Reviews

Captain Merric by Rebecca Cohen

lezreadalot's review

3.0

“I gave you up once. I won’t do so again.”

This was pretty good! I didn't love this historical pirate romance like I wanted to, but I had mostly a good time with it. It started very strongly. We've got a second chance romance between a buttoned-up Naval captain, and the lover he presumed long dead, but who is actually an infamous pirate captain. That's such a delicious little backstory, and I sympathised hugely with Daniel, our Naval captain. There's a lot of great tension between them, and they have to come to term with the events that separated them, as well as figure out a way to be together again, if they can.

My favourite part is the first half, where there's so much tension. Second chance romances aren't my very favourite, but the particular setup of this had so much potential. Part of me is a little disappointed that the pace at which they reconnected was so fast? I mean, it wasn't super fast, but this is one of the few instances where I'd have preferred if their push-and-pull, back-and-forth lasted for longer. I wanted more angst! Because from the midway to the end, I was honestly mostly... bored with this. :( The story just plodded along with various threads that I didn't super care about.

Spoiler

The part of the story that took place back in England was so meandering and genuinely dull. And it felt kinda weird that Daniel didn't care that Merric had to kill a bunch of unconcerned people to get him back.

It could have definitely used another edit; there were a lot of missing words that were pretty distracting.

But I really liked the start, and it didn't make me actively mad, like a lot of pirate stories often do. The chemistry between the characters was electric enough to pull me in immediately. That pull didn't last until the end, unfortunately, but I still had a mostly good time with this.

lalauren04's review

4.0

4 stars - A truly enjoyable story, very different from my usual genre and not a theme I’ve really tried before, so I can honestly say that this book was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed the story immensely, I loved the author’s writing style, and all in all I would absolutely recommend this one. It didn’t take long to read (just ages to update my reading status on here because I’m hopeless!) and was a quick read because I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t want to put my Kindle down!

yulianahenderson's review

3.0

I couldn't help but have a sinking feeling in my stomach that this story wouldn't end happily, but I'm glad that it did! That being said, this story really does need to be run through an editor - there were so many typos and missing or extra words that it was getting annoying at some point. I have read unbeta'd fanfiction that had less mistakes than this published work. That's the only reason I rated it 3 stars, otherwise it might have been 4.

mrella's review

4.0

3.75 stars

keesreads's review

4.0

Read

otterpebbles's review

fast-paced

3.5

cadiva's review

5.0

I'd have been a brilliant pirate I reckon, which is probably why the Golden Age of piracy fascinates me so much and why I absolutely loved every bit of this historical romance.

While I didn't read the original form of Captain Merric when he first appeared as part of a pirate anthology, I'm delighted to have got the chance to read this version.

It's packed with clever plotting, great narrative, gorgeous dialogue and beautifully descriptive writing which conjures up brilliant azure blue skies over emerald green seas dotted with bleached white sandy beaches and a lush tropical paradise filled with colourful characters.

I loved Daniel and his long lost love Edward, and while this is only moderately steamy, it still has enough emotional and sexy moments to keep me happy.

#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.