THE PRIVATEER

Author: Dawn MacTavish ISBN: 0843959819 1/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: DORCHESTER
Time Period: Regency, 1812

Lark at first hoped it was a simple nightmare: If she closed her eyes, she would be back in the mahogany bed of her spacious boudoir at Eddington Hall, and all would be well. Her father, the earl of Roxburgh, would not be dead by his own hand, and she would not be in Marshalsea Debtor’s Prison. Such was not to be. Ere the Marshalsea could do its worst, the earl of Grayshire intervened. Lark shivered, considering the mysterious stone-faced noble. He’d paid her bond while the rest of London turned an eye as blind as the one beneath his eye patch. But while his touch was electric and his gaze piercing, for what purpose had he bought her freedom? It was a plan including Cornwall, return to the world of the haute ton, and embroilment in a struggle against both England’s own Admiralty and the French. But even more perilous, the ex-sea captain might plunder her heart. No, this was not a dream. As Lark would soon learn, her dreams had never ended so well.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

THE PRIVATEER begins its pages in a very unique setting—the inside of an early 19th century debtor's prison, wherein the author paints a very vivid and realistic picture of exactly what it must have been like for those unfortunate enough to have been incarcerated there. This setting was one of the reasons I was drawn to read and review THE PRIVATEER. That, as well as the historical detail the author takes great pains with is impressive and never let me down. However, sadly, one of the leading characters did.

I loved the leading man of this story, the handsome and mature Earl of Grayshire, Basil Kingston, or "King" as he prefers to be called. The secondary characters are all interesting and well rounded, fitting into all the right places as the story flows along. The real scene stealer, though, is King's mother, the Lady Isobel, an elderly curmudgeon who more than once I thought would poke somebody's eye out with the trusty cane she can wield like an epee (too bad she didn't aim it at the heroine). This old gal might be crusty on the outside, but you know she's melted butter on the inside—just the type of character you cannot help but become drawn to. While the plot wasn't all that I had hoped it would be either (very little action on the high seas in this one, which is what you think of when you see the word "privateer" and ships on the cover), becoming rather formulaic at times with your requisite hero/heroine misunderstandings included, it did keep my interest enough to keep on reading.

No, my biggest problem with this book is the heroine—the whiney tattletale, complaining down-on-her-luck figure of Lark, Lady Eddington. She wasn't "fit for a King" in my eyes and I found very little in her character after her rescue from the Marshalsea to be sympathetic to or recommend her. It's very hard to enjoy a story when one of the main characters tends to grate on your nerves, and that's what Lark did to me more often than not. Too often, in fact, for me to really enjoy this book the way that I had hoped to.

Nancy Davis