A Pirate's Heart

Title: A Pirate's Heart
Author: Catherine Friend
Published: 2008 by Bold Strokes Books
Genre: Adventure and lesbian pirates
Pages: 316


Picked this one up for light summer reading, and the pirates went and stole my heart. Treasure hunts all around, yay! And pirates! And ale! And wenches! Yayness! Or, rather, Yarrrrrness!

Okay, more seriously. Pirate captain Thomasina Farris disappeared in 1715 with a huge treasure stolen from a Spanish galleon. Some say she drowned, some say she hanged. She left a map, though. And today, a thief is going through libraries, stealing old maps, looking for Captain Tommy's map. Emma, a librarian, helped by a PI called Randi-with-an-i, goes on a roadtrip to try and find the map, stop the thief, and save other books from being mauled so.

The book is split into two stories, 1715 with Captain Tommy, her crew, and the lovely Rebekah they save from certain death, and modern times with Emma and Randi and the elusive map thief. And since this is romantic adventure, our heroines of course find that, in the words of the one and only Captain Jack Sparrow, "Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."

This book sucked me in so well with its writing and pacing that one time, riding home in the bus, I didn't even notice a friend was trying to get my attention from across the aisle of the full bus. *cough* So I went and got Friend's other books from Amazon as well, for a couple of bucks.

I do have one complaint, though. Something that always annoys me. Women with men's names. TWO of them in this book. Yarrr. It's everywhere, though, no escaping from it in any medium. Hell, some of my favourite literary characters are females with male names. But it still ticks me off. But I'll forgive Ms Friend, because this was such a thrilling ride on the storming sea.


"I pulled out the research I'd gathered on Tommy Farris for my article and stared at the thin stack. The woman had commanded her own fleet of ships, sailed the open seas, answered to no one bu her men, and lived a life of terrible adventure.

"Why was I so obsessed with Tommy Farris?

"Easy. She was a pirate."