4.25/5. Releases 1/09/2023.

Vibes: romance on the high seas, badass heroines, ridiculously besotted heroes, and sword fight boners

Heat Index: 7/10.

Lady Lisbeth, countess, divorcee, and spy, is on the run. She’s taken on the persona of Bonnie Bess, feared by all–except her new sailing master, the infuriating Raphael Saint. Problem one: Raphael may be a part of the smuggling ring Lisbeth is attempting to infiltrate. Problem two: she is, sadly, both extremely annoyed by and extremely attracted to him. Problem three: she may just have to rely on him if they’re going to get away from the people pursuing her in one piece.

I was, to be honest, a little worried about how Amalie would pull this off. A lot of pirate-adjacent romances can get super fetishistic super fast. Plus, Raphael (who is of mixed-race ancestry) could easily dip into the Exotic Brown Man caricature. However, after I let her do her thing, I was pleasantly surprised with a romance that is both heartfelt and ridiculously sexy, with a solid dose of adventure. It’s worth the risk!

Quick Takes:

–If you’re a fan of “man falls first and harder” in romance… You’ll love this. Lisbeth is a very guarded, icy heroine who’s here to do a job and doesn’t have time for nonsense. Raphael… is so naturally flirtatious, first off–but he’s also much more in touch with his emotions and isn’t afraid of letting Lisbeth know that he’s interested. The sexual tension is THICK, but their banter and interplay is another huge part of the fun. They play off each other so well, and it all begins with a SWORDFIGHT!

–Raphael does bring a lot of humor to the story. In a lot of ways, he reminds me (and this is a compliment) of Prince Naveen from The Princess and The Frog? Like, he’s very consciously leaning into being FRANCH, and he never misses an opportunity to hit on Lisbeth, but he also genuinely appreciates her talents and abilities and has a lot of really sweet moments.

He’s also super secure in himself, which brings up another thing I loved about this. Raphael isn’t by any means “feminine”, and he definitely has several scenes wherein he takes a dominant role in his dynamic with Lisbeth. But he’s also very comfortable with being, like… pretty. And delicate. He’s a swashbuckler, but he’ll also joke about wearing her blouses, and revel in the newfound possibilities of her taking control in the bedroom. There’s a very “local man realizes he may have a bit of a submissive side and he’s GOOD with it” vibe to it all.

–I don’t usually like kids in romance, but here we have a legitimately good one! Lisbeth comes into the story familiar with Narina, a twelve-year-old girl whose mother she was friends with. Narina becomes a part of their adventures, and she’s… fucking hilarious? Like, a foul-mouthed, snarky young girl who has a knack for piracy. And it’s one of those things where Lisbeth is always like “DECORUM” because she’s attempting to save this child’s manners, and Raphael (who of course has an immediate affinity with Narina, NATURALLY) can’t help but indulge her and encourage her wrongs. It’s adorable, it makes him even hotter in a “doting father” kind of way and I loved the conclusion it reached.

–I’m really not an expert on this particular part of history, so correct me if my impression is wrong. But it felt like Howard made an effort to represent the unique interplay of cultures across the islands, as well as how one really isn’t that different from the other. Raphael, as I mentioned, is French–but he’s also of Indian and Creole descent. The novel doesn’t delve too deeply into the complexities there, but you do get the sense from Raphael that he hasn’t really fit into any of the boxes offered to him by nineteenth century society, as a French duke who isn’t white and is very much his father’s legitimate heir.

But I really appreciate seeing a book that really didn’t take place in the ballroom, or ballroom adjacent, or really in England at all. You have a great sense of life at sea here, as well as some island-hopping, a detour to America, and so on. It offers a much bigger, grander world than a lot of conventional Victorian romances.

–There’s a great emotional beating heart here, and you really feel Lisbeth falling for this man, essentially against her will, while he steadfastly waits for her to recognize her own feelings. It leads to a great culmination, and some truly swoony emotions.

The Sex:

Um, really good. I do want to call out that Lisbeth is pansexual, and the book doesn’t shy away from that; one of the supporting characters is her ex-lover, and at one point another friend is outright like “oh wait, you like dudes too?” I loved that, and I loved that it’s seriously not a big deal, just this known thing about her and her experiences.

But yeah. This shit is hot. There’s not a huge emphasis on penetrative sex. Like it, happens, but there are a lot of other things that happen, and they do not feel any less like sex. (Including one scene that I don’t want to spoil, but you don’t see a lot of that exact configuration in historical romance, and….. it’s so good.)

Raphael has piercing(s!) and tattoos, and Lisbeth’s obsession with them is certainly incorporated. And like I mentioned earlier–there’s some exploration of both of them discovering New Things about themselves together. Essentially, they both go into this believing they prefer to be dominant, and realize that they’re both, perhaps… switch-y. This leads up to a scene towards the very end that delighted me Very Much. Put simply: the sex in this book is REALLY great.

Like I said, I was at first a little worried about how this one would turn out. However, I was ultimately really happy with where it went. Seeking a “woman and her overeager dangerous himbo go do piracy together” book? This is it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

So exciting! Everything I wanted out of a pirate spy romance. Tension, dueling, fist fights, daggers, cursing…. I could go on. Lots of representation here, varied races and sexuality. The world felt so real, it’s clear the author did her research. I love all of her books. It was a slower start than I prefer, but the plot picked up soon enough. I would recommend this to anyone, it was so great.