It's a much better book than that blurb implies, brenda! Read a few of the reviews--they're more accurate. It definitely is not your standard romance, especially in the characterization of the two leads. He's a hardhearted cad who has major issues resulting from his childhood that obscure his feelings for her, and she has no clue why he's being so stupid in his treatment of her. There are no Big Misunderstandings like you normally see in these books, which is a welcome relief.

Also, the female lead's brother, Bertie, is a wonderfully drawn character, bumbling and dim-witted but very sweethearted. He gets his own romance in the b-plotline of the sequel, The Last Hellion.

Shattered Rainbows and One Perfect Rose are among my favorites, since MJP is one of the authors I've been reading for years (along with Jo Beverley, Carla Kelly, Mary Balogh, Patricia Gaffney (historicals only) and a few others).

I tried one of Julie Garwood's medievals and concluded she's one of those popular authors who just isn't for me. It was too modern in tone, and her style of humor didn't work for me. And while I enjoyed PotC, I don't generally go for pirate heroes. Privateers, sure, navy men, oh yeah! But pirates, NSM.

Windflower is great for you--the hero is not a pirate himself, but his bastard halfbrother is, and is willing to tote around the hero on his duties for the Crown. Also, Rand (the bastard halfbrother) has a strange resemblance to Locke on Lost in that he's always looking to improve everyone's lives for them, even if it screws them up in the short term. So, he kidnaps the heroine and puts her into the hero's bed (letting him think that she's his worst enemy's mistress in the process) and doesn't tell his brother that the woman he's falling in love with is merely covering up for her rebel brother and father.

Also, one of my favorite secondary characters is in this book--Cat, Rand's righthand man (and it's assumed by the crewmembers, his lover as well), the product of a Caribbean brothel and former child prostitute who takes the heroine under his wing and helps to protect her (this was written in the 1980s, so the woman is less headstrong than she would have been written today).

Hmm. Maybe. Still sounds a little piratey for my tastes.

My favorite Erica Jong has pirate chapters in it.

I rarely like caper stories either. It's a Thing.

I live for those, obviously. In fact, I anticipate a life of crime so that I might go legit and get pulled back in for one last big score.

In fact, I anticipate a life of crime so that I might go legit and get pulled back in for one last big score.

I totally get this. After I saw The Hustler I remember thinking, "I can't wait until I'm old enough to have a fucked up relationship based on solace, remorse, fucking and drinking."

There's a part of my brain that's just too literal. Unless you do a good job of making it a Robin Hood situation, I'm like, "But why am I supposed to root for these people? What's heroic about crime?"

"What's heroic about crime?"

Heh. Psst, Susan works for The Man!