Kestrel on the Horizon by Naomi Brooks & Angelia Sparrow

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Here a book where I like both the hero and the villain...

Harrison and Collins are legal pirates, both sailing under English flag and mostly trading but also attacking French or Spanish vessels. Collins was the second in command of Harrison and also his lover. Harrison was the first man for Collins and he has taught him everything, as a Captain and a lover. But Harrison is not a man who can accept an equal lover in bed and when Collins stopped to be a boy and grew in a man, he has chosen a separate path. A path that Harrison has not accepted well and he takes every chance he has to meet and clash with his ex lover. Harrison in the end is still in love with Collins, even if now he has a new lover, a Moroccan boy named Samir.

And also Collins is falling in love for a boy, Adlai, a half-blood slave, son of a wealthy man, dead without freed him. And so Adlai was sold as a slave and Collins bought him, enthralled by the blue eyes of the boy and by the sadness he read in them. Adlai is used to be hurt and when Collins is gentle with him he doesn't know how react. Step by step, with tender and caring, Collins will conquer the boy, but Adlai makes a big mistake, believing that Collins is not a pirate like Harrison: Collins indeed is very much like his former lover and this is the reason why the two of them, even if in love with each other, can't live together. Love between Collins and Adlai is tender and sweet, is something that could last forever and warm them while aging. Love between Collins and Harrison is rough and passionate and could only led to destruction.

The novel is almost a classic on piracy, with four wonderful characters: I like also very much Samir, and can understand him and his greediness; a boy who had nothing and that finally finds happiness in the arms of Harrison. But still he is like a child, born in harsh condition, and that clinges to everything he can reach, both things than a man. Obviously the positive characters of this story are Collins and Adlai, but it's difficult not to feel also for Harrison and Samir.

The details seem to me pretty accurate and there are also some "sexual" words I have never heard and maybe cause they are "old" and so it's interesting to read a sex scene decipts with "appropriate" words for the period.

I think this is a book that could appeal very much to who loves the classical tales about piracy, to who loves a bit of adventure in his romance, and to who has a kink for pretty boys ravished by "cruel" pirates...

http://www.torquerebooks.com/zencart

Coming soon by Angelia Sparrow & Naomi Brooks:
Glad Hands, from Ellora's Cave
Alive on the Inside, May 12, 2008, from Torquere Press

Waiting Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting+reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

[louisaclark.livejournal.com]

I'm not big on historicals, I've read only westerns and regencies (Georgette Heyer) and that was years ago, but this sounds intriguing.

Thanks again, Elisa for a wonderful review. Lord, my to-read list is pushing my limits.

LouisaCLark

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you could like this one. For me it's a very original historical. And all the characters are well-dept. Elisa