Ahoy, everybody. I've decided that Captain Blood is one of my new favorite novels. (I'm putting it in my top five, but I can't decide what to bump down, so there will be six books in my top five--shhhh). It's a swashbuckling adventure that had me completely enthralled from beginning to end. It contains pirates! Need I say more? OK. I'll tell you more. Peter Blood is my favorite kind of protagonist--a reluctant hero, overcoming misfortune, outsmarting his adversaries against all odds, and witty without effort. Plus, he's freakishly handsome (I imagine).

Here's the gist:
Unjustly arrested and shipped off to the Caribbean as a slave, Peter Blood escapes his captors, and, through a series of adventures, becomes a successful (although reluctant) pirate captain. He tempers his pirateishness for the love for an unattainable (or so he thinks) woman he met as a slave--restraining himself against his enemies, sacrificing his pride, risking his life... all for Miss Arabella Bishop, whose opinion he holds in high esteem, even though he believes he'll never see her again (wrong).

Sigh, right?

So anyhow, I recommend that ye read it, me hearties. Or else. Dead men tell no tales.<--that's a promise.