Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "legacy-of-the-king-s-pirate"

The Resolute by MaryLu Tyndall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Imprisoned for her association with a notorious pirate, Gabrielle is only saved from the hangman’s noose because of her pregnancy. She hated this child at first, because of the assault, but now she has come to love the babe she is unlikely to know. Once he’s born, she will meet her demise. At least she has been wise enough to keep her identity a secret. This way her shame will not become her family’s. Perhaps she deserves her punishment for her foolishness, her ignorance, and her willfulness. After all, having forsaken God and her parents, how can she truly expect help from them?

Assistance does arrive, but not in any form that Gabrielle desires. She isn’t the only one languishing in gaol, and when the pirate captain who engineers the escape learns the identity of her child’s father, she finds herself in another kind of a prison. This time aboard a different pirate ship, where the captain intends to use her and her child as bait to lure his nemesis into a trap to avenge past wrongs.

Cadan Hayes never intended to kidnap the woman, but her presence is a temptation he just can’t ignore. He has waited a long time to make Damien Allard pay for destroying his marriage and enslaving him. And detesting Gabrielle is easy, given that he despises women who belong to the aristocracy. No matter how much she tries to hide that aspect of her upbringing, he recognizes it all too well. Still, she is pretty, smart, and courageous. She knows things about ships and sailing that no highborn woman should. Plus, she likes his pet iguana and that feeling is mutual. What Cadan cannot abide is children, yet it isn’t long before hers is also a passenger aboard his ship!

Revenge isn’t the only item on his bucket list. He and his crew have one last clue to acquire to find a dead pirate’s hidden treasure. The problem is that they aren’t the only ones seeking those riches. Damien also wants them, and he’s underhanded enough to do whatever needs to be done to get what he wants – the treasure and a family, even if the mother is determined to keep his son away from him. Helping him is a traitor within Cadan’s crew, who has his own reasons for betraying the man who calls him friend.

The Resolute is the seventh book in the Legacy of the King’s Pirate series and relates the story of a daughter of the reformed pirate, Edmund Merrick Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. The story opens in 1696 in New Providence, but takes readers to other islands in the Caribbean as it unfolds. As usual, Tyndall entwines history with romance to craft a stunning tapestry that vividly depicts pirate life, treasure hunting, and wayward individuals who have lost their faith. Just when you think there is a resolution, she inserts another twist that adds greater complexity to draw us deeper into the adventure. Greed, love, fear, shame, hate, and anger are just some of the emotions we readily identify with. While some may find the frequent references to the sound of water against the ship’s hull a tad frustrating, myself included, the strength of this book is the memorable, multifaceted characters that Tyndall brings to life. While Gabrielle, Cadan, and Damien – a particularly despicable, but totally realistic villain – are the stars of this tale, the ones who steal the show for me are Soot, the gunner, and his pet rabbit, Hellfire. The Resolute is a fitting conclusion to the Legacy series . . . or is it? After all, pirates still haunt the seas.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Tyndall.ht...)



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