I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The Captain of All Pleasures
by
Kresley Cole
historical romance in Paperback edition that was published by Pocket Books on March 27, 2007 and has 370 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include If You Dare, A Hunger Like No Other, No Rest for the Wicked, Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night, Dark Needs at Night's Edge, The Professional
First in the Sutherland Brothers historical romance series — for feminists!
In 2003, The Captain of All Pleasures won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Historical Romance.
My Take
There is no lack of action (of all sorts) in Captain of All Pleasures; it’s a good story. I just wish there had been more tension and depth.
Both men hate each other but there’s no explanation as to why. Even during the race, there’s no tension although both ships suffer sabotage — twice for the Bella Nicola. And, okay, it’s petty, but at the end of page 45, “Nicole unwillingly drifted to sleep and dreamed that Sutherland said in disbelief,‘Her eyes are blue’.” So, her eyes are blue. What’s the point of this comment? I guess what I’m getting at, in all my pettiness, is that these little anomalies are scattered throughout the book and may well be why the passion has no depth.
Yes, I will read the next in the series, Price of Pleasure, if only because I do like the character of Nicole. Cole did a nice job of marrying Nicole’s independence with the mores of her time period.
The Story
Intelligent, bold (and cheeky!) Nicole Lassiter has the best of all Victorian worlds: a father who loves her and can’t resist her desire to sail the seas with him and a wealthy estate and marquisate to inherit when her grandmother dies. Yet, at age 21, her faceless sexual dreams are driving her decisionmaking, well, that and her need to help her father in the upcoming race.
Someone is sabotaging the shipping lines and the story concentrates on two of them: Lassiter’s (her father) and Sutherland’s. Both men are counting on the Great Circle Race to prop up their companies if they can overcome any sabotage. Which is how Nicole meets Sutherland, a man jaded about women with no hope in his future, when he rescues her late at night on the dock from two men intent on bodily harm.
Assuming she’s a prostitute having encountered her earlier in a sleazy, dockside pub, Sutherland hauls her off to his ship where Nicole finally has a face for her dreams. I’ll just say a connection is made before she escapes him. As you can imagine, all sorts of ruckus occurs, and Nicole sneaks aboard her father’s ship, the Bella Nicola, when her father can’t get out of jail, so she can play navigator in the race.
