks ago due to a bad fever. It did make me wonder why she didn’t seem like a grieving widow when the infamous Black Orchid comes to pay her a visit in the middle of the night, but I didn’t mind. Maybe she didn’t love him enough or was annoyed by his decisions, we’d never know but The Black Orchid’s visit scares the hell out of her.

Broken Wing by Judith James

Broken Wing

Judith James

Historical Romance

Published in 2008

H/h - Gabriel St. Croix/Lady Sarah Munroe

Setting: Beginning of the Napoleonic rule; probably 1799-1804, spanning from France, England to the Mediterraneans.

Read in Apr, 2012.

My rating:

                                                       [spoiler alert]

This debut book by Judith James is by no means formulaic. I’ve read many of those in my long years of Romance reading and while I loved some of them to bits, others bored me to death. I totally appreciated the storyline of Broken Wing, the historical research JJ obviously done so well and created someone like Gabriel; a man you can’t just NOT adore, love and respect, even though his past was every bit sordid. Varying bunch of emotions gripped me while I was reading it: laughter, tears, shock, dread... I felt I myself was being tortured with Gabriel. But overall, I wasn’t bored once and I wasn’t disappointed, which is where I can truly say that I’m glad that I’ve read this book.

Bad Boys Ahoy! ... Anthology

Bad Boys Ahoy! (Anthology)

Sylvia Day

Historical Romance/Erotica

Published in 2006

Read in Dec, 2011.

My rating:

                                                       [spoiler alert]

Rating based on 3 novellas by Sylvia Day; “Stolen Pleasures” (3.75 stars), “Lucien’s Gamble” (3 stars) and “Her Mad Grace” (2.5 stars).

“Stolen Pleasures”

H/h - Sebastian Blake, the Earl of Merrick/Olivia Lambert

Setting: London, 1813.

Passion for the Game by Sylvia Day

Passion for the Game
The Georgian #2 

Sylvia Day

Historical Romance/Erotica

Published in 2007
 
H/h - Christopher St. John/Lady Maria Winter
Setting: London, 1771/72 (?). 

Read in Dec, 2011.
 

My rating:

                                                          [spoiler alert]

I am so disappointed in Christopher’s story. It started out quite promising but went downhill after a few chapters. I didn’t really feel the plot, skipped quite a bit. And then, it just had many eww-factors/awkward situations than I care to read. I tried but just couldn’t really like or connect with either Maria or Christopher. I’ll try to point out the problems I had in this book in my review.