Customer Reviews

Pirate of My Heart

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is amazing! Analisa is betrothed to a nutmeg planter in the tropics. On the way o her new home, Analisa meets Michael, a captured smuggler condemned to death and his spirit and courage awakens her own inner fire. After a night of passion, she helps him escape, but he comes back for her. The husband is still in mourning for his first wife and he treats her like she is a long antisipated order, that looks different in person than in the catalog. The undying love that Analisa and Michael have for each other is amazing. For those who love tales of fired romance and despicable villans you want to nail in the nuts, this is the one for you! you will not be dissapointed!

On a ship to the Banda islands to meet her husband (a contracted marriage), Analisa meets a nutmeg smuggler (Michael) who is captured and taken aboard. She falls in love with him and helps him escape after giving him her virginity, then she continues on her way and finalizes her marriage to the nutmeg plantation owner, Pietr Hootendoorf, who is cold, aloof and impotent. The book was written well, but the hero (just my opinion) was a shallow bunch of brawn, while her husband had much more depth. He is admittedly distant in the beginning but he ALWAYS stands by his wife despite the vicious (true) rumors circulating about her, and against his will he falls in love with her and even loves her unborn child even though he knows it's not his. Michael, meanwhile, claims to want a life of adventure, free of responsibility. He changes his mind and wants Analisa instead. Now is this supposed to add depth of character? Pietr, on the other hand, was married to his first wife for years and had not sired a child. For a man with so much wealth this must have been devastating, since he wants an heir to inherit it all. And yet when he is aroused and Analisa rejects him, he respects her wishes and leaves her alone - now for a man who suffers impotency he surely cannot get erections very often, and yet he throws this rare opportunity away just because his wife doesn't want it, which I don't think is the trait of a man thinking only of himself. Analisa came to the marriage "deflowered," pregnant and besotted with another man. She gives her husband nothing, not even her attention (she's obsessed with hunky Michael) while Pietr is willing to give her and her unborn child everything. Had she fallen in love with him in the end, the story would have been much more powerful because Pietr had so much to overcome, and he was willing to do so with Analisa. It would have been satisfying to see a man desperate for heirs to get them after a lifetime of waiting, a man so protective of his wife to be finally valued by her, a man suffering of impotency to reach fulfillment with the woman he loves. Instead I finished the book depressed that two people could hate a man who had only wanted an heir and was willing to accept MICHAEL AND ANALISA'S CHILD as that heir. I had no respect for Analisa, who was as selfish and self-centered as Michael. I guess if you look at it that way, then in the end they deserved each other.

I liked the premise of Donna Valentino's novel Pirate of my Heart. Instead of the heroine being a fresh English miss she is a twenty-three year old Dutch maiden. The hero was also intriguing, an Englishmen who became a colonist. The history of the Dutch East India Company was also interesting. The problem I had with this story was the connection between the characters. It was weak.

Analisa and her mother live in Amsterdam and the run a school that prepares brides to marry men in the Dutch east India Company. Analisa never hopes to make a match since she is half English and illegitimate so she is therefore stunned when the director of the school informs her that the company is choosing her for a wealthy planter. She is to travel to an Island in the Indian Ocean to meet her new husband. She marries by proxy and off she goes on her new adventure.

Michael is brought aboard ship in Africa by members of the Dutch East India Company and he fights his captors every step of the way. He is thrown into the brig because he possesses two nutmeg seeds which are solely owned by the Company and he will pay with his life.

Analisa speaks with Michael since she knows the English tongue. He flirts with her and she has compassion for him. They do not spend much time together but it is enough for Analisa to fall madly in love with him. She helps him escape at great risk to her own safety and reputation.

I have to state Analisa made a very quick decision to fall in love with Michael and it was surprising the lengths she went to free him and even more telling is Michael's will to sacrifice her over his own safety. He is not that noble but he is pragmatic. Still the best scenes between this couple happen aboard ship.

When Analisa arrives at the Island she is expected to fulfill her vows to her older husband and she does so. She is submissive in the extreme and she is willing to do her duty. Analisa's husband has no personality, other than to be written as a bossy man giving her orders and staying true to his first wife. He was a character with a lot more potential. During this time Analisa and Michael lead separate lives but of course, he enters her world again determined to see that she has a happy future.

I did not feel Michael and Analisa had a strong connection. They were unwilling to fully commit to each other and Analisa was too willing to play the dutiful wife too quickly.

I am rating this three star romance. What's best about this story are the richly detailed inner workings of the Dutch East India Company. This was simply fascinating and I wish the leads could have been as engrossing