Captured by the Pirate Laird by Amy Jarecki

Tags

4 stars, audiobook, highlander, historical, historical romance, pirates

For the first historical romance review for Whiskey With My Book, I offer Captured by the Pirate Laird by Amy Jarecki.

I enjoy all types of historical romances, in a variety of eras.  Highlander romances have a niche all their own and Ms. Jarecki writes a rousing tale of adventure and romance, not just in this book, but in many of her historical romances.

In Captured by the Pirate Laird, the chemistry between Anne and Calum begins from pretty much the moment they meet, despite the fact that it is under very stressful circumstances. Calum is the pirate capturing a ship.  Anne is on that ship because it is taking her to husband by proxy marriage. See. Stress. I thought it was a bit soon in the story to start the mutual attraction, but eventually, further into the story, it started to work for me.

I mentioned some stressful circumstances. As you can imagine, those circumstances will lead to all sorts of trouble for both the heroine and the hero. And there will be good times too! The story is full of action, romance and fun. I loved the characters, even the bad guys.  Ms. Jarecki’s depictions of her characters brings them to full color life and it is easy to connect with, or intensely dislike, them.  Depends on who you like to cheer for.

I listened to the audiobook in my car and was frustrated by the fact that I was always arriving at my destination at a critical point in the story!

I wasn’t crazy about the narration. First of all, most of the story takes place in Scotland. Why have a narrator with a British accent? Are there no Scotsmen audiobook narrators? If that is true, I think I’d rather have someone that sounds mid-American and can deliver accents on the dialog.  Of course, I live in Mid America, so…yeah.

I also was not crazy about the female voices. They tend to sound breathy and tentative.   Audiobook listeners, you know what I am talking about. Not many male narrators handle the female dialog well.

So, 4 stars on the story. 3 stars on the narration. Overall, I enjoyed the rollercoaster ride of adventure and emotions in this book and would recommend the print version to historical romance readers.

There are four books in the Highland Force series (one of which is currently at the very low price of free).  All four are also available on audiobook, and I would add, books 2-4 have different narrators than book one.  Also, if you buy the Kindle version of the 4 books, you can get the Audible version very inexpensively.  The Kindle/Audible combination is the best deal if you like those formats.

Amy Jarecki’s Website

Highland Force series on Kindle

Highland Force series on Goodreads

 

 

 

Icy Passage: A Mystery With Wee Beasties

Tags

5 stars, Adventure, Antarctica, microbiology, scifi, scifi romance

A re-issue of Icy Passage will be released on Monday. Author Ann Gimpel has added additional material to this new version and it sports a great new cover. Here is my review from Smart Girls Love SciFi Romance.

Alana McCarthy and Geeky Pet

Tags

Art, cats, comic books, dogs, interview, pets, scifi movies, scifi TV

Alana McCarthy is the talent behind Geeky Pet. Her art features pets, mostly cats, in an alternative universe where they are the heroes and heroines of their own TV shows, movies and comic books. She has a shop on Etsy where you can purchase her prints. You can also commission Alana to paint your own animal companion as the character they were meant to be.

 

Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket, Drax and Gamora come together in cat form to save the Galaxy!

 

Riley: Hi Alana. I am a big fan of your art. Thank you for talking to me today!

Of all the subjects to use in your art, you chose geeky pets. How did you end up in that niche?

Alana: I used to sell my illustrations at comic conventions. One of the hot sellers was a Christmas card of my two cats dressed up in costumes. Then I had a friend ask for a sketch of a cat dressed as Green Lantern for his themed sketchbook. Everything clicked into place and Geeky Pet was born!

 

 

Yelling Persian Wookie

Riley: Your art features cats from both the feline universes of Star Wars and Star Trek. Which is your favorite and why?

Alana: I’m definitely a Star Wars girl. I grew up with the movies and love the characters. I loved the new movie and I’m currently finishing up a piece of Rey and BB-8, who I’ve modeled after my derpy cat Pumpkin. I’ve never been much of a Trekkie but I know other people definitely are, so I take tips from my friends who are obsessed with the shows. I’m loving what J.J. Abrams did with the new movies though. They’re a great gateway to get new fans into Star Trek.

 

Jean-Luc Picard Boston Terrier

Commissioned by a happy customer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riley: Your commissioned paintings are wonderful! Do your customers supply the inspiration or do they just send you a photo of their pet and you take it from there?

Alana: Thanks so much! The customers definitely come to me with an idea in mind. Sometimes they feel that their pet acts like a certain character, or a few are actually named after a character and they want that shown in a painting. I’ve had an Arya the Cat, Yukon the Husky, named after Yukon Cornelius and a couple Loki dogs. Others just have a favorite show or movie and want to invest in a piece that will make them happy when they see it hanging in their home.

 

Anywhere in space or time….

Riley: As soon as I saw Doctor Who Cat, I felt a connection. My framed print is pictured here.  Outside of art, what else do you connect with?

Alana: I feel the biggest connections with art, especially when I browse around Instagram and see what other artists are up to. I’m also fascinated with stop motion animation. I always get so inspired after seeing something like Nightmare Before Christmas or other such movies. Outside of art, I guess summer and nature and the outdoors. I’ve got a passion for being outside biking and camping. Makes it really hard to stay in and paint during those lovely warm days that we get too few of here in Toronto.

 

Ready for zombies.

Riley: Tell me about the books you like to read. What are your favorite genres or authors or titles?

Alana: I’ll read anything you put in front of me. Unfortunately with two young kids, a full time job and Geeky Pet I haven’t had much time to just sit and read. When I did I always loved a good fiction book. One of my favorites was Not Wanted on the Voyage by Canadian author Timothy Findley. I’ve re-read it several times. The Griffin and Sabine series by Nick Bantock is also a favorite. It’s a completely unique correspondence between two people, where you physically open letters to advance the story. The illustration within it is also so varied and beautiful. Its all very inspiring, along with being a fascinating fictional story. Graphic novels are great too. Some of my favorite series are Preacher, Fables, Sandman and Stray Bullets.

All this talk is really making me miss reading! Maybe this is a sign I need to start carving out some time for it.

Riley: Do you have any new projects you are working on that you would like to tell us about?

Alana: I’ve been collaborating with my husband with an idea for a children’s book. He’s much better with coming up with cool writing ideas, so I thought it might be fun to put both our strengths together. It’ll definitely be about animals and feature a cat or two. We’re hoping to have something ready to pitch sometime soon.

 

Want to see more of Geeky Pets?

Find Alana on Etsy here:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/GeekyPet

And she is on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/GeekyPet/?fref=ts

And Instagram:   instagram@geekypet