Swashbucking Suspense!

A Review of The Pirate and His Lady by Linda Chaikin

     Backcover description:  Emerald Harwick finds herself caught in two skirmishes: a brutal pirate war over buried treasure, and a tumultuous battle for the heart of the man she loves. A romance to intrigue you.

     My Review:  This book begins where the first book in the Buccaneers series, Port Royal, leaves off.  The Pirate and His Lady is full of even more suspense, romance, and high-seas adventure than the first installation!  This is probably due to the fact that this is now the meat of the story.  The characters have been fully developed and the reader can ride along with them as they choose their fate. 
     I found this book to be much more of what I expected from the first one.  I had found Port Royal to be a little slow as far as the action, focusing more on back story.  There also was not as much romance as I had hoped.  The Pirate and His Lady promises plenty of romance and action, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat one moment and sighing with contentment the next! 
     Even though it is a fiction book, there is a lot of historical fact interspersed throughout.  I really enjoyed learning the history of the Buccaneers.  Linda Chaikin does a great job of incorporating historical facts into her stories. 
     The main characters go through a lot of trials and their faith is sorely tested.  To see how they rely on the Lord and the different Scriptures and truths they use to help them inspired me.  I know it is a good book when I find myself applying truths from it to my everyday life!

     It is a clean book.  It does have some violence, but not too graphic.  The violence is the normal sword fighting type of violence.  Everything is discussed from a Christian worldview though.  I give this book 4 stars and would definitely recommend it!

     As I state in my welcome paragraph, I used to pick up a book, get halfway through, and then get to a really graphic part.  Needless to say, I have stumbled across many books that were not "clean" reads, just to chuck them across the floor in frustration after having invested many hours of my time and emotions into the book and characters.  But being a Christian, I remember Philippians 4:8 when considering my reading material:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  

     That is why I rejoiced when I discovered Goodreads, because I saw that others would write in the "review" section whether a book was "clean" or not.  Because let's face it, if someone loves Regencies, there is not a ton of Regency Christian fiction out there.  (Luckily there has been a whole lot more that have stemmed up recently though!)  Now those of us who desire to have integrity in what we read can help one another out.
     I also love reading Christian fiction, which is the majority of what I read.  It is great to read reviews of Christian fiction to see what is good out there and I really appreciate those who write those reviews.  I hope to help others by doing the same!

Reading

“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― G.K. Chesterton

The quote says it all and is one reason why I love reading so much.  Books teach us so many lessons about real life, even "faerie stories."  Plus, it's just so nice to get lost in a good book once in awhile, isn't it?