FROM POPULAR AUTHORS OF GAY ROMANCE, CATHERINE CURZON & ELEANOR HARKSTEADBook five in The Captivating Captains seriesA sexy city boy and a country squire will set the countryside alight! Tarquin Bough is a tweedy squire with an ambitious fiancée who controls his every move. He’s also the owner of the finest collection of saucy artefacts in the world. From Christine Keeler’s eyelash to the … world. From Christine Keeler’s eyelash to the Virgin Queen’s dildo, they’re all safe in Tarquin’s care.
Christopher Hardacre is a city-slicker with the tightest jodhpurs and the most smackable bottom in London. He’s given up the ratrace for a country life as captain of the village rowing team. The only trouble is, he’s lost his money to a ruthless scam and Bough Bottoms is his last hope of a home.
But Chris hasn’t reckoned on his late uncle’s will. The house comes with a sitting porcine tenant and if Chris can’t look after his newly-acquired pet pig, he’ll lose his inheritance and his last chance at happiness.
When Tarquin sees Chris it’s lust at first sight, but dare he be honest about his feelings in a village where being gay is bound to be a hot topic? As soon as Chris and Tarquin get together, it’s the hottest summer this little corner of England has ever known.
With a scheming local hotshot out to turn the beloved pig into sausages, can the captain and the squire save everybody’s bacon?
more
I love, love, love, love this book!! Can I put anymore ‘loves’ in that first sentence? I know, I know, I say the same every single time I read a Captivating Captain book, but I can’t help myself this series is just…..well, I am unable to say, as I think I have used every word that has been listed under amazing in the thesaurus…hmmm, went slightly off subject.
Anyway, Just when I think that this series has peaked and it can’t possibly get any better, and I have found my new love and favourite, then boom! The ladies-only go and pull out another winner and turn me into a melting, withering and babbling wreck, yet again, but this is too damn good!! It is in times like this when I need my heart-eye emoji’s to say what I can’t seem to put in words. Honestly, I don’t think that I have the adequate vocabulary to really do this amazing book the justice it deserves, but I’ll give it a darn good shot.
There are so many things that I want to say about this, and yet I don’t want to give away too much – I would rather hint and intrigue then give spoilers. But like all of the Captivating Captains series, this has everything that I look for in a good romance, it has the perfect mix of enigmatic character’s, sizzling chemistry, lots of fun and laughter, love to hate villains, a wonderfully original plot, plus the sharp, clever and very English wit which we have all come to know and love about this series.
When his elderly neighbour dies, Tarquin Bough – alias the very naughty ever so slightly kinky Squire – meets the new Hardacre to grace their little village of Bough Bottoms, Tarquin is all set to hate his new neighbour as there had been a small neighbourly war going on between the Hardacre’s and the Bough’s, but when our Squire meets sexy, confident and constantly unbuttoned Christopher Hardacre sparks fly and trousers rip (literally). For Tarquin it is an instant attraction, he feels proper raging lust for the first time, yet with his fiancée Petunia back at Bough Towers and who insists on wearing the trousers for him, his secret lust and desperate yearning to really get to know their new neighbour may not be as easy to accomplish as he hopes.
Oh, goodness me, that first meeting between Chris and Tarquin is hilarious, I was up most of the night giggling away with that first chapter which is full ripped trousers, lot of bottom showing, super tight swimwear; which leaves very little to the imagination and a squire brandishing an Elizabethan dildo; that alone ensures for some very tongue in cheek, hilarious and very, very cheeky banter between our boys, something which carries on throughout. These two are the best, I love their instant attraction, the trust they place on one and other, I love their chemistry it doesn’t just sizzle it steams up the windows with a mere peacocking, cheeky glance… I will never look at a simple barn or a shower cubicle in the same way again….phew!
City boy and newly named Captain of the rowing team; Christopher has moved to Bough Bottoms with the hope of making a whole new life for himself, a slower life, unfortunately, our golden-haired, fine bottomed Christopher has been through t’mill, after being caught in the snare of terrible con he is now broke, Bough Bottoms is his saving grace, Well it would be if it wasn’t for a certain clause in his late uncle’s will, basically, there is a pig and said pig has Christopher’s fate and future happiness in her trotter, because if Christopher and the cute as a button Oracle of Delphi don’t get along then its goodbye Christopher.
The Oracle of Delphi, what a brilliant addition to the story, I love that a pig is such an important part of the plot, there are some very funny and very touching moments where the Oracle is concerned, especially with Christopher. But, it’s not all sweetness and sexy jodhpur clad bottoms, there is a dastardly villain in the village, one with a plan and whom wants to serve our Oracle with apple sauce….the absolute cheek!!
There is a slight different feel to this one that the previous ‘Captivating Captains’ didn’t have, nothing bad just a little different, it’s a lot more saucier then the other’s that’s for sure. I love how it’s written predominately through Tarquin’s point of view, I really liked the way that Tarquin’s personal story is written how he knows he is gay yet for his own reasons won’t actually come out and say it openly, he doesn’t want scandal or to be the only gay squire in Bough Bottoms, I think he just lacks the confidence to actually be himself, and this is what Christopher does so perfectly, he shows Tarquin how happy he can be if he just allowed the saucy Squire to come out and once he does, there is no locking him away again.
The Captain and the Squire is an excellent, gloriously funny and sexy romance, the tongue-in-cheek humour, great banter and brilliant interaction between all the characters is perfect. The writing is as you’d expect from Catherine and Eleanor strong, witty, immensely clever and entertaining. Even the villains are brilliantly written – there is one that in particular, which I just loved hating – this character definitely mad me want to ‘boo’ and ‘hiss’ every time they were in a scene – which makes it all sound very pantomime-ish, but this is far, far better than sitting through another version of Aladdin for a start there are far more cheeky winks, pig wooing and well-shaped thighs and bottoms (Its official, I have a perversion for fine rear ends, someone help me)
I don’t think I have to say how much I loved this book, do I? Because I did, I thought that I was ruined with Guy the Pilot in The Captain and the Best Man and of course my beloved Captain Thorne from The Captain and the Cavalry Trooper, but this has galloped in right to the top.
If you love a jolly good ride through the country with two scandalously seductive gent’s then you need to read it!
I was gifted my copy of this book, that I write a review was not required.
Chris returns to claim his inheritance, only to discover that a pig holds it hostage. If Chris can’t tempt the pig to live with him in one month, he’ll lose it all and the pig will be well looked after by the next-door neighbour. The very hot and sexy Squire Tarquin loves that pig, but one look at Chris and he wants him like he never wanted anyone before. But they live in a small village, can they really be together?
This is book 5 in the Captivating Captains series, but you don’t need to have read the others. They are only linked via the title and a captain of some description.
This one really is the most lightest read of the 3 books in the series I have read (not read book one or two)
It has some extremely amusing moments, and Tarquin is a proper country squire, with all the words and mannerisms and dress sense that comes with old money and a small village life. He is FUNNY though! Chris is too, not to the extent Tarquin is though, but Chris has spent a lot of time in The City and Tarquin hasn’t.
It is sexy in places, with some very witty one liners thrown in making it fun, as well as sexy. I can only imagine the fun these authors have finding those one liners, throughout all the books, but this one was particularly funny, after The Captain’s Flirty Fireworks cos that one was bloody hilarious! (a bit of a side book to the main series, and only short!)
I expected Tarquin’s fiancée to cause trouble, she was nasty to him and Orry, the pig, but I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so ruthless! Her business partner, Brian too, was a nasty piece of work, and the way that melded itself into the storyline was really clever!
It’s not very heavy on the emotions but they do fall fast and heavy. The whole book is over the month Chris has to win over the pig, so things move fast, but I think it was right and proper that it did for these two.
Only Tarquin has a say, though, and of course I will say I wanted to hear from Chris, cos ya’ll know I like to hear from everyone!
It was a really great read, and just what I needed at the time.
So thank you, Ms Curzon, for my copy, I must go back and read the others in the series I have not read yet!
4 solid stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
Imagine if a big inheritance is in the hands, or rather trotters, of a pig! That is what Chris Hardcastle finds out after he has already renovated the house he thought was his. Tarquin didn’t get on with his previous neighbour and is worried the new one will be just as bad as the old. Things are not as they seem though and Tarquin soon has his hands full – much to his delight.
The time period of this book is hard to narrow down. In some respects, it seems contemporary, but in others, it seems historical. Either way, this is very well written with a genteel tone and smooth pacing. There are a couple of ‘bounders’ in here that are obvious from the start but the fun is in the way the story progresses, not with figuring out who the big bad are.
This is both sweet and steamy with some erotic shenanigans going on behind closed doors. A lovely addition to the collection and definitely recommended by me.