THE PIRATE AND THE PAGAN by Virginia Henley

PUBLISHER: Dell, 11/1990
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England and the sea, 1660s
BODICE RIPPER? Yes

MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: Wild as a pagan goddess, Lady Summer galloped her stallion along the Cornish coast. She had dabbled in the smuggler's game to save her family estate, but a wealthy marriage would better serve her purpose now. Lord Ruark Helford seemed the answer to her reckless prayers. But as his hot, hungry kisses drew her toward deception and irresistible acts of love, she had to hesitate. Would this arrogant, handsome lord be her ticket to heaven--or hell?

MY THOUGHTS: I really liked this. Summer's a hazel-eyed 17-year-old spitfire. She has a brother, Spencer, who's three years younger. They're dirt poor and are about to lose their home. They smuggle to stay alive and she's a highwayman sometimes. They've only got one relative, aunt Lil, their father's sister. I wish she had played a larger roll. She's not a bad character at all but I could see her doing bad deeds. 

Ruark's age isn't given. He's a pirate so I'm assuming he's much older than she. She needs his money to save their home, Roseland, and they marry too fast without his knowledge of why she's truly marrying him. He smacks her on three different occasions (chapter 21, 33, 39) and rapes her once. Despite that, I like him. He has a younger brother, Rory, and there's a love triangle between all of them. That, I like and it added depth to the plot. There's a major twist involving that that I didn't like at all.

The only negatives are that the story was too long and there were too many explicit sex scenes.