Michelle Beattie

I very rarely just grab something off the shelf and buy it, but this was at a local library sale and in my ongoing ploy to get myself to like a pocket romance, I grabbed it without looking at much else besides "there's this cool lady and she pretends to be a scary pirate sometimes." I mean, yes.

Besides the fact that that premise was undermined within, like, the first ten pages, this was a nice foray into piracy. The setting was interesting (tell me ALL ABOUT THOSE BOATS PLEASE) and I really liked Samantha, as she had a lot of strong, unexpected, and tender moments.

Still, couldn't escape the nonsense that makes this genre so hard for me (it's like as soon as they become pocket-shaped they're required to have the same cliches). Fake chemistry, a sticky layer of constant lust, forcing and arguing and bullying. Luke was goddamn insufferable - we love a love interest who comes around in the 80% mark still telling us he's willing to use a gun to make the FMC do what he wants and demands answers about the time she was raped (ugh but it's OKAY because he was always told he was BAD so now he BELIEVES IT). We love (unironically) a FMC who saved slaves from a plantation she was trapped at and put them on her crew, and we especially love (less unironically) when those characters are mysteriously white (like, gtfo with your blonde hair, Aidan). Describing a sex scene as "erotic" (like damn, I'd sure hope it is!). I just...kay.

But. As expected, easily-consumed, a fast read, perfectly clear and understandable which is just what I needed at the moment. It wasn't the worst offender I feared it being at times, but overall it wasn't entirely a stand-out of things I've read. It'd probably find more fans within the genre, while I continue to look at how different the genre expectations are for Romance (it's fascinating, okay! and not all bad even if I sometimes make it seem that way).

I'd be up to looking at the sequels , as with the exception of Walking Cliche Luke, I liked the choices she made for the characters' personalities and values. I hear the next one involves long-lost Alicia!… (més)

This book had a lot of good reviews and the book was not bad it just was not as good as I thought it would be, well at least not for me. We have two people with loads of problems. We have single mother Ashley trying to survive on multiple jobs for her and her daughter and she is barely making ends meet but she will do what she has to do. She ends up meeting hottie Dallas at work sight where he is tasked with helping to build her new home, and they have instant attraction but when Dallas finds out that this home is for her he turns cold and judgemental thinking that she is just one of those lazy people that like things handed to them. When he finds out that she is a hard worker he realizes he judged her incorrectly and they start to build a relationship but more incorrect issues arise when he again judges her wrong and then has to apologize. I do not need to follow anymore of the family.

Rcvd and ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) Voluntarily reviewed with my own thoughts and opinions… (més)