30something_reads's Reviews (820)

I have only read one other book by Tessa Bailey (It Happened One Summer) and was under the impression she was a romcom author only. 

I AM SO GLAD THAT IS NOT THE CASE! Now I will be digging into her backlist of works.

Mafia adjacent and SPICY? Sign me right up

4.5 ⭐ This was a wild read for me. I went in to this one totally blind. My thought process was literally, "Wow this is pretty," and "Oooh look pirates!" and I honestly had a great time

BUT here is the thing. This book is DARK and angsty. I was not anticipating a dark historical romance just based off the cover and description so some of this story was pretty shocking as I was going through it. LOTS of trigger warnings needed for violence, suicide, sexual abuse, rape, gore - SO MANY THINGS!!! So.... as long as you are going into this knowing ALLLLL of that - this is a really good read. 

It's the 1700s and Bennett Sharp is a badass lady pirate captain out there sticking it to the Royal Navy and slaver ships.
Her love interests are: 
Priest Farrell. Another badass pirate rake who has spent the past 2 years hunting her down for reasons. 
and Ashley Culter. Commodore for the English Navy and successful pirate hunter.

WHEW the steamy tension and spicy spice throughout this book is excellent. 

And I was VERY much appreciative of their HEA - much needed after all of the darkness in this book. YEESH.

My only real complaint was the inclusion of the rape scenes as a plot device. I think we could have gotten to the same end without it. Same for the one scene between Bennett and Ashley that moved into the nonconsensual territory. - - again, dark dark VERY dark and angsty - - but overall had a really good time with the story and the characters.