Immortal pirate Drake Cole has a reputation in Savannah for his custom woodworking and historical restorations, but his work has grown into an obsession. He’s become a stranger to his crew since the Sea Dog sank in 1795. None of them know his painful secret. A young stowaway went down with the ship, one that Drake swore a blood oath to protect. The ghost of a young boy, lost at sea over two … over two hundred years ago, leads local medium, Heather Storrey right to Drake’s door. He saved her life before, and now she has a chance to return the favor, but how can she protect him from a curse that no one can see?
A dark coven possesses the figurehead from the Flying Dutchman, and if Heather and the immortal Sea Dog crew don’t locate the relic soon, Drake may be lost to them forever. Heather has seen the passionate man behind the veil of guilt, and she’s determined to free him from his self-imposed prison, and persuade this pirate to love again.
Each book in the Sentinels of Savannah series is STANDALONE:
* Magnolia Mystic
* Pirate’s Passion
* Pirate’s Pleasure
* Pirate’s Persuasion
* Pirate’s Promise
more
This is, just as its predecessor, one of those books where I have nothing really positive nor negative to say about it. It was kind of in the middle with an okay plot, fine writing and an somewhat satisfying ending. It was nothing that really stood out or caught my interest well enough for me to get invested, and that made the story underwhelming and bland for me.
While the writing is on a level that makes the story easy to follow and gives the reader something to bite on to with the suspense, romance and mystery, I never really felt like it went the extra mile to stand out or catch the reader’s full attention. This was most apparent with the characterization. The characters to me came across as a bit too generic since they didn’t really have any defining personalities to make each and one of them separate. Everyone could have been one and the same person with just different names, that’s how little unique traits I felt I got from them and this in turn made both the story and romance bland. Because, how interesting is it going to be to follow these characters falling in love and fighting the forces against them when they only have vague personalities to back that up?
If there is one character trait I did get it wasn’t something I desired and it certainly wasn’t something attentional of the story; the characters (especially Heather) were naive. Despite obvious signs they choose more often than not denial over fact and because of that had difficulty putting two and two together. Even putting questions out there that should be exclamations really. This way of writing also made the plot very predictable. For example it was no far stretch figuring out how Queenie was going to play into the plot, or the true colors of Ashley. And when the flag went missing and the mysterious price from Met Agwe was thrown in it reached the point of me getting annoyed over the predictability of the outcome and how the characters them selves couldn’t make that same connection.
If there was one thing though that was not predictable it was the reason behind the deal on Heather’s house and how that played into her sister’s plan. This was really something that could have bound the story well together if only it had been used. Sadly this was just left as it was with no clear connection. I guess the only reason Ashley wanted to sell the house was to spite her sister, but that’s a really unsatisfying conclusion to a plot twist. I would have wanted something clever to bound it all together in the end that would have been unpredictable. Sure, what happened to Heather’s father was not something I could have thought up, but this played a minor part only in the book and the way it was delivered was through a villain monologue that you’re only supposed to find in children’s literature.
Looking at the book as a whole I’m alright with it. I am not in love with the story since it missed the mark a bit on the plot twists and characterization, however I am always all for romance no matter how little of much depth it gives me. This was on the former, but it had some sweet and charming moments between the two main characters so I feel generous enough to give Pirate’s Persuasion three stars.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.