Harlequin American Romance #462

SPOILER FREE REVIEW 🙂

4 Stars

Reviewed by Introvert Reader

The Book

Margaret St. George’s The Pirate and His Lady isn’t a historical romance, but a time-traveling adventure published through Harlequin’s American Romance line.

Plot

Elizabeth Rawley is a bookish young woman obsessed with all things pirate, especially the legend of captain Richard Colter and his ship, the Black Cutter which, along with its treasure, had been sunk off the Florida coast after being engaged in a battle over 200 years ago.

While attending a “Pirate’s Ball” she witnesses a strange sight: two ancient-looking ships blasting away at one another in the waters of the sea. When she goes to the shore, she finds a washed-up body. But the man isn’t dead; he’s very much alive and dressed in puffy white Seinfeld shirt and other pirate regalia. Was he a guest of the party dressed in costume? Who could this man be?

Why, it was Richard Colter, the captain of the Black Cutter. How could this be?

Elizabeth takes Richard back to her home. Richard’s adjustment to twentieth-century life is difficult as he’s a man out of place and time. While modern luxuries have made lives easier for humans, Richard was in a way actually better off in the past, as he was a man of wealth and privilege. Even watching tv fills him with a sort of amazed dread.

Elizabeth and Richard fall into a lovely romance as they try to figure why Richard has been thrust into the future. does the lost treasure have anything to do with his improbable appearance?

Either Richard will have to stay in the future or find a way back to his past. But does he want to?

Final Analysis of The Pirate and His Lady

The romance here is bittersweet, as most time travels romances are. I enjoyed The Pirate and His Lady for being a different sort of contemporary category romance. Published in 1992, this book was released right around the time when romances began to branch out from traditional plotlines and introduce paranormal aspects. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Here, I’m happy to say it does!