Review: A short and sweet read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2012
Sir Griffin Barry has returned home after 14 years of piracy to find that his wife has moved on without him.  While at sea, he made sure to send her money to support her and when he returns home, he finds that she has had not one but three illegitimate children.  Caught between anger that his wife cheated and understanding because he was far from faithful himself, he is determined to win his wife over.  But things aren't always what they seem.As with everything [author: Eloisa James] writes, it has all the necessary components to make it an excellent story.  It's well written, good characters, a intriguing plot, at least one very smutty scene, and all the other things required for a great historical romance.  My issue, I believe, falls into the shortness of the story.  The more historical romance novellas I read, the more I think that maybe they shouldn't be written in that form.  Everything feels so rushed to me and I do not like it.  All the great romances I've read have been almost 400 pages (actually, for some odd reason, most of them are exactly 374 pages...I have no idea why), and that's plenty of time for a fully developed plot, great character development, and more than one truly steamy sex scene.  Now imagine trying to fit all of that into a measly 136 pages.  It never works out well, in my humble opinion.Bottom line?  Well, if you like Eloisa's work or just historical romance in general, you will enjoy this.  Don't go into it looking for an overly complicated plot or a lot of exposition because you won't get that.  You will get a short, good story that leaves you wanting more.****Thank you to Avon for providing me with an eARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review****