I could not put this one down and highly
recommend it. It's on both my Best Pirate and Privateer Romances List and my
Best American Patriotic Romances list. Oh yes, it’s also a keeper.
Set in England during the years 1808-1814, this
is one of those rare and wonderful love stories that sweeps you away to another
time and place where you are caught up in the lives of people whose actions
will affect not only their own and others' lives but America and England during
the War of 1812. Deception and treachery born years ago lead to revenge and
then to heartache. Busbee uses real characters, such as the pirate Jean
Lafitte, to bring realism to her story as she seamlessly weaves history into a
compelling tale. It's what I call a "dense" historical: one where the
writing is so complex and so tight you're getting double the story you'd expect
in the 538 pages.
Young Nicole Ashford led an idyllic life in
Surrey with her wealthy parents and her twin brother until a boating accident
one summer took them from her. Made the ward of an uncaring and barely related
aunt and uncle who only want her fortune, and learning of their plans to marry
her off to their ne'er-do-well son, at 13 Nicole dons the disguise of a young
boy and runs away to sea as the cabin boy for Captain Saber, an American
privateer.
For 5 years, Nicole sails with him as a boy and
Saber pays her little attention. When she is 18, Saber observes her swimming
naked on a tropical beach and decides he wants her for his mistress. He bides
his time and when Nicole and a seaman (who is really a British spy) decide to
destroy English codebooks that Saber has captured, the two are caught.
Using the life of the English seaman as a
bargaining chip, Saber forces Nicole to become his mistress, until the
American, on a mission to spy for his new country, decides to sail home and
resume his identity as Christopher Saxon, grandson of a baron.
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