Rowena’s review of A Pirates Love by Johanna Lindsey.
Hero: Captain Tristan
Heroine: Bettina Verlaine
Sailing westward toward the Caribbean sun, young Bettina Verlaine obediently sets out to fulfill the promise made by her father–but not by her heart — a prearranged marriage destined not to be…once the notorious Captain Tristan’s pirate ship appears on the horizon.
Abducted by the bold and handsome brigand, the pale-haired beauty surrenders her innocence in the warm caress of the tropical winds — detesting her virile captor for enslaving her. . .yet loving him for the passionate spell he casts over fragile, yearning heart.
This was the very first book by Johanna Lindsey that I read and the first time that I read it, I loved it. I loved Captain Tristan (I loved his name) and I thought that Bettina was a great, feisty heroine. It was this book that started my love of all things Johanna Lindsey back in the late 90’s and I’ve read it a couple of times after then and didn’t hate it until now.
I don’t know if it’s my tastes changing or what but Captain Tristan was a right bastard and Bettina got on my hot damn nerves. So this story follows Bettina Verlaine as she journeys to a pre-arranged marriage set up by her father in the Caribbean but on her way there, she’s kidnapped by the dashing pirate, Captain Tristan. A whole bunch of drama ensues and through out the entire time that I was reading this in Colorado, my blood pressure kept rising and rising until I feared I blow my freaking lid.
Literally.
Getting to know both Captain Tristan and Bettina was a trial of my patience. Captain Tristan was a brutish punk who was very forceful with Bettina and his forceful seductions made my stomach hurt. He takes Bettina time after time and while Bettina wants him just as much as he wants her, I couldn’t help but feel sickened every time that they did the ditty because of the way that their relationship came about.
I know that this book was written a long time ago and should be given some slack because things were different back in the day but I just can’t recommend this book to new readers of romance. This book is straight up old school and there’s a lot of rough sex going on…on the high seas.
I wanted to feel bad for Bettina because she was taken abducted and she was held captive by the sexy captain but man she was such a little shit that I just couldn’t like her. All of the arguments and the sexual tension got to be too much for me in this book and I was surprised at how much I hated this book this time around because I loved it so before.
Talk about changing my mind…I changed my mind big time about this book.
Grade: 2 out of 5
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here.
OMWord! I felt the exact way. I didn’t read the earlier version, and when I started reading this book, I was excited to see how it would turn out. I was pissed from chapter one. All that forceful sex was stupid and unnecissary! Geez! I wouldn’t rec it either. Johanna Lindsey is one of my favorite authors EVER and I was disappointed by this book. I just…yeah. I’ll stick to mallory novels, thank you very much!
Great & Honest review, Rowena!
Ain’t it awful! Makes you wonder what we were smoking sometimes. 😉 — willaful
I haven’t read the new version of this book, I read my sister’s old copy that was sitting on her shelf. I wish I didn’t even bother.
Yes, it sucked big donkey balls!
What the heck was up with sex like that back then?!
I have no idea but goodness, it was not fun to read.
I don’t think I’d like this book now but I read it when I was about 12, so that was over 30 years ago (argh!) and I really didn’t know much about much at the time. I do remember the line in the dust written by the lady pirate – 15 words that made Bettina very happy – “you wanted her when you could have had me. I’ll never forgive you for that Tristan.” It warmed the cockles of my 12 year old heart!