TEST
Sarita Leone shows us what life is like in seventies-era Lobster Cove, Maine in the fourth volume about the descendants of the Sweet family in The Pirate’s Legacy.
Social worker Chloe Monroe has been living amongst antiquity since she was six years old, when she moved to Lobster Cove as an orphan and was taken in by her Aunt Ginny and Uncle Ted. Now in her late twenties and with Ginny long gone, she’s assumed control of the home and maintains the place by taking in boarders. Her home is an ancient family relic that is beloved but slowly falling apart, and she counts each drip of the bathroom faucet with fearful, bated breath. Ted, a survivor of the Vietnam War, is in his twilight years at forty-nine, half-deaf and dying slowly from Agent Orange exposure but still free-wheeling, pot smoking and sex-loving. At the moment, the house contains several young women; studious college-bound wannabe-lawyer Reva, party-hearty Julia and musician Gabby, all of whom have been boarding with her for over a year.
On top of Chloe’s household duties, she has multiple romantic possibilities. First, there’s Neil, the handsome long-ago first love who still stirs lust in Chloe’s breast, though she has steadfastly refused to fall back in love with him. An old high-school boyfriend to whom she’d promised much, their relationship died six years ago but Nick hasn’t given up on it since. After their break-up, he continues to hang around, doing favors and taking in household repairs in the hope that she’ll change her mind on their romance. Then there’s Kyle Brown, an ER doctor with a charming bedside manner who treats both Julia and Chloe after a motorcycle accident. He begins to court Chloe while they try to figure out how serious their relationship is.
An unexpected encounter with the daughter she gave up for adoption five years before means Chloe’s path is obscured. Now she must welcome young Penny into her life the same way her Uncle once welcomed Chloe herself, and figure out if she, Kyle, Penny, all of her friends and her uncle truly make a family, or if she’ll have to forget about romance for good.
The Pirate’s Legacy is both a leisurely stroll of a novel and a sudden roller coaster ride. It sends the reader peacefully gallivanting through the heroine’s problems, only to suddenly throw car crashes and abandoned children in our path, and then to simply brush off those events with a shrug. Even a motorcycle accident happens and is quickly dispensed with. Chloe falls through the roof and manages to be fine. When a third-act accident finally throws some high-stakes melodrama into the narrative, one is eventually unsurprised to learn no lives have been lost. It seems the author wants to echo the likes of LaVyrle Spencer and Dorothy Garlock as she takes a slice-of-life look at a woman’s romance and life in a small town, but the book suffers from long boring stretches that are suddenly interrupted by implausible choices by our cast of admittedly interesting characters.
Of those, Julia and Ted stand out the most strongly; salty, funny and living for good life and good music. Both have their private sorrows, which add flesh to their bones. Reva and Gabby are likable, and Kyle is a fine, sweet and honorable hero. His romance with Chloe provides some of the best moments and, as well, the friendly bond between the four women is refreshing and delightful.
The toughest part of the novel ironically revolves around its most important plot choices.
First there’s Chloe and Penny’s relationship, which evolves into a loving mother-daughter bond within the space of less than a day. Penny has lost her adoptive parents and been transitioned out of the custody of a loving aunt within a matter of months. Her reaction is to easily attach herself to Chloe. Not one tantrum, barely a tear.
And then there’s Neil. Freakin’ Neil. Neil is the most annoying, begging, wheedling character I have met in months. He’s the kind of guy who responds to Chloe’s request for a talk after an argument by demanding she agree to marry him before they exchange words. Neil is like Johnny from The Room. You will not want to split a pizza with him. Especially after he hacks the heroine’s sun porch into pieces, then strips naked and walk into the ocean in a suicide attempt when she refuses to be with him. The heroine actually forgives him for this. The heroine even SPOILER – lets him see their daughter after this, even though she’s a social worker and should be able to recognize the ugly signs of emotional manipulation when confronted with them.
With the pure fairytale conclusion to Chloe’s house-related dilemma, which clashes violently with the much more realistic, workaday world into which the book has submerged us … the Deus ex machina never had it so good.
Writing-wise, the book is serviceable if a bit pedestrian. There are some awkward word choices (at one point Chloe refers to her ‘side boob’, something that wasn’t in common parlance in the late 70’s, for instance) and over usage, and a few silly anachronistic references; Kyle’s nickname is Doctor Dreamy. Gee, I wonder what that could be referencing.
The Pirate’s Legacy never manages to materialize into a solidly likable read, and that’s a shame. The characters and setting had so much potential, but the uneven plotting and pacing let it down.
Grade: C-
Book Type: American Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 25/08/16
Publication Date: 07/2016
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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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.