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Pirates #1
Lady of Fire
ROQUE MADE HER A WOMAN--AND A PIRATE, LIKE HIMSELF: FEARLESS, SHAMELESS, PROUD...
Garlanda Cheney's past vanished in the churning waters of the Caribbean. Martinique and the convent school were behind her. And so was the enchanted island where two shipwrecked lovers had clung together for life--and discovered love.
Now there was only a dream and a mission: to uncover the true cause of her father's death. From London society to the decadent French court, from a Turkish harem to escape and rebellion on the high seas, Garlanda's course was charted for dangerous adventure.
A passionate pirate of the heart, no man could resist or forget her. But it was Roque, the bold buccaneer who possessed her soul, whose fate was eternally bound to the LADY OF FIRE .
Garlanda Cheney's past vanished in the churning waters of the Caribbean. Martinique and the convent school were behind her. And so was the enchanted island where two shipwrecked lovers had clung together for life--and discovered love.
Now there was only a dream and a mission: to uncover the true cause of her father's death. From London society to the decadent French court, from a Turkish harem to escape and rebellion on the high seas, Garlanda's course was charted for dangerous adventure.
A passionate pirate of the heart, no man could resist or forget her. But it was Roque, the bold buccaneer who possessed her soul, whose fate was eternally bound to the LADY OF FIRE .
494 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
155 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Vayle
5 books13 followersA pseudonym used by Jean Brooks-Janowiak and Janice Young Brooks writing together. It was later used exclusively by Jean Brooks-Janowiak after obtaining the legal rights to the name.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 16, 2025
Read: 3/15/25
3.5 stars
Paperback
Setting: late 1600s William and Mary
Martinique, Port Royal, England, France, Turkey.
This is a 4-part book. The adventure is all through convent bred Garlanda POV. This is not really a romance but a self-discovery journey
The 1st part: she is stranded on an island with a mysterious pirate (H). They live a life of Eden until his crew finds him. She knows that he doesn't love her and she can't stay in that life. She escapes while they are in France.
2nd part: Garlanda tries too hard to fit in English society. She also tried to find out how her father died and if he really was murdered like her mother believed.
3rd: Garlanda is kidnapped by a Turkish Pasha. I hate this kind of concept, but being reunited with Sabelle was worth it. I still love that the Pasha looks like a house hit him after spending one night with the pirate.
4th: she marries her ill friend. I loved Paul, and he helped Garlanda discover the truth about her father. The mystery of her father and Rosque (H) are finally solved.
Liked:
1. The h. She is strong, relatable, and courageous. Garlanda has no time for self-pity. She goes from a naive convent girl to a strong, brave woman. I cried and laughed with her.
2. The secondary characters make up for the lack of romance. Pirate Sabelle, the Count, and her Aunt Athena were fantastic! They also add great comedic moments.
3. The villain was kind of a surprise. He wasn't cartoonish. I thought there was something off about him, but I didn't know he how obsessed he was with the h until the end.
Disliked:
1. I wish there had been more romance. The H is rarely in the book after the 1st part.
2. The mystery behind her father's death. I didn't really care. I didn't know why she was adamant about solving it. She didn't know her father or even remembered what he looked like. He was always gone, and then she was sent to the convent in Martinique. Why try so hard?
Conclusion: Is this a book I'd read again? Probably not, but I enjoyed the adventure while I read it.
3.5 stars
Paperback
Setting: late 1600s William and Mary
Martinique, Port Royal, England, France, Turkey.
This is a 4-part book. The adventure is all through convent bred Garlanda POV. This is not really a romance but a self-discovery journey
The 1st part: she is stranded on an island with a mysterious pirate (H). They live a life of Eden until his crew finds him. She knows that he doesn't love her and she can't stay in that life. She escapes while they are in France.
2nd part: Garlanda tries too hard to fit in English society. She also tried to find out how her father died and if he really was murdered like her mother believed.
3rd: Garlanda is kidnapped by a Turkish Pasha. I hate this kind of concept, but being reunited with Sabelle was worth it. I still love that the Pasha looks like a house hit him after spending one night with the pirate.
4th: she marries her ill friend. I loved Paul, and he helped Garlanda discover the truth about her father. The mystery of her father and Rosque (H) are finally solved.
Liked:
1. The h. She is strong, relatable, and courageous. Garlanda has no time for self-pity. She goes from a naive convent girl to a strong, brave woman. I cried and laughed with her.
2. The secondary characters make up for the lack of romance. Pirate Sabelle, the Count, and her Aunt Athena were fantastic! They also add great comedic moments.
3. The villain was kind of a surprise. He wasn't cartoonish. I thought there was something off about him, but I didn't know he how obsessed he was with the h until the end.
Disliked:
1. I wish there had been more romance. The H is rarely in the book after the 1st part.
2. The mystery behind her father's death. I didn't really care. I didn't know why she was adamant about solving it. She didn't know her father or even remembered what he looked like. He was always gone, and then she was sent to the convent in Martinique. Why try so hard?
Conclusion: Is this a book I'd read again? Probably not, but I enjoyed the adventure while I read it.
March 8, 2023
2 1/2 stars
The lady-duo team known as Valerie Vayle wrote five romances in the 1980s. Oddly enough, I read Mistress of the Night, their lowest rated romance, and gave it 5 stars. Lady of Fire had higher marks, but it took me weeks to finish and that is not a good sign.
There were some bodice-ripper-like moments between Garlanda, a young virgin and the heroine of the romance and Roque, the captain of a ship. They find themselves stranded on a deserted island and the H (is he really a hero?) involves her in a sexual relationship. So much for her being raised in a convent and no experience with men. I kept wondering how old Roque was (30s, maybe early 40s??) and what went on felt a bit squicky.
The couple are eventually rescued and he wants to keep Garlanda at his side, but things don't work out that way. I will leave it up to other readers to discover what happens. With small font and 494 pages, I was ready for the romance to end.
Just an FYI: this is the first story in a trilogy and you won't find the stories on Kindle. Excluding Lady of Fire, the other four are available on Open Library.
The lady-duo team known as Valerie Vayle wrote five romances in the 1980s. Oddly enough, I read Mistress of the Night, their lowest rated romance, and gave it 5 stars. Lady of Fire had higher marks, but it took me weeks to finish and that is not a good sign.
There were some bodice-ripper-like moments between Garlanda, a young virgin and the heroine of the romance and Roque, the captain of a ship. They find themselves stranded on a deserted island and the H (is he really a hero?) involves her in a sexual relationship. So much for her being raised in a convent and no experience with men. I kept wondering how old Roque was (30s, maybe early 40s??) and what went on felt a bit squicky.
The couple are eventually rescued and he wants to keep Garlanda at his side, but things don't work out that way. I will leave it up to other readers to discover what happens. With small font and 494 pages, I was ready for the romance to end.
Just an FYI: this is the first story in a trilogy and you won't find the stories on Kindle. Excluding Lady of Fire, the other four are available on Open Library.
September 24, 2014
4 and 1/2 Stars! A Different Pirate Tale
Set in the late 17th century in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Turkey, France and England, this is the story of Garlanda Cheney, who was born in England, the daughter of Sir Robert Cheney, a murdered diplomat. She was raised in Martinique where her grandfather had a plantation. Convent schooled, Garlanda was naïve when she and her mother set sail for England. Her mother died at sea just as their ship went down in a storm. Garlanda was saved by a pirate captain named Rogue with whom she ended up on an island.
True to his name, Rogue takes Garlanda as his mistress, and they spend some idyllic days together. Rescued by Rogue’s crew, Garlanda (who Rogue calls “Fleur”) is taken aboard his ship and held captive until she engages in a daring escape in Marseilles. Garlanda is desperate to find her aunt in England and to find the person who murdered her father.
Both Garlanda’s father and Rogue are mysterious figures. Rogue is constantly taking on different identities, and though he acts the pirate, he is a well-educated man. And for some reason, the British Embassy folks don’t want Garlanda to know about her father.
There is no question that this is a well-written story, but there are whole chapters where Rogue and Garlanda are separated (I won’t even go into her days with a Turkish Pasha), which won’t appeal to all readers. And Rogue seems to be a man incapable of jealousy, which is a bit odd for a romance hero. Still, the story is entertaining and the mystery surrounding Garlanda’s father and Rogue himself kept me reading. There are some endearing secondary characters, including Garlanda’s aunt, Althea, Sabelle (a female member of Rogue’s crew, whose daughters’ story is told in book 2), and Leon Jareski-Yanoviak, the Polish count.
My favorite lines come from a conversation between Garlanda and her aunt Althea:
"Whom do you love?"
"A pirate," Garlanda said miserably.
Athea's eyes lit up. "A real pirate? Does he wear an eyepatch and have a wooden leg and carry a knife in his teeth and--"
"He's well educated and can recite the works of Shakespeare and Jonson from memory."
"Oh," Althea said, voice flat. "Not even a parrot?"
The ending satisfies so the reader who hangs in there will be rewarded as the mysteries are solved and the guy gets the girl.
It’s a different kind of pirate tale and, though it was suggested to me as a bodice ripper, I did not find it so.
Here’s the trilogy:
LADY OF FIRE
SEAFLAME
ORIANA
Set in the late 17th century in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Turkey, France and England, this is the story of Garlanda Cheney, who was born in England, the daughter of Sir Robert Cheney, a murdered diplomat. She was raised in Martinique where her grandfather had a plantation. Convent schooled, Garlanda was naïve when she and her mother set sail for England. Her mother died at sea just as their ship went down in a storm. Garlanda was saved by a pirate captain named Rogue with whom she ended up on an island.
True to his name, Rogue takes Garlanda as his mistress, and they spend some idyllic days together. Rescued by Rogue’s crew, Garlanda (who Rogue calls “Fleur”) is taken aboard his ship and held captive until she engages in a daring escape in Marseilles. Garlanda is desperate to find her aunt in England and to find the person who murdered her father.
Both Garlanda’s father and Rogue are mysterious figures. Rogue is constantly taking on different identities, and though he acts the pirate, he is a well-educated man. And for some reason, the British Embassy folks don’t want Garlanda to know about her father.
There is no question that this is a well-written story, but there are whole chapters where Rogue and Garlanda are separated (I won’t even go into her days with a Turkish Pasha), which won’t appeal to all readers. And Rogue seems to be a man incapable of jealousy, which is a bit odd for a romance hero. Still, the story is entertaining and the mystery surrounding Garlanda’s father and Rogue himself kept me reading. There are some endearing secondary characters, including Garlanda’s aunt, Althea, Sabelle (a female member of Rogue’s crew, whose daughters’ story is told in book 2), and Leon Jareski-Yanoviak, the Polish count.
My favorite lines come from a conversation between Garlanda and her aunt Althea:
"Whom do you love?"
"A pirate," Garlanda said miserably.
Athea's eyes lit up. "A real pirate? Does he wear an eyepatch and have a wooden leg and carry a knife in his teeth and--"
"He's well educated and can recite the works of Shakespeare and Jonson from memory."
"Oh," Althea said, voice flat. "Not even a parrot?"
The ending satisfies so the reader who hangs in there will be rewarded as the mysteries are solved and the guy gets the girl.
It’s a different kind of pirate tale and, though it was suggested to me as a bodice ripper, I did not find it so.
Here’s the trilogy:
LADY OF FIRE
SEAFLAME
ORIANA
February 8, 2021
4-4.5 stars. Read this for Regan Walker’s monthly theme/blog, February is Pirates and sea captains month. This was a very good book. There are great characters, love, action, and a mystery. The book has four parts, the first part the hero and heroine meet and are together. His name is Roque, (think Roque-fort dressing) it’s a Portuguese name as is our hero. You won’t see too much of him in parts two and three of the book, but you will again in part four. Normally I wouldn’t care for that in a book, but it’s done well in this one as the heroine grows and becomes a very independent and much stronger young woman. That’s what the book is about along with the love affair and the mystery. The mysteries I figured out before the end, but it was still fun and I recommend it. I have the 3rd book in the trilogy, Oriana, and look forward to reading that one.
July 23, 2013
review is to follow
August 3, 2019
I really liked this authors writing style! I love old books like this. There was no fluff and lots of intrigue! Very well done
September 29, 2013
read 1991
October 29, 2014
Couldn't finish. Too stereotypical.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews