Customer Reviews

The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst (Harlequin Historical)

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I liked this book and I love the author. I've read many of her books. Clemence was a believable character I thought when you consider the time frame. And don't men and women always get the communications wrong? This is supposed to be fiction so some adventure adds to the enjoyment, who says it has to be totally realistic?

Every woman should experience a grand pirate adventure at least once in her life. For most of us, our swashbucklers will come to us on film, or better yet, in a book. The book is better because you can go back again and again and reread your favorite tasty tidbits, and you can let your imagination run riot. "The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst", by Louise Allen, offers swaggering sea rogues, an undercover hero, and a most appealing heroine. Clemence Ravenhurst is a well-bred young lady and shipping heiress who finds herself without protection and in dire peril after the death of her father. In order to gain control of her estate and fortune, her dastard of an uncle tries to force her hand in marriage to an extremely odious cousin. Her uncle's threats force Clemence to flee her home disguised as boy. She fakes an apparent suicide and follows through on a plan to stow away on one of her family's ships. Instead, she is captured by the gang of the notorious pirate "Red" Matthew McTiernan, whose nickname comes from his love of seeing red blood flow in his wake. Clemence finds a savior in the ship's navigator, Nathan Stanier, who claims "Clem" as his cabin boy. A friendship forms between Clem and Nathan, and Clem cannot understand why a man as obviously honorable as Nathan would throw in his lot with a band of marauding cutthroats. Nathan finds himself with troubling thoughts of an attraction to the boy, Clem. There are touches of exquisitely personal storytelling throughout this tale that uniquely belong to Clemence and Nathan. I was charmed by Clemence's great open heart and by Nathan's hunkiness laced with a thread of humility. Not "cookie cutter" characters, but definitely a sweetly sensual romance.

After reading two Ravenhurst books, I'm wondering if the device in all of them is to have the hero & heroine deliberately miscommunicate to the point of absurdity. This one wasn't nearly as good as The Disgraceful Mr. Ravenhurst, which had more personality and atmosphere of the times. This book was pretty generic overall, with the evil relatives abusing poor Clemence conveniently dealt with off-scene by lawyers.

Also, Allen needs to rein in her sentences, or else her editor needs to step in. There was one with SEVEN "and"s! And the sexual climax of hero & heroine was one rambling paragraph-long sentence. Breathless, indeed.