Alex Westmore

A fun exciting pirate story set mostly in the Irish seas and the Atlantic off the coast of Scotland, Portugal, and Morocco.

Quinn witnessed her friend being kidnapped and taken aboard a ship. Based on a childhood promise made between them, and a third child, Quinn immediately gets passage on the next ship to arrive at the port to try to track down the kidnapped friend named Shea.

For various reasons Patrick joins Quinn on the quest, Patrick being a brother. Maybe the only brother, I'm not sure if the cast of siblings was gone over in the book. Patrick and Quinn were trained since childhood to protect themselves with swords, and to speak several languages (French, Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, English, and Latin). Patrick, or Paddy, is more geared for the soft life and not that good with tongue or sword. Quinn, though, seemed born to be a dashing pirate, bouncing around and having manly adventures on the high seas. Plundering, attacking, fighting, and bedding many a woman.

The women are quite taken with the boyishly handsome Quinn. There's probably more to it than this, but a large portion of the women’s happiness at seeing and being with Quinn is how much more interested Quinn is in them, and in pleasing them. The other rough dirty pirates are more likely to grab at them or make crude comments.

And bed them Quinn does. More than one woman is quite pleased by the experience, as Quinn is quite good at giving pleasure. Licking or teasing to pleasure.

While I got distracted there, Quinn doesn’t get distracted from the mission of trying to find Shea. The ship Paddy and Quinn joined is captained by one of the few female pirate captains on the seas, a Grace O’Malley – based on a real life woman. Grace and crew bounce around the seas, attacking English ships, taxing them or killing them, as fortune prefers. One of the people they bounce into is one Francis Drake, another figure from the history books. Drake and Grace seemed tied together – in that one or the other always seems to be attempting to ‘run down’ the other and destroy them.

So, the book unfolds with Quinn learning what can be learned from the position of a pirate. Learned about finding Shea, I mean, though learning to be freed from the constraints tightly binding them from their prior situation in live is also learnt. Which leads directly to something probably already known by someone reading this review, but which I’ve been purposely avoiding as best (or poorly) as I could. Namely the nature of Quinn’s gender.

For Quinn is an Irish noblewoman living in the sixteenth century. Her place in society is tightly restricted. And, frankly, boring. She must ask permission, basically, to do anything. From a father, or, assumptions lead, from a husband if one were forced upon her. For that is likely what would happen – a marriage of some convenience or another, to strengthen the family fortunes, as opposed to a marriage of love or the like. She finds the act of pretending to be a man, a pirate, to be quite liberating and freeing.

If I recall correctly, I believe this is the second female pirate book I’ve read. This one felt like it had a deeper connection to history, while the other had humor. There were a few funny moments here or there, but this wasn’t intended to be a humor book.

Solid cast of characters and story. Quite enjoyable.

January 8 2016… (plus d'informations)

This second book by Westmore that I have read is closer to a 3.75 to 3.8 book than a 4 star book. Even with half stars, though, that would still mean I'd mark it down as a 4 star book.

I was excited to read this book. I'd finished the first book in the series shortly before the second was going to be released. But there was enough time in between finishing that book, and starting this one to allow me to develop quite a heavy dose of need/desire/want . . . to read this specific book here. So, the book got released, I got it, and promptly . . . read a different book. Well, I was in the middle of a series, so . . .. By the time I actually got back to this one, the book had a rather odd rating. Sure it was based on only a few readers/raters but still. Alarming. No matter, I wasn't going to allow that to influence me. (ETA: I'll note now, since the rating has skyrocketed since I saw it initially, that I had initially seen the rating at 2.50 stars. Which seems impossible, considering that no one has actually rated the book as low as 2 stars. Or 1. Or 3 for that matter).

So, I dove into the book and . . . was kind of bored. There is a kind of an inherent need in series books to have 'stuff' repeated. So that readers who had read the first book long ago, could be brought up to speed, and those who never read any other book in the series might have a chance of understanding what was going on. Which just means that I, who had just finished the first book, was bored.

There were some rather exciting moments in this book. Thrilling moments. But by no means is this book as good as the first in the series. Unfortunately. Oddly enough, or maybe fitting, things didn't really turn interesting until new characters appeared. Namely Evan and the people whose name I can't remember. Gagagaallagasheasgash or something like that. Unfortunately, Evan and the Galloglaighs didn't turn up that quickly in the book.

Unfortunately appears to be my favorite word for this review, I use it once again - unfortunately my brain is leaking from my skull, so I must flee without doing as much with this review as I might have wished to do.

Grace O'Malley and crew wander over to Scotland to try to help a pregnant Mary keep the throne of Scotland from the treacherous Queen Elizabeth of England. Meanwhile, Quinn continues her ways with the women, still stringing along both Becca and Fiona. Though Fiona is the one who supposedly has Quinn's heart. They can't be together, though, because that just isn't done. Also, Fiona is married to an English dude. At roughly the same time Mary is pregnant, Fiona is pregnant. With her second child. First one didn't make it. Fiona and all involved are concerned.

The pregnancies are relatively quickly handled one way or another and Grace and crew are back in Ireland. To pick up some Galloglaighs, 'foriegn warriors', and to take them back to Scotland to help defend the Queen. Grace splits her forces onto three ships. Her own, and two . . . um, galley? Galleons? I forget which. Quinn gets the captain seat for one, Innis gets the other. They load up their ships with the Galloglaighs, and in the process Quinn meets Evan. One thing leads to another, and Quinn is questioning whether or not she actually has developed feelings for a dude.

Clan battles in Ireland, with the help of English interference, a certain unstable in-fighting is occurring in Scotland between the Queen of Scotland and her English husband (shesh, all these people are marrying Englishmen). Death, destruction, plundering, sex, risk, danger, war sweep across this kind of short book.

Was interesting.

January 15 2016… (plus d'informations)