GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: Jamaica, 1772
BODICE RIPPER? Yes, mild
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B-
FROM PUBLISHER: When Gillian Haige's father dies, his only legacy is a mountain of debts. But never does the eighteen-year-old English beauty dream she'll end up in the dank hold of a ship bound for the Colonies...as an indentured servant! And now her gentle twin lies desperately ill, and will surely perish unless Gillian takes one daring, irrevocable step.
It is a wild scheme, yet from the moment she meets Captain Derek Andrews and feels desire ignite between them, Gillian sees the bargain she can strike: her innocence in exchange for her sister's life. But on a journey that carries Gillian from the shores of America to a new life on a storm-swept island, she will be forced to choose once again...to fight for her freedom or to surrender to the man who has possessed her-body and soul-with his liberating passion...
MY THOUGHTS: Gillian, the heroine, is twenty, as stated on page 48, not eighteen, as the synopsis states. This story begins in England, then in Jamaica. Saying that they're headed for the Colonies made me assume they were talking about the British Colonies in the United States but that's not what they meant.
We got zero background on Derek and weren't even told his age or where he's from. He must have been in his late twenties, at least, since he'd spent some time in prison and is captain of his own ship, Colonial Dawn. He's rude and possessive of Gillian but not verbally, physically, or sexually abusive towards her. He doesn't seem too friendly either.
Gillian is feisty and stands up for herself, which I really like in a heroine. I didn't see the need for her to have a sister since the sister was a pretty weak character and served no purpose to the storyline, as far as I could tell.
I really liked the two main villains: Derek's ex-lover, red-haired and green-eyed Emmaline Dorcett. She was obsessed with having him though she was married to an older man. She was peppered throughout the story but I wanted more of her. I found her to be very interesting and wanted to see what damage she could have done. I really wanted some background on her but we got none, including her age. Her husband Robert said she was very young to his 50+ so I'm guessing she's in her twenties.
John Barrett, who's an agent for the London Transport Company, was in charge of all the indentured servants aboard Derek's ship. He became obsessed with Gillian and hatched a plan to have her. Gillian hated him with a passion and that ate at him and intensified his obsession with having her. John once called Gillian Madame Uppity Bitch!
Another villain early on was an older prostitute named Maggie, who was always called a 'vicious whore' by Jon Barrett. The verbal sparring between them was great! She too became obsessed with Gillian on the ship but I don't understand why she hated her so much. I thought she was going to do harm to her but that didn't happen.
This was published in 1994 but it felt like one older. The heroine had a backbone, the hero was rude, there were terrible villains. Though there's no abuse towards the heroine, I consider this a mild bodice ripper.
The negatives- I wish over half this story didn't take place on a ship. I wish Maggie's character had lasted longer and I wish Emmaline and John had teamed up to do some harm. You wouldn't know by the cover that this is historical and the hero/heroine's hair color isn't quite right.
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