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Bound by the Heart
In this swashbuckling adventure Captain Morgan Wade, a notorious privateer and blockade-runner, rescues, then kidnaps the daughter of the British governor of Barbados after she and her brother are shipwrecked. Summer Cambridge is betrothed to Wade's arch-enemy, Commodore Bennett Winfield, who will go to any lengths, even start a war between two countries to get her back.
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1984
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May 29, 2020
CAPTAIN SEXY'S GUIDE TO FINDING YOUR ONE TRUE LOVE
1. Rescue a damsel in distress. Preferably one floating in shark-infested waters with her little brother and who will disguise her upper crust background by calling herself a governess. You can take your shirt off when coming to her rescue; she'll love that!
2. Take the damsel back to your cabin. Give her some time to get acquainted with her surroundings and then when the inevitable whining starts, promptlyrape ravish her. She'll love that!
3. Continueraping ravishing her throughout the next few days. She'll love that!
4. Take her to your island hideaway and install her as an honored guest in your island mansion. Seduce her with your eyes and hints of your manly hairy chest. She won't be able to resist you because all of thatraping ravishing will have proven how much you love her. Take her in your arms and declare that love. She'll love that!
5. Respect her request to be sent home to her father's island mansion where she is engaged to some uptight asshole. Eventually find out that she has given birth to your child; visit her at night so you can both declare your mutual love; steal the child in an effort to lure her to your ship; quickly sail away with her and your child on board. She'll love that!
6. Be together forever. She'll love that!
7. At one point tell her that if she hadn't pretended to be a governess and was instead honest about her upper crust background, she probably wouldn't have beenraped ravished in the first place. But then LOL and say that it probably still would have happened because she's so super-hot. She'll love that!
♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?
so Bound by the Heart marks two things for me: (1) the first in a series of romance novels I plan to read this year because hey I made a goal and I'm going to stick with it, and (2) the first time I was able to compartmentalize rape in a book, separate it from the rest of the narrative, and so actually enjoy the book. that second item does not exactly fill me with pride. but if I'm going to read a bunch of romance novels, it appears that I'm just going to have to get over it. I still don't quite understand why rape appeared to be featured so much in romance novels from (recently) bygone eras, but I do know that those torrid romances with their intense emotions and and historical settings are just more appealing to me than sweet romances set in the modern days.
Canham makes compartmentalization easy by creating a heroine who is almost entirely two-dimensional and whose actions are often so eye-rolling and ridiculous that she barely exists as an understandable character. this is supposed to be the reader stand-in? I think not! Summer Cambridge is so often insipid and petulant and prone to foolish decisions and eager to say ridiculous things out loud that she felt more like a running joke than a person. she does have her positive moments of quick thinking and loyalty and bravery, so fortunately she's not a total pain to read about. but the sad misogynist truth of the matter is that I was able to quickly forget the fact that she was repeatedly raped in the beginning of the novel because the author appears completely disinterested in giving her anything but the slightest bit of logic or agency. when Summer begins to look at those rapes as the beginning of her love affair with the hottest man she's ever met, all I could do was shrug and say Well, er, okaaaaaay.
so an easy 1 star for this novel, right? wrong! compartmentalization saved the day! yay?
I really liked the rest of this book because it was all about PRIVATEERS ♥ BATTLES AT SEA ♥ CANNONS FIRING ♥ BRAVE CREW MEMBERS ♥ SHIPS SINKING ♥ MILITARY INTRIGUES ♥ MARITIME TACTICS ♥ THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR ♥ BURNING VENGEANCE ♥ SECRET IDENTITIES ♥ SNEAKY FRENCHMEN ♥ DASTARDLY ENGLISHMEN ♥ CUNNING AMERICANS ♥ DARING RESCUES ♥ ACTION ♥ ACTION ♥ ACTION ♥!
Marsha Canham fully immerses the reader in this nautical adventure through her excellent use of historical detail and what felt like an encyclopedic understanding of how ships of a certain time period operate and do battle. this felt like an old-fashioned tale of daring deeds at sea, with an irritating romance shoehorned in. did this book really appeal to the romance readers of 1984? I hate being a gender essentialist, but much of the time it felt like it was written for guys who liked the Aubrey-Maturin series. and Canham is far from a bad writer when it comes to all of the adventure. her prose is quite muscular.
so thanks to the wonders of compartmentalization, I dub thee a 3 star book! I liked it. but then why do I feel ashamed?
1. Rescue a damsel in distress. Preferably one floating in shark-infested waters with her little brother and who will disguise her upper crust background by calling herself a governess. You can take your shirt off when coming to her rescue; she'll love that!
2. Take the damsel back to your cabin. Give her some time to get acquainted with her surroundings and then when the inevitable whining starts, promptly
3. Continue
4. Take her to your island hideaway and install her as an honored guest in your island mansion. Seduce her with your eyes and hints of your manly hairy chest. She won't be able to resist you because all of that
5. Respect her request to be sent home to her father's island mansion where she is engaged to some uptight asshole. Eventually find out that she has given birth to your child; visit her at night so you can both declare your mutual love; steal the child in an effort to lure her to your ship; quickly sail away with her and your child on board. She'll love that!
6. Be together forever. She'll love that!
7. At one point tell her that if she hadn't pretended to be a governess and was instead honest about her upper crust background, she probably wouldn't have been
♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?♥?
so Bound by the Heart marks two things for me: (1) the first in a series of romance novels I plan to read this year because hey I made a goal and I'm going to stick with it, and (2) the first time I was able to compartmentalize rape in a book, separate it from the rest of the narrative, and so actually enjoy the book. that second item does not exactly fill me with pride. but if I'm going to read a bunch of romance novels, it appears that I'm just going to have to get over it. I still don't quite understand why rape appeared to be featured so much in romance novels from (recently) bygone eras, but I do know that those torrid romances with their intense emotions and and historical settings are just more appealing to me than sweet romances set in the modern days.
Canham makes compartmentalization easy by creating a heroine who is almost entirely two-dimensional and whose actions are often so eye-rolling and ridiculous that she barely exists as an understandable character. this is supposed to be the reader stand-in? I think not! Summer Cambridge is so often insipid and petulant and prone to foolish decisions and eager to say ridiculous things out loud that she felt more like a running joke than a person. she does have her positive moments of quick thinking and loyalty and bravery, so fortunately she's not a total pain to read about. but the sad misogynist truth of the matter is that I was able to quickly forget the fact that she was repeatedly raped in the beginning of the novel because the author appears completely disinterested in giving her anything but the slightest bit of logic or agency. when Summer begins to look at those rapes as the beginning of her love affair with the hottest man she's ever met, all I could do was shrug and say Well, er, okaaaaaay.
so an easy 1 star for this novel, right? wrong! compartmentalization saved the day! yay?
I really liked the rest of this book because it was all about PRIVATEERS ♥ BATTLES AT SEA ♥ CANNONS FIRING ♥ BRAVE CREW MEMBERS ♥ SHIPS SINKING ♥ MILITARY INTRIGUES ♥ MARITIME TACTICS ♥ THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR ♥ BURNING VENGEANCE ♥ SECRET IDENTITIES ♥ SNEAKY FRENCHMEN ♥ DASTARDLY ENGLISHMEN ♥ CUNNING AMERICANS ♥ DARING RESCUES ♥ ACTION ♥ ACTION ♥ ACTION ♥!
Marsha Canham fully immerses the reader in this nautical adventure through her excellent use of historical detail and what felt like an encyclopedic understanding of how ships of a certain time period operate and do battle. this felt like an old-fashioned tale of daring deeds at sea, with an irritating romance shoehorned in. did this book really appeal to the romance readers of 1984? I hate being a gender essentialist, but much of the time it felt like it was written for guys who liked the Aubrey-Maturin series. and Canham is far from a bad writer when it comes to all of the adventure. her prose is quite muscular.
so thanks to the wonders of compartmentalization, I dub thee a 3 star book! I liked it. but then why do I feel ashamed?
June 11, 2011
I recently read in a review that this author (who I have always enjoyed) re-issued this 2nd book she had written in e-book format. This reviewer included the statement that..."certain significant changes were not made to the original plot" (only on the rapist hero). Well, that is not true. Many parts were re-written. I know because...
Due to that review I was not interested in picking up the re-issue. So, I got this original 1984 edition. As I began reading I realized the story sounded VERY familiar. Finally I knew I had read it before. Then I found I had read it in February. Yes, I purchased the damn e-book on Amazon in February and didn't even remember. But I do now, because it is right here on my kindle. That about sums up that particular edition for me...."forgettable". So forgettable, I didn't even waste time reviewing it. (I only review books I have STRONG impressions on - love or hate, why waste time reviewing books I don't even remember reading?)
So to get on with THIS edition, to sum it up...I loved it. Loved that rapist hero Morgan Wade. Loved all the lead characters. Taking out any parts in this story IMO diminished it...as it is written in the original version, the plot is DYNAMIC...Morgan Wade is DYNAMIC...Summer Cambridge is DYNAMIC...depiction of secondary characters is outstanding...and the sea battles... I was RIGHT THERE. I usually have a difficult time when an author gets carried away with all the parts and pieces of those early 1800's War/battle ships, but not this time in THIS story. I was sucked right into it. Powerful descriptive writing.
[image error]
Morgan watching Summer singing "God Save The King" at the top of her drunken lungs...after dinner at the French governor's mansion.
I'm not going into the plot here. I just finished this book and I want to savor it awhile. Going on my keeper shelf.
My recommendation: skip the e-book version on this one. It doesn't hold a candle to the original.
I asked Marsha Canham why she edited and re-wrote parts of this story for her re-issue. I thought maybe her publisher had given her heat for those rapey parts in it. You know, I'm quite fed up seeing all those righteous PCers rant and moralize and jump on the ole unPC band wagon. But, nope she rewrote because she wanted to and she is doing the same on her other out-of-print re-issues. So, be forewarned if that is something you are interested in.
Due to that review I was not interested in picking up the re-issue. So, I got this original 1984 edition. As I began reading I realized the story sounded VERY familiar. Finally I knew I had read it before. Then I found I had read it in February. Yes, I purchased the damn e-book on Amazon in February and didn't even remember. But I do now, because it is right here on my kindle. That about sums up that particular edition for me...."forgettable". So forgettable, I didn't even waste time reviewing it. (I only review books I have STRONG impressions on - love or hate, why waste time reviewing books I don't even remember reading?)
So to get on with THIS edition, to sum it up...I loved it. Loved that rapist hero Morgan Wade. Loved all the lead characters. Taking out any parts in this story IMO diminished it...as it is written in the original version, the plot is DYNAMIC...Morgan Wade is DYNAMIC...Summer Cambridge is DYNAMIC...depiction of secondary characters is outstanding...and the sea battles... I was RIGHT THERE. I usually have a difficult time when an author gets carried away with all the parts and pieces of those early 1800's War/battle ships, but not this time in THIS story. I was sucked right into it. Powerful descriptive writing.
[image error]
Morgan watching Summer singing "God Save The King" at the top of her drunken lungs...after dinner at the French governor's mansion.
I'm not going into the plot here. I just finished this book and I want to savor it awhile. Going on my keeper shelf.
My recommendation: skip the e-book version on this one. It doesn't hold a candle to the original.
I asked Marsha Canham why she edited and re-wrote parts of this story for her re-issue. I thought maybe her publisher had given her heat for those rapey parts in it. You know, I'm quite fed up seeing all those righteous PCers rant and moralize and jump on the ole unPC band wagon. But, nope she rewrote because she wanted to and she is doing the same on her other out-of-print re-issues. So, be forewarned if that is something you are interested in.
January 31, 2013
This review is for the 1984 edition. I just want to clarify that. I do not agree at all with Canham altering her books. Only the original will get 5 stars. If you happen to be one of the poor souls who bought the revised version missing chapter 28 then you might understand why I think that book was awful.... because it made no sense. Part of that kindle version was missing. I am sure this has since been corrected but what a letdown this was at the time. I think my review is very fair. Marsha Canham is a great writer but I just don't agree with her rewriting the books. These were written in the 80's and as you can tell women's rights have come a long way since then. I'm about as feminist as you can get (ask my husband) but nothing in the original book bothered me. The hero was a pirate. Books are an escape for me. I don't like watered down versions of anything. In the new version, he's a politically correct pirate. LMAO. I did list the new version as the worst BR I have ever read. On a side note, I just ran into my first nutjob who wanted to argue about my opinion and turn it into an issue about abuse instead of editing. Needless to say I deleted my posts cause you can't argue with stupid. When that happens I delete, delete and let them argue with themselves.
September 23, 2015
Hmmmph. I hate it when I delay a week before writing my review - I don't remember much of this not-so-memorable tale. The heroine and her young brother are the only survivors of a ship wreck on the way to join their father in Barbados (he's the governor). They're saved in the nick of time by the notorious pirate Morgan Wade who may or may not return them to the safety of their loving father's arms, and the heroine's supposed fiancé (he's a bad 'un). There's lots of treachery and double dealing afoot, and a battle at sea (or two or three).
This was OK, not great but not bad either. From the other reviews I've read, Canham has supposedly rewritten bits of this for the digital editions, particularly a rape scene. I don't have the two editions to compare, so I don't know what I've missed. What I will say is that the Kindle edition I read is littered with typos (or conversion errors - don't know which), as well as very poor formatting on the paragraph indentations. I get that paragraphs need to be indented if there isn't a double space between them, but that's only on the first line in the next paragraph, and not the whole danged paragraph indented. Very distracting, and I'm glad I got this as a freebie and didn't pay full retail for such a shoddy presentation.
This was OK, not great but not bad either. From the other reviews I've read, Canham has supposedly rewritten bits of this for the digital editions, particularly a rape scene. I don't have the two editions to compare, so I don't know what I've missed. What I will say is that the Kindle edition I read is littered with typos (or conversion errors - don't know which), as well as very poor formatting on the paragraph indentations. I get that paragraphs need to be indented if there isn't a double space between them, but that's only on the first line in the next paragraph, and not the whole danged paragraph indented. Very distracting, and I'm glad I got this as a freebie and didn't pay full retail for such a shoddy presentation.
October 6, 2012
This review is for the rewritten ebook version. I should have read the reviews before I got the ebook version. I wanted and was expecting a good old fashioned Bodice Ripper. It was pretty boring. I mean yes there were some exciting moments at sea. But if that's what I was looking for I would have picked up Treasure Island. Apparently all the good stuff was edited out to make the book more PC. I was so excited that some of my Marsha Canham print books popped up as freebies on Kindle. I'm so glad I haven't taken the box to the thrift store yet. Because I'm pulling the print versions out in case the ebooks have been edited.
May 26, 2011
Original PB = 5*.
Watered down E-version = 3* ~ lost dwamatic points
Watered down E-version = 3* ~ lost dwamatic points
June 15, 2011
I read the ebook version, and from the reviews, I have gathered that it is the inferior version. I enjoyed this book and all of the descriptions were interesting. I felt like I was THERE. However, the story itself was bland. The beginning was lacking and now I know why: The rape scenes in the 1984 version were the biggest parts. I have very mixed feelings about that issue, because I do not think rape is sexy. At all. But this is a historical based on a ship of 100+ men out in the ocean for months and any poor young beauty like her would have been raped. (I will add here how much I LOVE being a product of THIS generation with rights and some protection) I believe that changing the story for the sake of PC is a little like selling out... Does there ALWAYS have to be a captain that hides the h away from the rest of the crew without touching her? That just didn't happen. I believe that in the 1984 version, the h also develops stockholm syndrome towards her captor and rapist, the H. But at the same time, I am sure I wouldn't have liked this hea of the h loving her rapist, hence the mixed feelings. This story might have been a little on the bland side, but I did enjoy it and I liked the secondary characters.
February 26, 2011
Wow. 5+ stars!!! This book was amazing. 936 pages on my Nook and I read it in two days. I could not put it down. The characters were so rich and so well written from the main ones down to the every minor. I am astounded by the lower rating I saw on Goodreads. This is definitely up there with my favorites. The only disappointment was it didn't go on longer or have a sequel. Morgan was every bit of the hero you come to expect in Marsha Canham's stories and more. The action and constant twist and turns in the story keep you guessing and surprised. There were at least six characters you just love and three or more you absolutely despise. Bennett being one of her best villain yet. The story takes you all through the Caribbean and you watch characters develop and change with their experiences, becoming so invested in them you cannot put the book down for more than moments at a time. It was compelling, thrilling, exhausting and you wish it would never end. Great ride. Great book. A must read.
August 16, 2024
Edge of your seat ride!
Marsha Canham never disappoints! I read this book the first time shortly after its release. Now I had to do a reread 40 years later and it again had me biting my nails and keeping me up all night to finish it. Reckless and free spirited, Captain Morgan Wade is to die for! A smashing and memorable cast of supporting characters. Amazing edge of your seat sea battles & happy endings! Loved every word of it. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Marsha Canham never disappoints! I read this book the first time shortly after its release. Now I had to do a reread 40 years later and it again had me biting my nails and keeping me up all night to finish it. Reckless and free spirited, Captain Morgan Wade is to die for! A smashing and memorable cast of supporting characters. Amazing edge of your seat sea battles & happy endings! Loved every word of it. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
April 14, 2022
Excellent book.
I am not typically into pirate books but this one was extremely well written, with an excellent plot, great characters, with a side of steam. I loved the H and h. There was also several side character that held a lot of charm.
I confess I am slightly old school where I do not really like that once the H and h are “intimate” that they sleep with other people although this was made palatable because the book did not elaborate on it.
Overall a great read plot 8 (1-10) steaminess 6.5 (1-10)
I am not typically into pirate books but this one was extremely well written, with an excellent plot, great characters, with a side of steam. I loved the H and h. There was also several side character that held a lot of charm.
I confess I am slightly old school where I do not really like that once the H and h are “intimate” that they sleep with other people although this was made palatable because the book did not elaborate on it.
Overall a great read plot 8 (1-10) steaminess 6.5 (1-10)
February 29, 2020
4.5 and I upped it to 5 for the fabulous ship battle scenes in the last part of the book! Lots of great action in this one. I read the og paperback, I read the reviews which said the kindle version was not as good. I had purchased the kindle version long before I was able to find this copy for $4- $5. I will check out the kindle version just to see how the changes affect the story. I have a feeling the og may be the better as it was originally written.
Currently reading
May 17, 2023self note
Downloaded the ebook (might be the original copy-with rape?), but book apparently has a lot of war towards the end with not enough romance between the MCs, which isnt my jam.
- 1 year separation??
Downloaded the ebook (might be the original copy-with rape?), but book apparently has a lot of war towards the end with not enough romance between the MCs, which isnt my jam.
- 1 year separation??
December 3, 2015
Wow!
Such a great book! I love pirates and privateers! This is such a good book I have already recommended it to other readers! Five stars is all I can give....and I am a book-a-day reader who is rather stingy with my reviews. That said, Canham does an amazing job of describing the battle scenes and her characters are well described....human! They live on the page. Her writing is romantic, erotic, action-packed, ironic at times and thrilling. I cannot wait to read more from this fine author! The plot is fresh and filled with historical accuracies. Loved Thorny...kick in the pants old guy with quite the flair for speaking his mind. Absolutely read this book. It will keep you glued to the pages! Outstanding!
Such a great book! I love pirates and privateers! This is such a good book I have already recommended it to other readers! Five stars is all I can give....and I am a book-a-day reader who is rather stingy with my reviews. That said, Canham does an amazing job of describing the battle scenes and her characters are well described....human! They live on the page. Her writing is romantic, erotic, action-packed, ironic at times and thrilling. I cannot wait to read more from this fine author! The plot is fresh and filled with historical accuracies. Loved Thorny...kick in the pants old guy with quite the flair for speaking his mind. Absolutely read this book. It will keep you glued to the pages! Outstanding!
May 23, 2011
From my understanding, Bound by the Heart is a rewrite of an earlier addition of a less politically correct version. The characters are good, not amazing, but solid and the plot is well paced. The real strength of this novel is in the telling of naval skirmishes and the historical background of the inciting maritime events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and outright war with Britain--fantastic and fun. For those not interested in these events it might not be as interesting a read, but I found it highly diverting and makes me want to reread my Thomas Paine.
June 17, 2011
Don't let the cover fool you, the adventuring and swashbuckling were more interesting than the sex.
March 12, 2013
Great book and in typical Canham style, lots of untraditional twists and swashbuckling turns. I love Captain Morgan. He's a natural leader with a cool head. I didn't really like Summer, the heroine, all that much. She just acted silly and contradictory throughout the book. I couldn't get an idea of what her personality was all about. I read Across a Moonlit Sea before this one, the first book in Canham's Pirate Wolf saga, and couldn't help but think that Captain Morgan is very similar to Captain Simon Dante, the hero in Across a Moonlit Sea. Also other characters that see familiar from Bound and Across, Stuart Rourke/Geoffrey Pitt and Mr. Friday/the Cimaroon. It didn't really bother me that much as I loved Across and the characters. The book presents a good pirate escape, if you don't mind how annoying Summer can be at times.
Canham needs to write a follow-up with Michael as the lead! The kid has some chops and with a brother-in-law like Morgan, I see the makings of a partnership very similar to Morgan and Bull. BTW, love Bull and sad to see that he went down in a blaze of glory.
Canham needs to write a follow-up with Michael as the lead! The kid has some chops and with a brother-in-law like Morgan, I see the makings of a partnership very similar to Morgan and Bull. BTW, love Bull and sad to see that he went down in a blaze of glory.
May 30, 2011
I really want to give this one five stars but I just felt like it was missing something. It was vastly entertaining and had plenty of adventure which I find sadly lacking in most romance novels, but the love story just came up short. There was plenty of description in some parts but not enough in others. I loved the story line but wanted more from it. Perhaps, it needed to be a series, or I may have been satisfied with a couple more chapters or an epilogue. It just ended too abruptly. Maybe I just needed to read the unedited version, which I'm told has much more drama to offer. Complaints aside, I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of Marsha Canham's novels.
October 17, 2012
Slowest.....moving..... pirate "adventure" ever. 2.5
Also, as for the romance. I didn't believe they were in love in the beginning at all. There was no build to that. Just suddenly she decides to sleep with him before she goes back. I was like "WHAT?"
Then he comes back for her? For real?
The second 1/2 of the book was far better. If you want to enjoy it:
Also, as for the romance. I didn't believe they were in love in the beginning at all. There was no build to that. Just suddenly she decides to sleep with him before she goes back. I was like "WHAT?"
Then he comes back for her? For real?
The second 1/2 of the book was far better. If you want to enjoy it:
May 15, 2017
There were parts I enjoyed, and parts that dragged on...the battles at sea and all the ship-talk was too much for me. But otherwise a pretty good, old-fashioned bodice ripper. Didn't quite understand exactly when Morgan fell so in love with Summer or when she developed such a tendre for her captor, but as we must do in these books, I went with it, lol!
November 6, 2015
4.5 Not the ebook version. Loved it.
March 1, 2011
4.5 stars - Great, but it was slow towards the end.
February 26, 2026
With a name like Summer, I knew I was going to get a dumb heroine, and I didn't mind as long as her stupidity was believable. To a point it was. She was spoiled, petulant, bossy which all made sense given her upper class background, and posh upbringing, but Canham didn't care much about solid characterization and poor Summer ended up being unbelievably stupid. For instance she is raped by Morgan, but since this is bodice ripper, she grows to enjoy his attention in just one day. I was astonished when it was revealed that she only spent 7 days with Morgan and the last day she threw herself into his arms (later blaming one glass of wine made her do it). After they parted ways, she goes on to marry her beau Bennett. Of course our bimbo Summer has no idea what sort of a man Bennett is. She does know, however that Bennett wants to kill Morgan. Anyway one night Bubble head Summer is having vanilla sex with Bennett that she sort of forces herself to enjoy for the sake of her marriage. I buy that, but then, shockingly in the midst of this vanilla sex, she calls out Morgan's name. WHAT? So she lost her mind completely during this boring sex? There were gazillion believable, plausible reason for Bennett to become angry and nasty to Summer, yet this is what we get.
End of rant.
The book had good bones and if Canhan edited it more, trimmed the repetitive dialogues that droned on for 50 pages, and fleshed out characters to make their actions believable, this could have been fun.
End of rant.
The book had good bones and if Canhan edited it more, trimmed the repetitive dialogues that droned on for 50 pages, and fleshed out characters to make their actions believable, this could have been fun.
April 28, 2022
So this book was originally published when I was 2 years old. I actually read the re-release on ebook version. When I first got into historical romance novels in the early 2000s Marsha Canham was hands down my favorite. The action and adventure, the historical references, and the bigger than life characters were all things that appealed to me when reading and all things Marsha excelled at! It's probably been over 10 years since I've read one of her books, but I knew where I needed to go when I hit a bit of a reading slump. I made a goal a long time ago to read all of her books so I started with the one that's been sitting in my library for ages but I have never read.
As I read, I remembered why I love her books so much! It was like hopping in a time machine that took me back to hot summer days between my college years when I did nothing but lay in the sun and read all day!
There was also plenty in this book that I realize are just not done anymore. I never realized how problematic some of these things were back in the day when I was reading, but it's nice to be able to recognize them now. Maybe I've grown as a reader, maybe our community has matured, maybe both. Whatever it is, I'm glad I found Marsha back in the day, and I'm glad I took the time to stroll down memory lane and remember what it was like when I first discovered this genre.
As I read, I remembered why I love her books so much! It was like hopping in a time machine that took me back to hot summer days between my college years when I did nothing but lay in the sun and read all day!
There was also plenty in this book that I realize are just not done anymore. I never realized how problematic some of these things were back in the day when I was reading, but it's nice to be able to recognize them now. Maybe I've grown as a reader, maybe our community has matured, maybe both. Whatever it is, I'm glad I found Marsha back in the day, and I'm glad I took the time to stroll down memory lane and remember what it was like when I first discovered this genre.
January 19, 2021
Gosh...I'm am a fan of this author and her historical romances! So true to life. People die. People are maimed. People fall in love.
What a fabulous swashbuckling romp with some over the top characters. Ms. Canham is at the top of her form as she sends Captain Wade and his crew to rescue Summer and her brother Michael from certain death when their ship goes down. Michael worships Captain Wade and Summer soon has romantic feelings towards him, although she is betrothed to Commodore Winfield, who is Captain Wade's enemy.
Stowaways, sea battles, death, destruction, and in the end a fabulous happily ever after.
I love the writing of Ms. Canham. She has done her homework regarding the time period. Her writing is top notch in my opinion. If you want a non-sugar coated battle on the high seas, look no further.
What a fabulous swashbuckling romp with some over the top characters. Ms. Canham is at the top of her form as she sends Captain Wade and his crew to rescue Summer and her brother Michael from certain death when their ship goes down. Michael worships Captain Wade and Summer soon has romantic feelings towards him, although she is betrothed to Commodore Winfield, who is Captain Wade's enemy.
Stowaways, sea battles, death, destruction, and in the end a fabulous happily ever after.
I love the writing of Ms. Canham. She has done her homework regarding the time period. Her writing is top notch in my opinion. If you want a non-sugar coated battle on the high seas, look no further.
April 26, 2020
definitely a product of its time. a lot of the details are impressive and canham paints an immersive picture of the carribean, the political climate, life aboard a ship etc. however, every single interaction between the hero and the heroine dates this book. their relationship is boring and unromantic. i think if canham were writing in a different time with different expectations for the actual romance, should could produce something really good. i'll need to read some of her other works i guess.
January 28, 2018
This particular book was not nearly as good as her two trilogies, however, all of her books are entertaining. Enter larger than life hero, -plenty of adventures and misadventures, great characterizations, threads of history and the best build-up and follow through of bodice-ripper scenes I’ve read to date in the historical romance genre.
September 12, 2023
Another amazing story by Marsha Canham!
I loved this book and would highly recommend it to those who enjoy swashbuckling adventure entwined with scorching romance at its best. I am curious how the writer knows so much about warfare on the high seas. One would think that she was once a privateer captain herself.
I loved this book and would highly recommend it to those who enjoy swashbuckling adventure entwined with scorching romance at its best. I am curious how the writer knows so much about warfare on the high seas. One would think that she was once a privateer captain herself.
December 31, 2018
Bound by the Heart
This was an excellent book I couldn't hardly put it down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next.I would highly recommend this book to any one who wants an excellent read.I look forward to reading more of this author's work.
This was an excellent book I couldn't hardly put it down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next.I would highly recommend this book to any one who wants an excellent read.I look forward to reading more of this author's work.
April 22, 2021
Loved it
This book kept me entertained the entire time. I have always loved stories about the sea and the men who sailed the ships and the women who had the gumption to be at their side.
This book kept me entertained the entire time. I have always loved stories about the sea and the men who sailed the ships and the women who had the gumption to be at their side.
January 7, 2022
We’ll written with great attention to detail on history of war of 1812, ship building and naval battles. The fairly traditional archetype of characters showed good development and the plot had plenty to keep things interesting.
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