The Redemption (Legacy of the King's Pirates)

Title: The Redemption

Series: Legacy of the King's Pirates (Book #1)

Year: 2006

Author: MaryLu Tyndall (M.L. Tyndall)

Summary: Charlisse Bristol sets off on a voyage in search of a father she never knew, only to become shipwrecked on an island. She longs for a father’s love to fill the emptiness in her soul from an abusive childhood, but resigns herself to a lonely death of starvation. Her salvation comes in the form of a band of pirates and their fierce, enigmatic leader, Captain Merrick. 

The last thing Merrick expected to find in the middle of the Caribbean was a beautiful maiden. Now he is burdened with the task of not only protecting her from his crew, but from himself. A recent convert to Christianity, Merrick is haunted by a sordid past while he struggles to become a better man and accepts a mission from God to hunt down the most vicious pirates on the Caribbean. 

Charlisse can make no sense of Captain Merrick. A pirate who prays and drinks rum? Breaking her vow to never trust any man, she finds herself falling for the pirate/priest, who more than once risks his life to save her. When she confides in him her quest to find her father, Merrick agrees to help. What he doesn’t realize is Charlisse’s father is the ruthless Edward the Terror, the one man Merrick has vowed to hunt down and kill. 

Evil forces are at work against Charlisse and Merrick: enemies, battles, imprisonment, jealousy, and betrayal, all threaten to destroy not only their new found romance but their very lives. It will take a miracle—or several—for either of them to survive. 

Review: I love a good pirate book. Great characters, epic adventures, lots of piratey goodness... and, sadly, that wasn't exactly this book. Good pirate books are really hard to find (unless it's Batson's Pirate Adventures; EPIC).

When I first picked this one up (if I'm completely honest), I almost put it down after the first few chapters because I got bored. There's a storm and sinking ship, a pillaging pirate attack, and all in just the first four chapters, but I got really tired of the author TELLING me everything. The style felt choppy and kinda stunted. But I pushed through and decided to give it a second chance. It got better the further you got into it, as the style got easier to read. She still tells an awful lot, but the writing definitely got smoother.

Charlisse is a young lady from a fine family in England. True, she never knew her father, but she knows enough about him from the loving letters he used to send her mother. But after her mother's gone, and she's left at the abusive hand of her uncle, she flees England to find this amazing father who penned such loving letters.

A terrible storm rips apart her ship as she's traveling to the Americas, and she ends up stranded all alone on an uncharted island. Convinced she's never going to see another human again, she tries to scratch out a life for herself -- but wonders if it would be better to die than to face the hand of what she sees as an unmerciful God.

Merrick has turned from piracy to working for the English and Jamaican governments. After God got a hold of his heart and changed his life, he began questioning everything he used to live for. But a more compassionate hand as a privateer captain doesn't always render him a favorite with his crew. Adding a girl to the mix isn't exactly the best decision, but he knows he can't leave this poor girl alone on the island.

The ship battles were pretty cool. I mean, when you pick up a pirate book, you want some cool pirate action, and the author didn't skimp on the pirates. Sloane was probably my favorite character, and I wish there could have been more of his lovable self. He was such a great friend to Charlisse (almost like a loving uncle or grandfather, I thought) when she was convinced she was friendless, and you couldn't help but cheer him on. Thomas, too, was great.

The father angles in the book were pretty cool. I like a good daddy tale, and this book has two estranged daddys to take care of. Charlisse is trying to find the dad she believes must love her and want to care for her, and Merrick is running away from an over-controlling father.

Advisory: Lots of romance. The author keeps it pretty clean, but it doesn't take long for Charlisse to notice the hero's rippling muscles and handsome features. Likewise, he is attracted to her early on, and then you end up with a boatload of mushy descriptions and kisses. I wasn't too crazy about their relationship as, especially at the beginning, it felt very physical and fake. Further on, as they learned more about each other, I wanted to root for them more, but I got quickly disgusted with the amount of attraction.

Since you're dealing with pirates, there are a few times that the author touches on the immorality and sexual dealings the pirates have with women on shore. Charlisse, as the only woman on a pirate ship, is sometimes put into positions where the men try to make advances on her. The author handles the situations well, but for all that's included in the book, I would have to recommend this for an older audience.

Also, pirate action and violence. There are battles, like I mentioned before, and some descriptions of blood and death (because you can't have a pirate book where people don't die), but I thought it was well balanced for the tone of the book.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars