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.
Highland Force series on Kindle
Highland Force series on Goodreads