Review: If You Are Waffling On Whether Or Not To Buy This...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 23, 2013
I've been meaning to write this review for a while. And I have to laugh at myself, because every time I sit down to review my highlights on my kindle to start writing a review, I get caught up reading the darn thing again. This book is just that mesmerizing.I need to start off this review by saying that when I was done reading this book my first thought was that I was so glad that I didn't pay attention to those negative reviews posted on Amazon and decided to plough ahead and read this 300+ page book. It definitely was worth the time and investment.To be frank, the book sat on my wish list for months while I decided if I should read it or not. I balked for a few reasons.First, those negative reviews that say this book resembles Pirates Of The Caribbean, because I absolutely hate, hate HATE those movies. (I do like the ride though) The last thing I would want to do is read a book resembling them! Luckily, this book was nothing like it at all. Thank goodness!Second, while I do enjoy reading Yaoi, I didn't find Andrew, the main character, feminine or twink like at all.  Feminine would be the MC's in Pirates by G.A. Hauser or The Grey Lady books by Jill Knowles. Andrew doesn't even compare. And if he were a real person, he would be insulted and mad if anyone called him something like winsome!  LOLThe third reason it took so long to read it was the book blurb on the product description. To be honest, it made the book seem pretty dark, dramatic and way too intense, on par with some slave/master books I have read. Admittedly, I am a big softie and a bit of a romantic and I just couldn't see by the description how the two main characters could find a fulfilling HEA. And, not ready for that kind of heartache again, I was leery to read this book. But boy was I pleasantly surprised to find the emphasis of the story was not so dark after all! The feeling I got from reading it...Was the love of the sea. Sailing and comradeship were the main emphasis in the body of the book, along with the character development of course. There were parts in the story that made me want to head out to sea. The way the xebec and the ocean were so eloquently described, it made me wonder if the author had actually sailed one of those little ships???Things I liked about the book? For starters, that all the guys on the MC's ship, the Taibhse are clean. That alone sets it apart from other pirate books I have read where usually it's just the captain that is this handsome magnanimous male character and all the other guys on the ship are pretty much trolls. So of course the other main character is going to fall in love with the captain! But with this book there were several supporting characters that I found fascinating enough to warrant their own story.Another aspect I enjoyed about the book, but some people might not, so I'm including it in this review. Is that the author does include several flash backs. The flash backs were at first a little confusing to me because I didn't know if they had actually happened or the character was dreaming, or remembering a dream, or having a premonition...Or even being visited by a ghost. In the end, I decided it didn't really matter to me. It just seemed to make the whole book more mysterious and a little magical.Another thing I liked about the book was the subtle humor. It's not the falling out of your seat type as in Alexa Land's "Way Off Plan" or Finn Marlow's' "A Thread Of Deepest Black. But it does have its moments. I especially liked the part where Andrew gets mad at Fleming and Rory for discussing him while he is standing right there...Or the references to Andrew's "appalling innocence." LOL  Too funny!!If you've made it to this part of the review...I swear I'm trying to end the review, I just keep coming up with one more thing...Finally, another difference I noticed and appreciated about this pirate book over others is that the MC's leave the ship and embark on a journey in which they meet new people and get to have experiences that you usually don't get to read about when people are stuck on a ship through the entire book. That was a pleasant change...So to speak...And just as an observation, that I didn't see any other reviewers mention...I flagged several references to apples from beginning to end of the story. Originally I flagged them because I remember history books referring to sailors and citrus and the problems with scurvy. That got me to wondering why the author used apples throughout the book instead of oranges. So I Wiki'd apples.  Well, I had no idea that the simple little apple held so much historical meaning! If you take into consideration the different roles the fruit held symbol for over time, it adds a whole lot of layers to this story.Either the author meant to include those references...Or... I'm off my rocker. It could go either way!  HAHAHA