BOOK REVIEW: The Rebel Pirate by Donna Thorland

The Rebel Pirate by Donna Thorland

Blurb:

1775, Boston Harbor. James Sparhawk, Master and Commander in the British Navy, knows trouble when he sees it. The ship he’s boarded is carrying ammunition and gold…into a country on the knife’s edge of war. Sparhawk’s duty is clear: confiscate the cargo, impound the vessel and seize the crew. But when one of the ship’s boys turns out to be a lovely girl, with a loaded pistol and dead-shot aim, Sparhawk finds himself held hostage aboard a Rebel privateer.

Sarah Ward never set out to break the law. Before Boston became a powder keg, she was poised to escape the stigma of being a notorious pirate’s daughter by wedding Micah Wild, one of Salem’s most successful merchants. Then a Patriot mob destroyed her fortune and Wild played her false by marrying her best friend and smuggling a chest of Rebel gold aboard her family’s ship.

Now branded a pirate herself, Sarah will do what she must to secure her family’s safety and her own future. Even if that means taking part in the cat and mouse game unfolding in Boston Harbor, the desperate naval fight between British and Rebel forces for the materiel of war—and pitting herself against James Sparhawk, the one man she cannot resist.

My Review: 

The Rebel Pirate begins as Captain James Sparhawk has finally caught up to and boarded the ship he's been chasing around Boston Harbor. The year is 1775 and the Revolutionary War has not yet begun so the British Navy, which James is a member of is still in charge over the colonists.

Aboard the Charming Sally James finds a French trunk full of Spanish gold, 150 tons of musket flint, and an incompetent dead captain. After tossing the flint overboard and confiscating the gold James attempts to take a young boy into service for the British Navy. The boy next to the one he intends to take turns out to be a beautiful woman who will do anything to save her brother, even take a British Navy Captain hostage. 

Sarah Ward is the daughter of a pirate and the spurned ex-fiancee of the man who forced her family to carry the contraband on the ship in the first place. Taking a Navy Captain hostage was never part of the plan and finding him attractive is the last thing she needs.

For James the attraction is mutual and soon he'll do anything to keep Sarah from harm. But with a secret past of his own he doesn't want to allow himself to have what he desires most. Will he be able to keep Sarah safe and out of dangerous hands? 

I liked this book but I didn't find it "blow my mind" amazing. I don't usually read books set during the American Revolution but the description interested me a lot. The writing definitely takes you back to colonial Boston, when I close my eyes I can see it, smell it, taste it, so I give the author credit there. At times found the book dull and I had to skip ahead a little but I loved the relationship between James and Sarah. I saw the instant attraction. For me it was hard to keep who was on what side straight; rebels, colonists, loyalists, Americans, British, Englishmen/women. Were the colonists actually called Americans before the Revolution? Were the people called Englishmen/women loyal to the British or the colonists? It was a bit confusing at times but maybe that's just me. Anyway, this is a good read for fans of historical fiction, especially people with an interest in the Revolutionary War era.
My Rating: 3.90 of 5 Stars