Caroline Pembroke is a lovely young woman, attempting a dangerous transatlantic ocean crossing on her own. As she sails away from France, toward the Delacroix plantation in Louisiana, she has no idea how far the journey will take her. When pirates intent on plunder attack the ship, she unwittingly becomes part of the plunder herself. For a brief, dizzying moment she finds herself at the mercy of the swashbuckling captain of the privateer Black Eagle.
Although Caroline arrives in Louisiana safe and sound, she realizes that the captain has stolen more than just gold and jewels...he also has her heart! Will she ever be able to drive the image of the man out of her head? Will she ever see him again?
Patricia Ann Maxwell was born on March 9, 1942 in a one hundred-twenty year old house constructed by her grandparents near Goldonna, Louisiana, where her family resided during seventh generation. She grew up in her parent's farm in Northern Louisiana.
At 15, Patricia married with Mr. Maxwell and they formed a happy family. At 21, she needed to be something more than a housewife and she began writing, she sold her first book at 27. She start writing gothic novels with her real name, Patricia Maxwell; she wrote one book in collaboration as Elizabeth Trehearne and she singed a murder mystery and a romantic suspense story as her maiden name, Patricia Ponder. When the gothic genre began to decay, she began to publish only romance genre, contemporany romances as Maxine Patrick and historical romances as Jennifer Blake, the only pseudonym that she uses now.
This legend of the romance genre is called the "Steel Magnolia of women's fiction" and gained New York Times Best Seller status since 1977, with *Love's wild desire*. An international best seller as well, she has been published in 18 languages with worldwide sales approaching 30 million. She was honored with the position as Writer-in-Residence for the University of Northeastern Louisiana, and is a charter, and honorary, member of Romance Writers of America.
Since 1998, Patricia and her husband have resided in a lakeside Caribbean-styled retreat in North Louisiana where they often entertain friends and family.
The most useless chaperone in the history of the world tussles with her two demonic, teenaged charges, her succubus employer, and of course the dumbest, limpest "hero" ever, who makes me nostalgic for the assertive bodice-ripping anti-heroes of the past. What a poor excuse of a misleading title. Nothing swashbuckling, or remotely piratey here. All takes place in a backwater Louisiana plantation and it is dull, dull, dull! This author has written so many exhilarating historical romances, this was a huge disappointment for me :(
DNF’d after Chapter 6 out of 10 chapters. By the 60% mark, there was no romance so I decided to quit.
The chapters are long and dull. We only get the heroine’s POV. Maybe that was the norm back in the old days of historical romances?
I was hoping to see some pirate ship adventure but what we read in the blurb occurred in a flashback in the first chapter.
The setting is near New Orleans, Louisiana in America during or after the Napoleonic Wars. The heroine lives with a Creole family as a governess to the older daughters. There are many children (very young to young adults), so there was quite a few names to remember.
I didn't think it possible that Jennifer Blake could write such a boring, uneventful novel, but here we have it. The heroine (who is a poor relation working as a tutor/chaperone of sorts is escorting one of her charges from France to Louisiana when the ship is attacked by pirates. Caroline has gumption and a pistol and wounds the pirate captain, he steals a kiss and she and her charge land safely at their destination. Caroline is in charge of a huge passel of kids (really, there were too many and too hard to remember who was who), and we get lots and lots and lots of family life and entertaining in plantation land.
The only real excitement in plantation-land is the new owner of a local property who is some kind of a French count of whatever his title was (I forget and I'm too lazy to look). If this were any other JB book, sparks and unresolved sexual tension would be sizzling off the pages her, but no...
Nothing ever happens until the very end and by then I didn't care. We don't even get a steamy kiss or any sex at all.
Oh, and the big ta-dah and the pirate? Well, . Surprised it took her so long to figure it out.
Set in 1815, this is the story of Caroline Pembroke, governess to a young charge. She is accompanying her from France to the Delecroix plantation in Louisiana when American privateers attack the ship and their leader claims a kiss from Caroline.
Safely arriving with her charge, soon a mysterious marquis moves into the plantation next door. Can he be the privateer who stole a kiss from her?
I can’t say enough good things about this story. It’s so well written at times I had to read a sentence again just to enjoy it. It has enough historical setting to make you realize just what time they are living in. The plot develops slowly as we are introduced to the life of Louisiana Creole gentry and a wonderful cast of characters in the Delecroix family. The ending is sweet and surprising and will make you sigh.
I have been rickrolled! Flimflammed! Clickbaited! I love me some good pirate romance. Do you know what a book called Sweet Piracy has? It has no pirates, that's what it has. This is a soft reboot of Pride and Prejudice only set in Louisiana.
There's no "spiciness" as those BookTok kids would say, so I would recommend this if you're looking for a clean romance - with no pirates.
Weird the lead female's name is Caroline Pembroke and it rings so familiar to me. I hate when character names from different books are similar, it takes me out of the story for some reason and now it's going to eat away at me until I can remember where I recognize the name Caroline Pembroke.
The author does such a wonderful job of creating her characters. I feel like I could walk into a room and correctly name who everyone was. I am however, feeling like I've been introduced to the characters enough and just want the actually story to start. I don't know how to exactly describe it, but there seems to be too many "filler" pages, although they are written really well, but I just want some action.Really great writing but after I was done reading it I didn't feel as if I had read much of a story. This book was a good break from the over abundant 1800's duke/spy/tenacious woman books that are flooding the market. I'm definitely a fan of Patricia Maxwell/Jennifer Blake's writing style, she can completely transport you into the story. She has an incredible ability to give the reader a feel for her characters without blatantly coming out and saying he's handsome/brooding/strong or she's pretty/caring/outgoing. Her characters are always memorable to me.
With all that said, this wasn't her strongest work. Caroline and Jean the lead characters hardly spend any time together. It is a really short story and if you want to read something different it wouldn't be a bad choice actually. In the end though, it was all filler and no killer. Oh, I forgot the title and description of this book is totally misleading! I thought there was going to be some sweet high seas action but Jean wasn't even a pirate but a privateer! Plus there was only a page or two talking about him on his ship the Black Eagle. Lame.
This was one of my DSOA picks on the Blog, way back in April 2013, and I've only just managed to find the time to read it.
I had been expecting more than it actually delivered I'm afraid .... it was a little too sweet, and the pace a little too slow and predictable for my taste - it felt like formulaic writing. Actually, a couple of times I really did think it would be a DNF, but I managed to get through it in the end.
On the plus side there were very few Errors or Bug Bears (if you don't know how I roll yet, they are always featured on my Blog in the fuller post).
It may be that this was not as good as some of Ms Blake's other books, and I may well try another to see if there is any improvement.
A sad and disappointing 2 Stars from me I'm afraid.
The fuller post for this book can be found on my Blog (Post #408) in January 2014.
Interesting read set in 1814 on a Creole plantation in Louisiana. Written in the language and culture of the times. A french marquis comes to America after the war of 1812 in which although a nobleman he had been a privateer. He develops an affection for the governess of the children of the plantation, she herself English. It has illustrates the uncertainty of girls growing up in a Victorian era , the importance of family and proper behavior before the community in which they live as well as romance.
I enjoyed the descriptive writing of thriving life on the banks of a river for a French descendant family. It was an interesting contrast at times between French, English & American attitudes.
The storyline of a becoming, impoverished young lady becoming a governess with a brief pirate encounter develops slowly. Quite a bit of drama & thoughlessnes occurring due to the children of the house.
It was sweet, not as emotionally charged as some of Ms Blake's other works but an enjoyable read to drift into on a lazy afternoon.
In this book, you will be transported to Louisiana in the early 1800's. A time where propriety was observed for the sake if one's reputation. Jennifer Blake writes this book in the verbiage of that era which leant an authenticity to the romance that develops between Caroline and Jean! If you love to be immersed in history and sweet romance, then you will love this book!!
Ok story. There wasn't much time for love to develop between the two leads with all the drama surrounding them. Would have been more interesting to hear some of the story from Rochefort's point of view.
A sweet story of love set at the end of the war between England and France. Imagine a trip from France to New Orleans when your ship is taken by Pirates. She and her charge life through the experience and make it home in time to meet the new neighbor. But is he how he claims to be?
Really two and a half stars. There wasn't much action. I suppose the book could be a "regency" based in Louisiana plantation country. The premise of the book
Another great story. What I loved about it the most is, I think, is the way our hero always found his way to be around. That spoke about his feelings louder than any words.