Customer Reviews

The Fastest Ship: Historical Romance Novel with Pirates, Privateers; Tall Sailing Ships; British Royal Navy; and HMS Warrior, England's First Iron-Clad Warship

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The Fastest Ship was sort of an adventure in and of itself for me, seeing as how I drifted a little ways into the personally unchartered waters of the Sea of Romance during the journey. Of course, there's really no reason why a guy can't enjoy a little romance every now and again - and there's pirates and treasure here to boot, so there you go, matey. There's also an historical backdrop to the story, namely the maiden voyage of the HMS Warrior, England's first iron-clad ship, in 1861. All of the book's characters are fictitious, but the ship's description is based on fact, making this a story of both historical and human interest.

The Fastest Ship is a rather complicated love story surrounding the young daughter of the governor of Jamaica. During her engagement to a young Colonel Whitworth, Elena Williams is kidnapped from her home by a tough-as-nails pirate named McGwyer. Blaming Whitworth for the death of his wife and unborn baby, McGwyer seeks to return the favor to his nemesis. After a forced marriage, McGwyer and his reluctant bride do not enjoy a night of wedded bliss; instead, a seriously beaten Elena manages to escape. She is found the next day by Captain Jack Ashbury of the HMS Griswold. Unable to remember anything about her previous life, Elena - who now takes the name Angelica - falls in love with the dashing captain, and the two are married upon the ship's return to England (despite the fact that Angelica was obviously pregnant by someone other than McGwyer). A short time later, Colonel Whitworth finally tracks down his former fiancé and is heartbroken to learn she is now happily married. Newly acquainted with her true history, Angelica begins to remember more and more about her experiences - including the location of McGwyer's cave full of treasure. Two years later, she accompanies her husband back to the Caribbean on the maiden voyage of the Warrior (a ship now-Admiral Ashbury helped build). Violent past and blissful present collide upon her return, setting up a drama seemingly preordained by fate itself.

There's really no question that this is a romanticized story. I don't think any British sailors of the 1850s and 1860s lived the kind of idyllic lives of Ashbury's loyal crewmen, Ashbury is remarkably accepting of his new wife's pregnancy by another man, and the two lovebirds do get awfully lovey-dovey at times. The characters, though, are remarkably well-developed, especially the roguish pirate McGwyer. The reader's knowledge of the events fuelling his murderous rage makes him very human and even sympathetic to some degree.

Larita Arnold has written a novel of romantic historical fiction that should appeal to a whole cross-section of readers. Whether you come for the romance or the historical details surrounding the transition from wooden ships to iron-clad monsters, readers should enjoy Arnold's mixture of the two genres. This tale of romance on the high seas is certainly worth the price of the voyage.

One of the reasons I became an Amazon reviewer was to give back to others what I have gained by reading other reviewer's comments. When weighing the decision to invest in a book, a movie or anything else sold on Amazon, I have always relied heavily on the reviews of others before making the monetary plunge and when I have bought a book, movie or other item and have found it to be either an excellent value or an albatross, I have returned the favor by sharing my views on the item in question to either recommend the item or warn people against it.

Giving warnings against an item is easy when I have plunked down money for an item that fell short of expectations, but it is not easy to do so when an author has sent you a review copy, obviously expecting a positive review.

I finished reading Larita Arnold's book a few weeks ago, but have been loathe to write a review that would hurt the author's feelings. After seeing copious positive reviews, however, I felt it was important to add balance to those reviews by countering praise I feel is unmerited.

Admittedly, romance is not my genre of choice when looking for a fiction read, but I have read a number of books that have had romance vignettes peppered throughout that enhanced the story, so I am not unfamiliar with reading "sexed up" literature.

The book's cover "art" does not give the reader a good first impression and it pretty much goes downhill from there. The story opens in the home of the book's main characters and principal love interests, Admiral Jack Ashbury and his amnesia suffering wife, Angelica.

The timeline takes place in the 1850s Britain and the Caribbean. Despite the Victorian era's nearly Puritan attitudes toward sex, and penchant for having all unwed couples chaperoned, at all times, the "angelic" Angelica is a 21st century girl. Not quite a rebel or radical feminist, rather a randy girl that everyone seems to wink and nod at. Before her amnesia, when she was 16 year old Elena, she ends up bumping uglies with her fiancee and quickly catching pregnant. In reality, a peasant girl may have had the occasional tryst in the barn with a farm boy at this time, but proper British girls of the 1850s did not simply roll in the hay. They were properly courted and promptly married. A girl raised in this era may have had the same sex drive as Madonna, but knew that not waiting until marriage could result in being shipped off to a convent and/or disowned by one's family, destined to live a lonely, shamed existence raising a bastard child that would unfairly inherit this stigma. It's not pretty, but that was reality... and a proper British girl, as Angelica is portrayed, would have been chaperoned at all times her gentleman caller was present.

After numerous circumstances involving pirates, prisons and revenge, Captain Ashbury is nearing the end of a 2-year tour of duty in the Atlantic, fighting off the French, pirates and the loneliness of being stuck on a smelly boat with smelly sailors when he spies a young, buxom, red-headed girl laying unconscious on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean. Not one of the 200+ sailors gives so much as a wolf whistle. They are all charmed by the little hottie and call her "sis." Yeah, right.

After she is given medical attention by the doctor, she is found to have amnesia, but otherwise in good health and is unchaperoned on the ship, helping the sailors polish bells. Apparently being in her "boy togs" makes her as cute as a 5 year old Shirley Temple and all the sailors adore her like a sister, despite her ample bosom.

After realizing she had not had her "woman's time" in some weeks, the doctor explains with astounding medical accuracy that her head injury may have resulted in damage to her pituitary gland, which would affect her periods. What makes this statement truly amazing, despite the fact that such topics were rarely discussed, even with doctors, was that the doctor cited the existence of the pituitary gland at all in the year 1859... when its function was unknown until 1912.

With the introduction of a dress, Angelica, as she is named by the Captain, morphs from Shirley Temple to Aphrodite and must be escorted at all times when not in her cabin. After weeks together, the captain proposes marriage to Angelica, and the now obviously knocked-up girl with no realistic hope of ever fitting into society otherwise, cheerfully accepts. While the captain may have enjoyed the company of comfort women during his various stops at ports of call, he is so smitten by her, he is ready to not only marry her, but call the child his own. Yep, that's very Victorian. During an island stop when everyone but Angelica leaves the ship to go swimming in a fresh water pond, the captain returns to the ship alone to knock boots with the young maiden. She could be pregnant, has accepted this man's proposal in marriage, and is in no way frightened that he will leave her, throw her off the ship, or dismiss her after they prematurely consummate their nuptials.

He writes home to his widowed mother telling her of his engagement, not mentioning that she's pregnant, suffering from amnesia or will be arriving dressed like a boy. There is no explanation as to how his letter makes it to his mother before he does, when he is traveling to England with his bride-to-be when he pens it, but that can be overlooked. When they do arrive at dear old mom's house, she is a bit taken by surprise, but utterly delighted that her only child, a proper British gentleman and officer in the British Navy is bringing an obviously pregnant girl into her home that he has not yet married, and unfazed by the fact that the child is not even his.

Rather than claiming that they were married on an island months before, they publicly announce that they will marry the very next day. Wedding invitations are obviously run off at the local Kinkos, as hundreds of invitations are produced in no time flat and over a thousand pack St. Paul's Cathedral to the apparent wedding of the century. A newly promoted Admiral and his knocked-up wife showing her belly in public. Yes, that's very 1859. The night before their public declaration of marriage, the Admiral's mother is also unfazed that her unmarried son will be taking his pregnant-by-another-man fiancee into his bedroom. With "Mum" right down the hall, they still cannot wait until their wedding night and have another go at it. Jack brings this up to his mother, saying he's surprised she allowed it, when she giggling admits that she was carrying him in her belly before she and his father were wed. Is that a normal discussion, revelation and attitude in any era, especially Victorian England? I think not.

While I know that proper British couples in the Victorian era still had sex, it was not a topic of open discussion. Even couples who had been married for years did not prance around in the buff wearing nothing but a pendant and a smile, and they most certainly did not discuss the act with each other. Not only do Angelica and Jack have frank, open discussions about how he "enjoys [her] sexually," they use terms that were not coined for decades to come. The term "sex" had the exclusive meaning of gender until 1925, but Jack even refers to his bride as a "sex kitten," an expression that would not be coined for nearly another 100 years. In a handful of "romantic" interludes between them, Jack takes his wife in various positions that leave little to the imagination of the reader, while both spout off idioms from the 20th century.

Putting aside the time-travelling language of the main characters, their conversations are unrealistic and awkward. Even today, when couples frankly and openly discuss their sexual antics, and even video tape them, people simply do not speak the way these characters do. The dialogue is simply forced and awkward. As an example, here is a snippet:

"Darling, to express my love for you in an infinite variety of ways, to fulfill and satisfy you sexually and emotionally, and to make you content, these are the deepest desires of my heart. To be erotic and exciting with you and for you is my right as your wife."

Who talks like this?

So many things stood out as peculiar when I was reading the book, I cannot remember them all, but I will cite a few:

Conveniently, upon his arrival to England with his bride-to-be, Jack finds that he has inherited a lavish estate and over a million British pounds in cash. The estate comes with a yacht and a complete staff of servants. Jack's Mum, Eleanor, quickly sells her home and she moves in w/ the newlyweds to the new house. The ground floor has an entry way, a kitchen and grand dining hall - and on the second floor are the bedrooms and a large ballroom. This just seems odd to me. A ballroom for party guests right next to the bedrooms on the second floor? Naturally, the home is not only fully furnished and filled with fine silver and oil paintings, but all the clothes in the closets are stylish and fit both Angelica and her mother-in-law. How convenient.

While every other British home made the use of wardrobes, every room in their newly acquired estate had its own closet and the master bedroom had a large walk-in closet that was apparently lighted (see page 140). Since the electric light bulb would not be invented for another 20 years, I'm not sure in what manner that the closet is lighted, but it is.

In an era where people can die at the drop of a hat from infection and disease (as the owners of their newly acquired estate conveniently did), Angelica has a very carefree attitude toward life bordering on sociopathic. Her former lover and father of her child blows his brains out on their property. The only other mention the poor heartbroken clod gets is the middle name of his love-child. She is way too concerned with her new husband and child to give it another mention. She finds that her parents have been murdered by a pirate that forced her into marriage and shortly thereafter witnesses the deserved, but highly disturbing strangulation-type executions of several men - only to be swept up into her husband's arms again, with no more mention of those pesky dead parents, the recovery of her lost memories or the mass executions. The only topic of discussion is the pleasure they get in each other's bodies and yet another financial windfall in Angelica's favor.

I applaud the author's research into ship building technology of the era, but the way it is integrated into the story is well, poorly integrated. The author would have faired much better if she had had a professional editor look at her manuscript before it was published. There are typos hither and yon and the lack of an introduction or preface is immediately noticed when you open the book flap and -wham- there is the story. The tawdry tale was a page turner, fairly easy to read, but the story would have had more potential if it had been worked over by a professional editor who could have better integrated the various elements and cleaned up the historical inaccuracies and dialogue. As I mentioned previously, I am not a purveyor of romance novels. For all I know, this work of fiction may be the finest romance novel ever penned, but compared to other works of fiction, the story is mediocre at best.

The year is 1860 and fierce pirates still roam the Caribbean, preying on helpless ships and terrorizing the population. It is also a time of great change, as the British Navy is beginning the process of using iron to turn their vulnerable wooden sailing ships into nearly indestructible steam powered weapons.
The captain of the most notorious pirate ship is a man named McGwyer and he kidnaps the daughter of the Governor of Jamaica (Elena) and forces her to be his bride. She is beaten into submission, but after only one night, she manages to escape. Bloody to the point of being near death, she is adrift on a small boat until rescued. She has lost her memory, but a naval officer falls hopelessly in love with her, they marry and she changes her name to Angelica. They live happily in England until another man arrives and fills in some of her past.
This begins a tale of love, revenge, recovery and closure. Angelica's husband, Admiral John Ashbury oversees the construction of the HMS Warrior, the first ironclad in the British fleet. They sail to the Caribbean on her maiden voyage, find and destroy McGwyer's ship, see that he is hanged for his crimes and get Elena's marriage to McGwyer annulled.
The story is one of unconditional love that lives and thrives in the presence of great strain. Angelica is pregnant with the child of another man and yet her husband does not care. Her mysterious past also does not concern Admiral Ashbury, he only wants her to be happy. It is a story that is very pleasant to read, the historical backdrop, which is reasonably accurate, helps flesh it out and make it interesting. I enjoyed the book very much, even though as a rule I find romance novels dull and uninteresting.

Fast reader that I am, I picked up this self-published paperback while visiting friends in the states. On top of a pile of books in the WC, I'd read about 20 pages for each visit to the loo. My fam has a well established geneaology going back over 15 generations in England and Scottland. My own dear granddad would tell me stories of the ironclads mentioned in this story and his father, who died 30 years before I was born, was an officer on of the first ironclads ever built. My grandad told many colourful tales I sadly did not pay enough attention to at the time and now that he is gone, I cannot ask him about this time in history anymore.

While sitting in the loo, I spied this novel and read the back cover and was delighted that perhaps the name of someone my granddad had mentioned would appear on its pages. I quickly found that this was a perposterous tale revolving around this young tart who would have been shuttled off to be a char woman in Hungary if she had behaved this way in that time period. My own granddad, who was born decades later than this lead character, never saw a completely nude woman until he and my grandmother had been married for nearly 20 years. He had often joked that he had to guess what she looked like only from about a pound's note worth of skin he'd get to see at a time and had to patch it together in his head. He once accidentally walked in on her as she was exiting the bath and they had trouble look at each other in the eye without blushing for over a week. They were very much in love and had 12 surviving children out of 18, but they were raised in a time in which proper gentlemen and ladies only had their hands and faces exposed. If my granddad had entered their bedroom to find my grandmum's bare arse up in the ether, he would have probably died right on the spot... and I know my granddad's modesty all too well - he would not have been walking around even in the privacy of their honeymoon bedroom with his naughty bits hanging out for his bride to see out in the open.

I must admit that I had a good laugh in several spots, but it was rather at the pomposity of the writing and not because any portion of the story was intended to give the reader a chuckle. The young tart and her captain basically have a go at each other at every possible moment, are constantly aroused, and are always giggling and mentally planning their next lovemaking event. This is mostly a silly woman's fantasy and basically rubbish.

This is not my typical reading by any means. It is a romance novel, not the kind of book I usually pick up. However, it was offered by a friend, and I'm the sort who will usually give a book a chance. Couple this willingness with an interest in things British and one sees that there was a more natural affinity for this book than at first glance.

The story begins in the year 1860, at the peak time in the world where the Britannia ruled the waves with the Royal Navy, and had an empire upon which the sun never set. The year 1860 was pivotal in another sense as well - it was the time of transition from sail-based to powered ships, and the world would never be the same.

This was certainly true for Angelica, or Elena as she was originally called. Daughter of one of the many British hierarchs stationed around the world flying the British flag (this one in Jamaica), she was stolen away by a pirate named McGwyer, and ended up married to another - a disturbing idea to her 'real' fiancé, James Whitworth, who saw the marriage certificate in Jamaica shortly before she left for England.

The story is told in flash-back sequences interspersed with the ongoing narrative. Angelica/Elena is both victim and instigator of some of the intrigue; Jack Ashbury is captain of a ship, HMS Griswald, patrolling the Caribbean region and finds Angelica/Elena, who seems to not recall her identity. On the voyage back to England, Jack and Angelica fall in love and are shortly married; Angelica is pregnant with child, but it is unknown whose child this might be.

The pirate McGwyer, the colonial Colonel Whitworth, Angelica/Elena and her family end up with different fates, while the work of the world (and in particular, the upgrade of the British Navy) continues apace around them. There is romance in the lives of each of the characters, love both unrequited and fulfilled for many of them. Author Larita Arnold does a good job at character development and description as well as plot and conversational development. The scenarios are interesting without being beyond fantastic, and the outcome makes sense, without being overly sentimental or predictable.

(And no, I'm not going to divulge the ending - you must read that for yourself!)

A good yarn, as they say, and I couldn't help but occasionally hum a bar or two from Gilbert & Sullivan, whose work was often set in similar scenarios.

Set in 1860, at the close of the Golden Age of Sail, The Fastest Ship is an exciting novel of rescue, adventure and lost treasure. When the daughter of the Governor of Jamaica is abducted by pirates, the man she is destined to marry, and who will build England's first iron-armored warship, the HMS Warrior. The Warrior's maiden voyage in search of a long-lost treasure and hidden memory, on the brink of a revolutionary transformation in nautical technology makes for a rousing fierce saga of the high seas. An exciting historical novel especially for nautical buffs.

The Fastest Ship: A Novel
Larita Arnold
Silver Messages Publishing, Highlands Ranch, CO, paperback, (252p)
ISBN: 0-9774849-0-4

Larita Arnold has scored a winner with her novel, "The Fastest Ship." It is a moving and dynamic story of romance and passion, revenge and retribution, pirates, plunder and pirate's treasure-which takes place for the most part on the high seas of the Caribbean in the mid-19th century. As the author states, the tale is set "at the close of the Golden Age of Sail," - 1860, a turning point for European maritime history. It was a time when the mighty all-sail wooden ships were being made obsolescent by the advent of the steam-and-sail ironclads, which were faster, better armed and protected.

Placed within this historical framework is the story of sixteen-year-old Elena Williams of the British colony of Jamaica. Kidnapped by the dreaded pirate John McGwyer, she manages to escape his clutches, and is rescued off the high seas by Admiral John "Jack" Ashbury of the Royal Navy on board the HMS Griswald. "My crew spotted her lying unconscious in a longboat floating in the open sea off the coast of Barbados...and our ship's Doctor said he feared her skull had been cracked," recounts Jack. Elena's traumatic experience at the hands of the pirate causes total amnesia, obliterating from her shocked and ravaged mind the fact that she is actually the daughter of the Governor of Jamaica, and the fiancee of Colonel James Whitworth of the Jamaican Royal Guards-and she is carrying his child.

The seven-foot-tall McGwyer is the terror of the Barbados seas, and captain of the privateer, the ship-with-no-name. He had kidnapped Elena in a crazed act of revenge, for he blamed Whitworth for the death of his beloved wife Christine and their child, while in custody. Meanwhile romance blossoms on board HMS Griswald; Jack and Elena find true love and marry in London. Elena, now called Angelica Ashbury, is happy with her new life with husband Jack and baby Charles. However, as her memory returns slowly and painfully, she and Jack are horrified to discover that she is the legal wife of McGwyer!

The author's adept use of the flash back technique keeps the story going at a swift pace. It moves from the open seas of the Indies to the opulence and high society of London-and to the "world's first iron-hulled capital ship"-the mighty ironclad of the Royal Navy, HMS Warrior. Jack is promoted to Admiral, and given the task of supervision and financial management of her construction. Crewed by seven hundred men, she has a top speed of 17 knots, is four hundred and twenty feet long, and very heavily armed. Jack's aim is to get the ship operational as early as possible, for he seeks revenge for the agony caused to his beloved Angelica by the crazed McGwyer. There is also the interesting question of McGwyer's hidden treasure, its secret location known only to the pirates-and Angelica!

This is a novel with a difference. Author Larita Arnold has managed an intricate yet vibrant interweave of historical fact with romantic fiction, putting together a tapestry that comes alive when she tells the story of HMS Warrior, "The Fastest Ship." This ship actually existed, and was built to the specifications mentioned in the book. She commenced active service in the Channel Squadron in 1862, and was de-commissioned in 1883. A retired telecommunication engineer, the author has always had a passion for tall sailing ships, the Caribbean, and pirate history.

The 1860s proved to be one of the most pivotal periods in the history of naval warfare. For the first time in over 3,000 years of combat on the high seas, ships began migrating from being made of wood to being made of iron. As everyone knows, the MONITOR and the MERRIMACK were the first ironclads to do battle in the American Civil War. However, other countries were catching on to the idea of constructing ships out of iron at the same time.

This is a fictional story of a historical vessel: the HMS WARRIOR. Ironically enough, this technological change caused navies to hire more people per ship rather than less. More sailors were needed per ship than the crews that mustered aboard sailing ships. Additional men were needed to shovel coal in the engine room as well as man the machinery aboard these ships.

The novel also covers the waning age of the infamous pirates of the Carribean. Arnold toys around with history a bit to combine these two historical epochs into an enjoyable maritime tale.

From time to time the dialogue in the book is a little bit wooden, but the story itself is compelling enough to overcome this. Also, the climactic scene in the book could have been handled in a little more dramatic fashion, but these criticisms are minor.

I would highly recommend the current book to anyone with a passing interest in naval history or pirates. For that matter, people who enjoy love stories will also get a lift out of this book. We will hope that Larita Arnold will offer us more tales of the high seas in the future.