Lynette Vinet

Set in Ireland Dera is brought up by her Aunt and Uncle and falls in love with a local man Quint. What she does not realize is he is behind all the property burning in the village. His constant avoidance of marriage makes her question his sincerity and when she finds him with another woman, she agrees to accept a proposal from Lord Fairfax. Her marriage to him is not the luxury and security she had hoped for and when a neighbour’s residence is burned down he offers them shelter only to be consumed with jealousy.

Dera’s second marriage is to Dominic who takes her to live in New Orleans with his sister Rossette. Again we3 have another revolutionary who wants to keep New Orleans French and away from the Spanish invasion. This is not possible as the French abandoned the colony due to the cost. They have hired men to help defend the land and amongst them is Quint.

When her second husband dies she finally gets to marry Quint, but she seems to have learnt little from her previous marriage or developed any character. Lord Fairfax is perhaps the most interesting character as he has all the wealth but none of the health of a younger man. This makes him insanely jealous and eventually violent, a deterioration which loses reader sympathy. Quint’s idealism is more petty spite for the injustice he perceives he has suffered.

This novel lurches from one disaster to another without any real sense of historical time or character development. Perhaps a romantic relationship is enough to sustain it, but it does not make it memorable or distinctive.… (mehr)

This was originally published in 1988 under the title “Love's Golden Promise” and reissued for Kindle in 2013. I'm guessing “Love's” was changed to “Pirate's” because of keyword, algorithm shenanigans. A ship on the cover or Pirate in the title, well...



Y'all, within the first six or so paragraphs I was introduced to this man who loved this girl, had to marry her older sister for money, keeps the younger sister as mistress and impregnates her (don't worry older sis was impregnated 8yrs ago), the sister's father disinherits everyone because he's not about mess (don't blame him), the younger sister dies in childbirth but not before making the sister impregnator (I know this isn't a word) promise to raise her daughter as if she was legitimate, making everyone lie and say the older sister is the baby's mother.



We get a little bit of Cinderella with the sister imprenator doting on his illegitimate daughter, thus making the wife and legitimate daughter hate her. In fact, when illegitimate baby Wynter was born, her half-sister Lucy, who was SEVEN at the time, had this to say:
Leaning over the sleeping Wynter, she said, “One day your prettiness won’t be enough, little baby. I’ll make sure of it.”



We fast forward to Wynter's seventeenth birthday, get introduced to the stable boy Fletcher who is her bestfriend and in love with her and learn that Wynter Loves a Lord Adam. At her birthday party she learns that Adam is going to ask for hand in marriage, he shows a little bit of his rapey side, and she gets rescued from a Captain Cort Van Linden. The captain is a bit too Man for this seventeen year old and even though she gets lost making out with him, she flounces away.

Scorned wife ain't having Wynter marry Lord Adam because her daughter Lucy wants him and wife wants his inheritance, he's their second cousin and got the inheritance that no mess daddy refused to give to daughters. She threatens to tell everyone about Wynter's illegitimacy but sister impregnator ruins her plans by telling Wynter, who is shocked but fairly whatevs to the situation. Wynter also tells Lord Adam who doesn't care as long as her money is still intact, he got bills to pay.

Anyway, as dads are wont to do in these situations, he dies and forgot to (or is evil stepmothers at work?) write in Wynter into his will, as she is illegitimate, Lucy stands to inherit everything. Lucy gets the money and then gets Lord Adam, because bills but Adam wants to keep Wynter as his mistress. Wynter doesn't want to repeat history so she looks for an escape.

She first turns to Captain Van Linden, they had another make-out shesh when she was out riding and asks him for money to buy her childhood home. He says sure but she has to go with him on his ship for one year. “For one year you’re to sail on my ship, eat beside me, share my quarters at night, and I don’t mean only to sleep there. The life of a sea captain is very lonely.” Her fear of his too much Man and that Ah-mazing offer has her refusing him in only the way a seventeen year old bodice ripper girl can.



She then turns to her stable boy bestie Fletch who has a plan to travel to America as an indentured servant and make his fortune. Remember how I said the author took the time to change the title, well, I wish they had taken the time to go back through this story and edit it because, I kid you not, this is a line Fletch says: Do you know there are slaves in Virginia? Have you ever heard of such a thing? But, aye, if one needs slaves to be rich, I’ll get me some.”
What in the holy hell??? Wynter ends up marrying this paragon of virtue and they travel to America. Fletch ends up dying, so he's pretty much a throw away character, this line did not need to be in here and why the hell it was included, I'll never know.

On the ship to America, it gets attacked by pirates and guess who the pirate is! Captain Van Linden.



So, Fletch gets conveniently disposed of, I didn't cry for him, and then a storm hits, Wynter ends up banging her head and gets the goofiest form of amnesia I have ever read. She thinks she and the Captain are married. Y'all. This was around the 30% mark and after all this, I just started skim/speed reading. Van Linden makes everyone go along with her married thing, he Loves her, I guess??

Captain Morgan gets thrown into the story, part two takes us to New Amsterdam, every dude wants Wynter, Van Linden is a gentle pirate, they have a baby, people try to break up their marriage, and basic bodice ripper drama ensues for most of part 2. There really wasn't any depth to characters, the beginning, especially felt like everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off and part two was more bodice ripper family drama.
Verdict: not a hidden gem.… (mehr)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Savage Deception by Lynette Vinet was originally published by Zebra and is now being re-released by Steel Magnolia Press in digital format. Diana is encouraged to marry Kingsley by her sister, Anne. They are of the same station in life and Kingsley shows himself as a good man, but when Diana sees Tanner, a common laborer and the bastard half brother of her fiancé, she feels things she never thought were possible.When Tanner and Diana find themselves alone, Tanner can not control his passion. But, the two are discovered in a compromising position by none other that Kingsley. Tanner is punished and Diana is still set to marry Kingsley, so Tanner leaves the estate. But, Diana's marriage is horrible. Kingsley abuses her and punishes her at every opportunity. When Diana's father in law discovers the truth, he banishes Kingsley from his home. But, Kingsley goes to war and dies a hero. Now, Diana’s sister and brother in law are in trouble, and when she is told of a man that could help free her brother in law, the last person on earth she imagined seeing again was Tanner. Tanner has never forgotten Diana. He has tried every way he knew how. Now, no longer a poor laborer, but a man of vast wealth and connections, he feels he can win Diana’s love. Naturally, things do not start off so well for the couple. Not only are there several misunderstandings but both of them are keeping very dangerous secrets. After Diana and Tanner marry, a marriage in name only for Diana, Tanner learns of his half brother’s cruelty to Diana and promises to show her how true love can be. Just when Diana begins to relax with Tanner and realize he really loves her and that their marriage could work, their secrets are exposed and a wedge is driven between them that they may never recover from. This was an excellent historical romance. There were some difficult passages in the beginning, but it doesn’t last for long and then the story takes a very different turn. Watching Tanner win Diana over is sighing worthy. The war and the intrigue that Tanner and Diana are involved in, makes the book suspenseful and toward the end when a huge twist comes into play, you will find you are on pins and needles. Tanner is just dreamy. Wow! What a guy. Diana wasn’t one of those whining females either. She started out being a bit fragile which was perfectly understandable, but she really grows as a person and with Tanner’s love and patience becomes confident. This book was so entertaining and how I wish, wish, wish they still wrote historical romances like this one. I am so happy that Steel Magnolia Press is releasing many of Lynette’s backlist in digital format.… (mehr)