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4ng3l's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
scoutmomskf's review against another edition
4.0
Fun story about two equally stubborn people. Jack is a pirate, bent on revenge against the man responsible for a good friend's death. He has the reputation of a ruthless pirate and an expert seducer of women. Lorelei is the belle of Charleston and recently engaged to her childhood friend and crush, Justin Wallingford.
The story opens with Lorelei bragging to her friends about her ability to charm any man and to get her way in anything she wants. At the same time, Jack has arrived in disguise, looking for information to further his plans for revenge. Lorelei catches his eye, and he asks her to dance. For a few moments, the sparks fly between them, leaving Lorelei attracted and confused before Jack disappears.
The next night Justin has succeeded in getting Lorelei to help him with his plans to set a trap for Jack, with Lorelei playing the part of a barmaid in a waterfront tavern. I was disgusted with Justin at this point. What man willingly puts the woman he supposedly loves in that kind of danger? Worse, he doesn't believe her at first when she identifies the man. I rather enjoyed Jack's spur-of-the-moment decision to take Lorelei hostage and carry her back to the ship. He told himself it was to ensure that the senior Wallingford followed, but there was definitely a personal interest there too. Lorelei is furious and more than a little scared - she's heard the stories about what Jack is capable of.
I really enjoyed the development of Jack and Lori's relationship. The sparks between them were strong from the beginning, as was the connection. I loved seeing Lori stand up to him, even when she was scared. It was pretty funny to see him get all offended when she accused him of planning to rape her. That was just the first of the things that soon had Lori realizing that there was more to Jack than his reputation.
Jack is also known for his reputation with women, and he is determined to get Lori into his bed. He makes it clear that that is all he wants - he makes no promises and doesn't believe in love. Lori is determined to resist and makes a bet with Jack that she can have him on his knees declaring his love before he can get her into bed. What neither realizes at the time is that they are both in danger of losing their hearts. There are some very terrific scenes of the two of them together, getting to know each other. Jack finds himself wanting to do little things to make her happy and comfortable, though the idea of a pirate ship stocked with fancy linens and furniture was a bit hard to believe. I also loved the scene where Lori stumbled onto Jack when he was asleep, with only the essentials covered up. Her fascination led her to try to recreate what she saw in a sketch, and a hilarious attempt to complete the picture. I enjoyed seeing them grow closer, neither one wanting to admit that their feelings were involved. The question became, what would happen when the Wallingfords and the English navy caught up with them. The ending was quite satisfying, with a couple of unexpected twists.
I also enjoyed the secondary characters. Jack's son Kit was pretty adorable in his mix of boy and young man. I loved the way that he worshipped Jack, which was a good indication of Jack's true character. I also loved the other members of the crew, from the truly salty pirates to the men like Henri and Tarik. It was also unusual to see so many women on a pirate ship, and I liked the way they made Lori a part of their group so easily.
The whole revenge theme was interesting. I could see Jack's determination because of what was done to his foster father/mentor. But it was also clear that there was more to it than that. It didn't take too long to suspect the other cause, and I wondered how that was going to play out. I must admit that I found Admiral Wallingford to be less admirable than I had hoped, but he did redeem himself somewhat at the end.
The story opens with Lorelei bragging to her friends about her ability to charm any man and to get her way in anything she wants. At the same time, Jack has arrived in disguise, looking for information to further his plans for revenge. Lorelei catches his eye, and he asks her to dance. For a few moments, the sparks fly between them, leaving Lorelei attracted and confused before Jack disappears.
The next night Justin has succeeded in getting Lorelei to help him with his plans to set a trap for Jack, with Lorelei playing the part of a barmaid in a waterfront tavern. I was disgusted with Justin at this point. What man willingly puts the woman he supposedly loves in that kind of danger? Worse, he doesn't believe her at first when she identifies the man. I rather enjoyed Jack's spur-of-the-moment decision to take Lorelei hostage and carry her back to the ship. He told himself it was to ensure that the senior Wallingford followed, but there was definitely a personal interest there too. Lorelei is furious and more than a little scared - she's heard the stories about what Jack is capable of.
I really enjoyed the development of Jack and Lori's relationship. The sparks between them were strong from the beginning, as was the connection. I loved seeing Lori stand up to him, even when she was scared. It was pretty funny to see him get all offended when she accused him of planning to rape her. That was just the first of the things that soon had Lori realizing that there was more to Jack than his reputation.
Jack is also known for his reputation with women, and he is determined to get Lori into his bed. He makes it clear that that is all he wants - he makes no promises and doesn't believe in love. Lori is determined to resist and makes a bet with Jack that she can have him on his knees declaring his love before he can get her into bed. What neither realizes at the time is that they are both in danger of losing their hearts. There are some very terrific scenes of the two of them together, getting to know each other. Jack finds himself wanting to do little things to make her happy and comfortable, though the idea of a pirate ship stocked with fancy linens and furniture was a bit hard to believe. I also loved the scene where Lori stumbled onto Jack when he was asleep, with only the essentials covered up. Her fascination led her to try to recreate what she saw in a sketch, and a hilarious attempt to complete the picture. I enjoyed seeing them grow closer, neither one wanting to admit that their feelings were involved. The question became, what would happen when the Wallingfords and the English navy caught up with them. The ending was quite satisfying, with a couple of unexpected twists.
I also enjoyed the secondary characters. Jack's son Kit was pretty adorable in his mix of boy and young man. I loved the way that he worshipped Jack, which was a good indication of Jack's true character. I also loved the other members of the crew, from the truly salty pirates to the men like Henri and Tarik. It was also unusual to see so many women on a pirate ship, and I liked the way they made Lori a part of their group so easily.
The whole revenge theme was interesting. I could see Jack's determination because of what was done to his foster father/mentor. But it was also clear that there was more to it than that. It didn't take too long to suspect the other cause, and I wondered how that was going to play out. I must admit that I found Admiral Wallingford to be less admirable than I had hoped, but he did redeem himself somewhat at the end.
patrizia_anna's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kateca's review against another edition
1.0
Seriously, consent is not that hard, can we not drug people as a sexy interval??
geleeregina's review against another edition
3.0
Occasionally when I read this, I kept picturing Johnny Depp as Jack which probably added to the overall like of this novel. The dialogue/banter is still as witty as in other MacGregor/Kenyon novels, but I just couldn't get into the "pirate" feel. Maybe I've just been reading too much paranormal/contemporary/urban fantasy. This was a good quick read, but I prefer Kenyon's other works.
ioana_dra's review against another edition
5.0
This book was beyond wonderful! The characters were well written. The pirate Jack Rhys was my dream man put into words. He was so kind but also mysterious and dark. Lorelei Dupree was a strong woman who could easily handle Jack and was very funny. The story line was exciting and sweet and the book sizzled. One of the best books i have ever read!
megatza's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Pirate blinders are real.
ravenwolf_waf's review against another edition
5.0
Not sure why I ever doubted that I'd like anything from Ms. MacGregor (being as how she's also Ms. Kenyon). Whatever the name she uses, I love her strong female characters, men with a little mystery, and a lot of passion mixed in with the story.
lpcoolgirl's review against another edition
5.0
So loved this book, there was romance, fighting, painting, the shrunken heads, and yeah, it was really, really great, and how he thinks the name that she gave him was not masculine enough. Hilarious!
daphne2000's review against another edition
1.0
I’m gonna be honest and say that I’m kind of embarrassed to have this book on my “read” shelf. It’s not because it’s a romance book – though that’s not my preferred genre but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it – but that title combined with the atrocious cover kind of makes me cringe. To make things worse, this book kind of sucked so the embarrassing cover wasn’t worth my while.
I’ll start off with the pros of this book since there aren’t many. (1) This book was fast-paced, especially compared to the other romance book I’ve read. Despite this being a romance, there weren’t too many scenes that were just relationship-building. This made the romance suffer, but at least it wasn’t boring. (2) Parts of this book were funny! I’m 99% sure that this was unintentional and only due to bad writing, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. (3) My friend annotated this for me, so the annotations were fun to read.
Other than those three things, the book sucked. My thoughts on this are so jumbled that I’m actually just going to write bullet points/random paragraphs about what I disliked instead of a properly formatted review. I also don’t want to think about this book any more, so I’m not going to re-read my review. Considering that practically no one reads my reviews, I think that’s fine. Plus it kind of fits for this book. I mean, the book wasn’t well-written, so why should this review be? (hidden cause of spoilers)
- Why was Lorelei (the heroine) basically never bothered that she was kidnapped? Literally less than 12 hours after she’d been kidnapped, she decided that she had the hots for Jack (the love interest). She genuinely seemed to not give two shits that she was forcibly taken onto a pirate ship and was help captive. This just doesn’t make any sense?
- On a similar note, I question how intelligent Lorelei is. First off, I don’t understand how she didn’t realize that Justin was the worse. He was basically going to sit and watch her get physically/sexually assaulted because he was too chicken to help her and he treated servants like dirt. Second, she was always doing to stupidest things. This girl literally jumped off a life boat into the storming ocean because Jack, a sailor with much more swimming experience than her, left to go rescue something. So, instead of rescuing his original target, Jack had to save her dumb-ass. She also decided to pick a fight with an evil, armed pirate for no good reason.
- I find it infuriating that Jack is a blonde while the model on the cover is a brunette. Someone went to the trouble of making that god-awful cover and they couldn’t even be bothered to find a model with the right hair colour?
- I don’t understand why Jack was so obsessed with Lorelei. There was some serious insta-love going on and they never really progressed beyond that. Aside from Lorelei being mildly good at wordplay and painting, she has no endearing qualities. I guess she was so not-like-other-girls he had to fall for her.
- I’m pretty sure Jack was supposed to be charming, but I honestly didn’t like him too much.
- The author really wanted the reader to understand that Jack was a great-guy™. It was mentioned on basically every page. I don’t understand why the author bothered writing a pirate romance when all the pirates are amazingly nice people that don’t do anything bad ever. Jack could have been a regular sailor and the plot of this book basically wouldn’t have changed.
- Lorelei never had to deal with anything difficult. She was kidnapped, but Jack and the crew were great. She’s marooned on an island, but it turns out that’s actually the island she was heading to. She doesn’t want to marry Justin, and he’s completely cool with that. She wants to marry Jack, and it turns out that he’s actually the son of a rich guy who’s about to die and give him a bunch of money. Seriously, does this author not know how to write any conflict?
So ya, I was not a fan of this book. Part of me wants to give this 2 stars since it was significantly more entertaining than the other romance book I’ve read, but this was also much, much worse than other books that I’ve given 2 stars. So, I think I’m sticking with a 1 star rating. Sorry to people that liked this, but this was kind of the worst.
It was interesting to finally get around to reading historical romance, and I had fun annotating them, but I don't think I'll ever pick one up just for fun.
I’ll start off with the pros of this book since there aren’t many. (1) This book was fast-paced, especially compared to the other romance book I’ve read. Despite this being a romance, there weren’t too many scenes that were just relationship-building. This made the romance suffer, but at least it wasn’t boring. (2) Parts of this book were funny! I’m 99% sure that this was unintentional and only due to bad writing, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. (3) My friend annotated this for me, so the annotations were fun to read.
Other than those three things, the book sucked. My thoughts on this are so jumbled that I’m actually just going to write bullet points/random paragraphs about what I disliked instead of a properly formatted review. I also don’t want to think about this book any more, so I’m not going to re-read my review. Considering that practically no one reads my reviews, I think that’s fine. Plus it kind of fits for this book. I mean, the book wasn’t well-written, so why should this review be? (hidden cause of spoilers)
Spoiler
- Why was Lorelei (the heroine) basically never bothered that she was kidnapped? Literally less than 12 hours after she’d been kidnapped, she decided that she had the hots for Jack (the love interest). She genuinely seemed to not give two shits that she was forcibly taken onto a pirate ship and was help captive. This just doesn’t make any sense?
- On a similar note, I question how intelligent Lorelei is. First off, I don’t understand how she didn’t realize that Justin was the worse. He was basically going to sit and watch her get physically/sexually assaulted because he was too chicken to help her and he treated servants like dirt. Second, she was always doing to stupidest things. This girl literally jumped off a life boat into the storming ocean because Jack, a sailor with much more swimming experience than her, left to go rescue something. So, instead of rescuing his original target, Jack had to save her dumb-ass. She also decided to pick a fight with an evil, armed pirate for no good reason.
- I find it infuriating that Jack is a blonde while the model on the cover is a brunette. Someone went to the trouble of making that god-awful cover and they couldn’t even be bothered to find a model with the right hair colour?
- I don’t understand why Jack was so obsessed with Lorelei. There was some serious insta-love going on and they never really progressed beyond that. Aside from Lorelei being mildly good at wordplay and painting, she has no endearing qualities. I guess she was so not-like-other-girls he had to fall for her.
- I’m pretty sure Jack was supposed to be charming, but I honestly didn’t like him too much.
- The author really wanted the reader to understand that Jack was a great-guy™. It was mentioned on basically every page. I don’t understand why the author bothered writing a pirate romance when all the pirates are amazingly nice people that don’t do anything bad ever. Jack could have been a regular sailor and the plot of this book basically wouldn’t have changed.
- Lorelei never had to deal with anything difficult. She was kidnapped, but Jack and the crew were great. She’s marooned on an island, but it turns out that’s actually the island she was heading to. She doesn’t want to marry Justin, and he’s completely cool with that. She wants to marry Jack, and it turns out that he’s actually the son of a rich guy who’s about to die and give him a bunch of money. Seriously, does this author not know how to write any conflict?
So ya, I was not a fan of this book. Part of me wants to give this 2 stars since it was significantly more entertaining than the other romance book I’ve read, but this was also much, much worse than other books that I’ve given 2 stars. So, I think I’m sticking with a 1 star rating. Sorry to people that liked this, but this was kind of the worst.
It was interesting to finally get around to reading historical romance, and I had fun annotating them, but I don't think I'll ever pick one up just for fun.