To
some men honor is just a word…
Jeannette
Boucher, a young French beauty from a family left penniless by the revolution,
must marry against her will to save them all from ruin. But almost immediately
after the vows are spoken, she learns that her old English husband is
impotent—and in his desire for an heir, he plans to compromise her in the worst
way.
Determined
to escape such a fate, she stows away on one of His Majesty’s frigates. But a
woman alone is in constant danger.
To
Lieutenant Treynor, honor means everything…
Born
a bastard to a wayward marquise, Lieutenant Crawford Treynor was given to a
poor farmer to raise and was maltreated until he ran away to join the Royal
Navy. Treynor is determined to prove he’s as good as any other man and rise to
captain his own frigate. But once he finds Jeannette aboard The Tempest he must
decide whether to return her to the man he knows would abuse her—or risk
everything, even his life, to keep her safe.
I’m
so glad I live in a country where girls are no longer chattel to be sold to the
highest bidder—not that Jeannette stood still for that once she discovered her
groom’s friends had a pool going to see who would impregnate her for him after
they gang-raped her on her wedding night.
But she didn’t feel much safer once she dressed as a boy and enlisted in
the British Royal Navy hoping to escape to London. Within minutes of reporting aboard The
Tempest she realized cabin boys did not rate private accommodations. Her secret would be discovered the first time
she tried to use the, um…where were such facilities, anyway? She tried to leave the ship but was caught, charged
with desertion, and sentenced to several lashes. Again, her secret would be revealed when they
opened her shirt. But Lieutenant Treynor
took the lashes for her, and she became his servant.
Jeanette
is a feisty young lady who overcomes her privileged upbringing and pulls her
weight aboard ship, and then some. She’s
not very good at following orders. Instead
of staying in a safe place during battle, she makes her way to the main deck,
helps a wounded sailor below and spends the rest of the battle assisting the
ship’s surgeon. No fainting flower,
Jeanette. I admired her, and enjoyed
following her from one scrape to the next as she tried to conceal her identity
aboard ship.
Lieutenant
Treynor, of course is tall, handsome, and going crazy trying to protect the
recalcitrant noble woman who should be hiding out in his cabin. Unfortunately, he keeps tripping over her in
parts of the ship where she doesn’t belong.
What is she doing in the armory? Maybe
making her spend a day working as a real sailor will teach her a lesson. Even once they confess her secret to the
Captain, why won’t she stay in the Captain’s cabin during the battle? She’s driving him to distraction and then
some. He’s a man of the sea—he doesn’t
need this. Or does he?
Honor
Bound grabbed me on page one and kept me reading right on through. It was a bit of “It Happened One Night” meets
“Pirates of the Carribean,” but they’re both really good movies. You youngsters might want to look up the
former. It’s a classic, and one of my
all-time favorites. I highly recommend this
book.
Length:
374 Pages
E-Book Price:
$3.99
Paperback Price:
$11.99
Buy Link:
Amazon.com
Sounds like a good read!
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