Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Hakan has lived his life as a pirate and his crew was scattered when they were captured and taken into slavery. Now that Hakan has escaped, he’s determined to rebuild and reunite his crew. He has to find them first, and that requires a boat. Hakan finds his opportunity to steal Captain Ramorran’s boat, but when the Captain catches up with him, he’s furious. But not furious enough to dump Hakan overboard. The men reach an agreement when they learn that the man that is Ramorran’s enemy, who stole something precious to him, is the same man that is holding Hakan’s crew captive.
Ramorran thought he found love, but was betrayed. He wants to return home, but he needs to secure his property first. Ramorran has vowed never to fall for a pirate again, and although Hakan’s offers tempt him, Ramorran is not falling for any of it. They’ll sail together to get their revenge and then Ramorran will go his own way. But the dangers continue to mount, as does the chemistry between the men, and the most unlikely pair might be the right pair.
When I saw this book, I was excited for a pirate story. The opening starts off fine, with Hakan eavesdropping to learn about an opportunity to steal Ramorran’s boat. Hakan is then surprised when Ramorran is able to catch him (it would be a spoiler to discuss more about how).
The book then fizzled out for me from one scene to the next. Hakan and Ramorran are enemies from the start, as Hakan is a pirate and Ramorran is not. They have a common enemy in that the “pirate king,” who Ramorran fell in love with, stole something personal from him and he is also holding Hakan’s crew prisoner. So there is a feel of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” going on here. We are told there is chemistry between Hakan and Ramorran, but I never felt it between them. Their physical chemistry lacked spark and I never got any kind of feeling that these two were lifelong mates.
Ramorran’s story is muddled at best and there is no world building or character building surrounding him. There were way more questions than answers and I got frustrated with the lack of world and character building, which was disappointing, because he could have been an intriguing character. In the moments of building tension, things were resolved too easily, washing away any tension without a strong enough story behind it.
The ending left open threads to Ramorran and Hakan’s story, while building a case for another couple for a subsequent book. These characters and the plot were too watered down for me and not developed enough to make this a winner for me.
