July is American Patriotic month on the blog, that time when
I feature romances set during America’s wars up to and including the Civil War.
I’m starting with one from the War of 1812, the last war fought with the
British.
Set at the beginning of the War of 1812, The Captain’s Captive is the story of Charlotte
Winston, a young Englishwoman who lived in her daydreams while caring for her
dying mother. When her mother passes on, Charlotte sails from England to
Montreal to join her father, a general in the British army who has arranged a
marriage for her to Captain Levid of the Royal Navy.
When Charlotte’s ship is fired upon by
the American captain Jonathan Knox, the British captain quickly turns over
control and Charlotte becomes Jon’s prisoner. Charlotte tells him she is
betrothed to Captain Levid. Jon wants to know where he can find the English
captain who impressed Jon’s younger brother (impressment was one of the causes
of the war). Charlotte has only a vague idea where Levid is, and doesn’t like
the man herself, but tells Knox she doesn’t know. Jon doesn’t believe her and
decides to keep her in his cabin until she gives him the information he wants.
Initially, I thought the heroine a bit
simpering and over theatrical (her voice squeaks and she shuts her eyes
when reality is too much for her) and I did get a bit tired
of her “fantasy pirate” that supposedly was a twin for the hero. The hero seemed
too much of a gentleman. Those impressions changed somewhat as the book
progressed because the characters changed. In the last half of the book, Jon
became more "real" and Charlotte acquired a backbone.
To my thinking there was a bit too much
introspection and too much sex...the latter seemed to be piled on irrespective
of the plot (or any concern for her getting pregnant, I might add). Don’t get
me wrong; I like a good love scene, but I don’t need one each time the hero and
heroine meet. And why was his family surprised to learn she was British and her
father in the Royal Army? After all, she was raised in England (Oxfordshire)
and I assume had an accent and other characteristics that gave her away.
There is no question Dorsey can write well
and tell a good story. And I admire how she wove in the history and the abuses
of the British military along the Chesapeake. Her battle scenes are realistic,
and she captured well the terror of the night the British sacked Washington.
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