TEST
Most of us remember our first love with some clarity. Certainly we’d recognize him if we saw him again – even if many years had gone by. Imagine my surprise then, when the heroine in Connie Mason’s newest release Pirate doesn’t recognize her own husband because he’s wearing an eye patch! Granted, he’s supposed to have drastically changed over the years, but no other damage has been done to his face. It takes Bliss almost two hundred pages to realize who is he even though he knows intimate details about her life and has possession of the son she once believed dead. This “too stupid to live” heroine is just one of the many problems in this book.
Bliss Grenville fell in love and married impoverished Guy De Young when she was only 17. Her father and his business partner, Gerald Faulk (who wanted Bliss and her inheritance for himself) managed to have Guy wrongfully imprisoned and told Bliss that the son she bore him was stillborn. A year later, Guy manages to escape but loses his eye in a brawl with a would-be assassin. He believes Bliss betrayed him and has never forgiven her for his imprisonment. Several years later he has his chance for revenge; posing as the pirate Hunter, he slowly ruins Faulk and Bliss’ father. When Bliss herself falls into his hands, he plans to impregnate her and send her back home in shame, burning for his touch.
Bliss has never forgotten her husband and continues to love him even after receiving word that he died in prison. When she discovers that the son she bore him is not dead, she sets out to find the child and is kidnaped by pirates in the process. There, she meets the pirate Hunter. There’s something familiar about him, but she’s not sure what. Even when he takes her to his island and seduces her she can’t quite put her finger on why she reacts to him as she does.
Bliss’s apparent brain-fog and Hunter’s annoying arrogance aside, Pirate had the occasional nice moment. Hunter’s love for his son was touching as was his own inner struggle. He knew he was not a good person but he made no excuses for the things he had done. Bliss had a hard time reconciling the pirate with the man she once loved, which added some surprising depth to her character. However, Hunter was primarily a jerk and Bliss was basically an idiot.
The story line with their son seemed too neat and pretty. The boy immediately loved them both, which was kind of hard to believe. He’d been raised in poverty yet he spoke perfectly – no slang or difficulty pronouncing big words. In fact, he sounded very little like a child at all. Dialogue was a problem throughout most of the book. Just when Mason started to hook me with her story, there would be jarring dialogue that no one would actually ever say. I found this very annoying and disappointing.
The love scenes were very hot, passionate, and believable. But Hunter’s frequent use of sex to shut Bliss up or prove his power over her cast a shadow over the later love scenes, when emotion was finally involved.
The ending was actually decent, which simply re-enforced my belief that Pirate could have been so much better than what it was. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a hurried work. In parts it almost seemed a parody of a romance novel – it was so purple and predictable. This is the first romance by author Mason I’ve tried and I doubt I’ll pick up another. But if I do, it’ll have to come from the library – I won’t be spending my money on her, and I don’t suggest you do either.
Grade: D
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 23/11/98
Publication Date: 2005
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.