To Marry a Marauder*
Romance and Adventure on the High Seas
When the book opens, Captain Charlie Colt is on the right side of the law as a ship’s captain for the East India Company. Upon returning to England, his boss offers him a promotion to lieutenant, but to accept this promotion, he must traffic in slaves. He refuses, as he is morally opposed to this. His boss is unwilling to let him remain simply a captain within the company, and brands him as a pirate and fires him. In that moment, Charlie comes to a variety of realizations and ultimately does decide to become a true pirate to seek revenge. The book resumes a few years later when he meets up with a young woman whom he met when she was a young girl while he was still on the right side of the law as he and his crew are pillaging her father’s house.
Brooke is not a girl like most young ladies. Still unwed at twenty, much to her father’s chagrin, she finds her life to be mundane and actively tries to dissuade suitors. When she finds a treasure map, she and Charlie decide to go off in search of the treasure.
Will Brooke and Charlie find the treasure? Do others know about it? What dangers await them? Will their lives be in jeopardy? Will they fall for each other?
I quite enjoyed the humor in this story. Brooke is a fascinating character. The glimpse of her as a child was quite revealing, helping us understand her and her actions better when we meet her again as a grown-up. It was interesting to watch Charlie in that morally defining moment that caused him to become branded as a pirate. He does change dramatically afterward, and some of it seemed a little hard to believe given what we had seen of him before. I think, too, the author should have used the term “kohl-rimmed” less often to describe his eyes; we get it; he wears eyeliner!
If you enjoyed the other books in this series of pirate romance, you will most likely enjoy this installment of the series.
