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PRIVATEER’S PRINCESS
GAIL MACMILLAN
April 15, 2016
ISBN#(s): 9781509206537/ 9781509206544
The Wild Rose Press
http://thewildrosepress.com
Print/eBook
$4.99/$15.99
290 pages
Romantic Comedy, Pirates, Regency Historical Romance
Rating: 4 Cups
Annie Puddin, who used to be the lady’s maid of a very eclectic noble, is now lady’s maid for a foreign princess. One night while the princess is out, she talks her friend, the scullery maid Jenny, into playing dress-up with her while they discuss dreams. Dreams that do not include being shanghaied by a ship’s captain! Annie overhears the captain’s plans and is convinced that becoming privateers would be perfect for them. Things are well until the girls are drugged and left at a convent. Once the girls awaken, they plot a way to get back and insure their spot in the scheme.
Caleb Cameron and friend and first mate Duncan MacDougal have grand plans to become privateers during the war between the English and the new United States, but first they need the money to outfit their ship. The need forces Caleb to accept a risky proposition from a Duke where they abduct a princess and her maid, and take them to a convent in the new world. The plan seem simple enough, apart from a few problems. One is that they grabbed the wrong women. The other, those same women accuse them of seducing and abandoning them at a convent, forcing the men to wed them or go to jail.
Caleb and Duncan’s plans to become privateers are just the thing to get them set for life. But their mistake gains the Duke’s wrath and he stymies their plans to get permission to become privateers. When Annie and Jenny hear what has happened they cook up a plan to get it, by using some fancy vittles for a traveling dignitary and flirting into the right ear. With their ship newly outfitted for the task, and free reign to capture rich ships, things look to be falling into place. A chance capture in American waters leads to dire circumstances where they might lose everything, including their lives, unless the girls can find a solution to their predicament.
If you are looking for historical starring pirates, err, privateers, some subterfuge, and a woman showing the men what is what, then this is it. Each character, from important to not so important, was wonderful and added their own bit to the story. Above all I admired Annie and Jenny with their schemes they came up with to solve things and save the guys’ bacon a few times. It was amusing to read how Caleb and Duncan constantly assumed that the women were too delicate, easy to get rid of, and unable to help them with their plans … right guys, right. The story has a bit of everything; a sweet romance, likeable characters, an engaging premise, lots of action, and the right amount of humor.
Llaph
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
