This book was too much of an "old-school" bodice ripper for my taste: cliched, flowery language, indirect descriptions of physical moments, and a heavy-handed Alpha male (who just needs to love his lady in just the right way, then she'll be putty in his hands).

The story around the romance was stuffed with plot points, including multiple off-page murders surrounding a thinly hidden mystery; jealous, shrieking women and melodramatic villains trying to pry the lovers apart.

The first part of the book was the best, including the scenes aboard Capt. Birmingham's ship.

And I understand it's in retrospect, but the African American slaves were offensive, speaking as if they walked off the set/pages of [b:Gone with the Wind|18405|Gone with the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328025229s/18405.jpg|3358283]. Strange choice since Brandon Birmingham was also from the South but his dialogue wasn't written with a phonetic drawl. The slaves might not have been quite as offensive if not for the disparate character dialogue choices.