Customer Reviews

A Pirate's Heart

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

 

 

For those readers who have read Catherine Friend's other lesbian fiction books, The Spanish Pearl and its sequel The Crown of Valencia, both published by Bold Stroke Books, it's been a long wait for this latest release by Ms. Friend. The wait was worth it.

This book has 2 stories that unfold with 300 years between them. This is a story with maps, treasure, mysterious islands, villains and the wide expanse of the sea, in both the past and the present.

In 1715 Captain Thomasina (Tommy) Farris is the pirate captain of the ship Moon Shadow. She leads a total of 300 men in 3 ships as they stalk the Caribbean for riches that can be had from the other ships that sail the waters. In the course of taking a ship Tommy encounters Avery Shaw, her nemisis, whose ships get there first. Throwing slaves overboard he takes the ship and leaves the slaves to drown. Tommy rescues the slaves and in so doing encounters Rebekah Brown, a strong-willed woman who confuses and flusters Tommy.

In the present day, librarian Emma Boyd searches for the treasure map that belonged to Capt. Tommy Farris. Someone is stealing maps from rare books and Emma is helped by Randi Marx, a private investigator hired by her library, to track down the map. Finding the treasure map will foil the thief's plan and will hopefully keep more maps from being stolen.

Catherine Friend successfully weaves the 2 stories together and yet keep the voices in the 2 stories distinct and separate. There are twists and turns throughout both stories. How she is able to keep them so clearly distinct and yet integrated is a skill that not many authors possess. In addition she drops in some names of other pirates, one of whom is found in another BSB book, which I found quite clever indeed. I wanted to search the internet for these other woman pirates even though this is fiction.

Throughout the book I was cheering both pairs of women, Tommy and Rebekah in 1715, and Emma and Randi in present day. Emma has to search her heart for the truth she feels. Tommy must do the same. Pirates in 1715 have much in common with pirates in current times. The reader discovers just how much that's true.

This is a romance, an adventure, and a romp. It's tightly written and the author successfully leads the reader on a scavenger hunt. A word of caution; make sure that you set aside some time when you read this book. You won't want to put it down. Bravo Catherine Friend!

The other reviews are pretty detailed so I won't waste my time with the small stuff.
This book has it all. I love it when an author can pull off two story lines as well as Ms. Friend has. It was adventurous, romantic, suspenseful and exciting. Once again she did a good job of making it seem real. Pirates being pirates and such.
I couldn't put this one down. I read it in one afternoon on the beach in Maui. Great place to read a book like that. Only bummer was that read the dang thing so fast that I ran out of books while there. I had to read magazines and real stuff. Yuck.
I actually gave this one to my wife as soon as I was finished with it. She is really picky and doesn't read too many of my lesbian fiction books. I've learned not to pass them on unless I think they are really good. No worries she loved this book and agreed that it was her best yet.
Buy this book and start enjoying.

I'm just going to admit right up front that pirate stories are one of my guilty pleasures. I say guilty pleasure because let's face it, what makes pirate stories fun isn't an author being a stickler for ultra-correct depictions, but instead building on the mythological framework that has developed around pirates. I love finding novels about female pirates. Lesbian pirates? I'm there! Well that's not just reserved for books, I love me them lady pirate movies too. I don't care how much it was panned, Cutthroat Island is a fun-filled romp!

But, just because the above is true it doesn't mean that I'll freely and frivolously hand out a lot of stars just because a book has lesbian pirates in it. Which means that in my opinion, A Pirate's Heart earned every star. I've read both of Catherine Friend's other books too and they were enjoyable, but I strongly believe that this one is superior. It made for fantastic vacation reading as I was lounging on a couch in my hotel room in front of a cheerily burning gas fireplace last week.

Normally I don't like books that have two separate stories going on that may only be tangentially, or long later in the book, related to each other. It can be distracting and annoying, probably because it's so difficult to do well. And also because much of the time as a reader I may only really be interested in one of the stories. In this case I thoroughly enjoyed both of the stories and I thought Friend did a fabulous job of weaving them together without losing or mucking up the threads. As Friend said in the Acknowledgements, a really good pirate story has a lovely wench, and what's better than one wench but four? I couldn't agree more!

Each story has its own tone. The pirate story is more serious, with more serious characters. The modern day story has a much more light-hearted feel to it and Emma expresses a lot of humor in her thoughts and how she says things. I think the differences in tone help set the stories apart and they end up nicely balancing each other.

While the pirate part of the book did use some of the pirate fantasy trappings we pirate fans enjoy so much - such maps to buried treasure, Friend did an excellent job of including a lot of detail based on historical fact. It's pretty easy to just throw caution to the wind and say well it's a pirate fantasy romance, we can just make up what we want! But it was obvious that Friend did at least some research into locations, life at sea, how pirates operated, mores of the time, the acts of pirates freeing slaves, and so on. The slave issue made a nice and natural lead-in to a bi-racial relationship.

The modern day story was an interesting look into rare book libraries with some very fun plot twists and mysterious tidbits left for the reader as bait along the way. All strung out on a mini-road trip type of adventure. Though there is also a fantastical plot point included which requires one to suspend their disbelief. But since we're already talking about buried pirate treasure I didn't find that requirement to cause too much strain.

So if you like pirates and mysteries, if you like a very interesting mix of characters, if you think four women are more fun than two, if you like historical fiction and adventure fiction, and if you enjoy a book that's a pleasure to read from start to finish, give this one a try.

Kindle owner note: an ebook edition can be purchased directly from the publisher.

Catherine Friend has created another tale set in two centuries. She tells the parallel stories of pirate captain Thomasina Farris and Rebekah Brown in the 18th century and librarian Emma Boyd and private investigator Randi Marx in the present. In the process, the reader learns that there are still pirates among us and treasure lies in where you find it.

Tommy Farris had a reputation as a ruthless pirate in the Caribbean in the early 1700's and left many legends behind her before mysteriously disappearing. As a follow up to an article she did, Emma Boyd is determined to find out what happened to the captain and the fabulous fortune she supposedly stole from a Spanish gold fleet. The treasure has never turned up, but it becomes obvious that Emma isn't the only one who believes in it when she discovers that someone is going to rare book collections and cutting maps out of the books that might tell where Captain Tommy's gold is. Emma feels she is in a race against time with the thief, so she reluctantly accepts the assistance of investigator Randi Marx. As the women chase leads across the country, they discover Tommy Farris was more complex than anyone realized as they turn up evidence of an involvement with someone named R. Brown and tales of a hidden island that only some people can see. Randi Marx proves to be as difficult to know as the captain, but Emma is enjoying that challenge as much as the hunt for Farris, until a terrible betrayal threatens to break her heart forever. Emma learns that pirates come in many forms and capturing the heart of one may be more valuable than gold.

A Pirate's Heart is a combination of mystery and adventure with a little romance thrown in. The story of Thomasina Farris is a classic pirate story with swashbuckling and adventure with Rebekah Brown playing the part of the damsel who is reluctantly saved and then falls in love with the roguish captain. It captures the tone of the time very effectively and creates an interesting contrast with the present. Emma and Randi present more contemporary images, but reflect many of the same emotions and experiences as the earlier couple. The only drawback to the book is the way Friend chooses to alternate the stories from one couple to the other, past to present. Just as the reader is getting involved in one story, the book changes gears and switches to the other. It gives the book the feeling of being a little choppy, but none of the sections are long enough to cause the reader to lose the thread of either story. The format does allow the reader to compare the characters in both stories and see their similarities. Anyone who has read Friend's other historic novels will find this one equally as satisfying.

Catherine Friend can write a story. Writing two within one book is a juggling act few authors can deliver on. She can. The book is well paced and the juxtaposition of the chapters makes sense, naturally leading from one era to the next.
Catherine developes her characters well, as usual, and gives even her minor characters reasons to behave as they do. Her attention to detail about the ships of the 1700's is spot-on and a delight to imagine.
Having read her other two adventure-romances ( The Spanish Pearl, The Crown Of Valencia) I do think Emma Boyd from this book is much like Kate Vincent from the previous books---I read the same voice for both characters. A very minor distraction.
This book is wonderful, as are her other two aforementioned titles. I give all three 5 stars. Get ready for a great adventure!!!!

Catherine Friend writes fun fiction. This is not high literature, but simply well-done fiction that features lesbian characters. Her style is typically breezy and light; and I often chuckle at her characters' observations and the situations they find themselves in. I also like the historical fantasy that runs through this and her other books. Personally, as much as I love her non-fiction, I wish she would just write more novels--they are a delight. Ok, I really just want way more of both.

This reader thoroughly enjoyed Catherine Friend's Spanish Pearl books. `Pirate's Heart' builds on her adult fiction-writing experience to deliver her best book yet. I'm pleased, and not surprised, to see this continued polishing of her talent.

Two books in one is what the reader gets with this offering. The primary story is about librarian Emma Boyd. She pairs up with a private detective to find a missing treasure map. Not only is Emma angry that someone is damaging priceless map books in libraries across the country, she's also fascinated by Tommy Farris - the pirate who originally drew the map in question. Initially driven by a need to preserve the books, Emma becomes obsessed with finding Tommy's treasure.

The secondary story is about Thomasina Farris. Tommy is a female pirate who would love to `retire' from her way of life, but cannot until she has commandeered enough money to see her through. When she meets an enigmatic former slave, Tommy quickly falls for the other woman. Finding it initially difficult to accept the feelings she's feeling for a woman, Tommy eventually cannot resist the pull of this siren. One last at-sea robbery will set them up for a future together. Well, that and a magical island that gives them hope.

Bottom Line - Read Friend's Pearl series? If you liked it, you'll love this one. If you didn't read it, this is a great place to start enjoying her books.

As I say in my subject heading - the pirate part of the tale is pretty good.

The author begins the book in the third person, telling us about Thomasina "Tommy" Farris, a notorious female pirate. She interperses this with a modern day tale told in the first person by a lesbian librarian and some others who are searching for Tommy's treasure map, which has been stolen.

Frankly, I became very quickly bored with the silliness of the modern day characters and skipped their part of the story and focused only on the chapters on Tommy. However, if one wants to find out the conclusion to Tommy's tale, they will need to pick up in the modern characters section of the book on page 291.

I was slightly irked with Tommy's reluctance to become romantically involved with Rebekah for so long. Tommy thinking sex between her and Rebekah was unnatural and wrong. I could have done without that.

More romance between the two women and less description of seafaring and ships would have suited me better.

Like many lesbian novels I read these days, neither Tommy nor Rebekah seem to have had any lesbian inclinations whatsoever before meeting each other. At least we were spared the sexual pentration scenes that I see described so often in today's lesbian fiction, that seem almost heterosexual--so I was quite thankful for that.

Over all, not a bad tale, well written, well paced and well told - although I would have preferred the entire book be set back in the time of the pirate.

4 stars.

A Pirate's Heart is a story that has two romances, adventure, and a mystery. The two romances are interwoven, one from the past and the other in present day. Emma Boyd, modern day librarian, and somewhat anal attentive, and PI Randi Marx, a bit of a slob and not as tough as she makes herself out to be (she doesn't know how to change a flat) try to track down stolen maps from libraries. Someone is trying to locate the treasure map of Captain Thomasina, Tommy Farris a pirate captain who sailed the Caribbean around 1715. Plenty of modern day skullduggery ensues as Emma and Randi not only try to track down the thief, but are now on the trail of finding Tommy's treasure map. They have to contend with two modern day pirates who want the treasure map. We are also filled in on the story of Tommy and her lady love, Rebekah. Tommy loves the sea and the freedom it offers, but hates the killing she has to do to preserve her image as a pirate captain. I thought all four characters well written and believable. I particularly liked the modern day romance with the opposites attract couple. The story was told from Tommy's point of view and from Emma's point of view, so we see more into their thoughts. However, the descriptions of Randi's and Rebekah's actions and their dialogs was satisfactory in giving these two characters substance. There is a surprise twist with one of the characters. The story was well written and paced nicely. There were just a few typos, but these did not distract. I know it is a cliche to say that this book had me turning the pages to see what happened next, but it is the truth. The changes in the story from the modern day lovers to those of the past were done smoothly. If you enjoy reading a good romance with an adventurous mystery and historical elements, you will enjoy this. A happy-ever-after ending.

I'm going to consider myself extremely lucky because I've been on a role of really enjoying the books that I have read lately. This one falls into that category as well.
I don't consider myself a big "pirate" story girl but the story is told from two points of view: The reader gets to experience the story as it unfolds during Tommy Farris's life (the Pirate Captain), and the reader gets to follow the present day story/adventure of Emma Boyd as she tracks down Captain Farris' hidden treasure map and the person who has been stealing rare maps from libraries. Eventually, the stories intertwine as Emma pieces more of Captain Farris' life and eventual death together.

Once I would start reading I found it difficult to put the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. From my perspective, work gives my brain and patience enough of a daily workout so when I sit down to read a book, I want to be engaged and entertained. I want to relax and "see" the characters come to life in my imagination. What I don't want is to feel like have to exert effort to get through the story. (I'm reading three of those books right now. Pick one up, read a bit, go to a different one. I want to finish them I just can't stay focused on them for long periods). "A Pirates Heart" was perfect in this regard.