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When I told my husband the name of the latest ebook I was going to review, he laughed out loud. I told him, “Honestly, how could I resist something named Pirate’s Booty? I’ve hit the romance novel mother load!” And I have to say, this book was as light, fluffy, and delicious as the snack food of the same name. Although technically considered a “short,” at only 46 pages long, Pirate’s Booty left this reader satisfied.
Elizabeth McGill is a successful author of romance novels, but she’s hit a bit of writer’s block while working on her latest offering. In the hopes of chipping away at said block, she rents a cottage on Block Island, just off the coast of Rhode Island. Her novel is set in the 18th century, on Block Island itself, and Elizabeth hopes that being in the actual locale where her book is set will get her creativity flowing.
I enjoyed the “story-within-a-story” aspect of this novella, although I was confused at the beginning, since the story jumps right into Elizabeth’s novel instead of the “real” action. I wasn’t sure which aspect Roberts wanted me to pay the most attention to—Elizabeth or her fictional story.
Eventually, Elizabeth meets up with Lucius Stone, her hunky next-door neighbor. Elizabeth is extremely attracted to Lucius, and she actually wound up incorporating his dark handsomeness into Matthew, her main character in the novel. Lucius and Elizabeth have a chance at romance but wind up bickering over whether or not romances are “serious” literature and how the concept of piracy has been hijacked from its actual historical roots by hysterical fangirls screaming over Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Then a blizzard hits, and Lucius and Elizabeth find themselves snowed in. A blind man could see where that leads, right? Since Pirate’s Booty is technically erotica, the sex scenes are hot and only mildly kinky—which was a relief to see. A little light bondage can be good—but being chained to beds (I’m looking at you, Bound by Love) is pretty much the opposite of sexy.
I appreciated the character of Elizabeth very much, maybe because she reminds me a little bit of myself. She views the world as a giant library, which she can comb through for inspiration. A writer’s mind is in constant motion, thinking up plot points and character profiles, wondering how to incorporate the real world into the fictional ones we create. Elizabeth tries her hardest to write “serious” romances, and she utilizes extensive historical research to ensure that her novels are accurate. The history geek in me applauds her, and the writer in me sympathizes because it can be difficult trying to create a book that’s serious and historically accurate yet simultaneously steamy and erotic.
Unfortunately, I found the character of Lucius to be one-note. He has a love for history, and he acts as the president of the Block Island Historical Society. His major pet peeve is when people skew the true history of pirates—but, aside from a distant relation who actually fought piracy in the 18th century, I honestly can’t see why things like Pirates of the Caribbean really draw his ire. I had to remind myself, though, that this story was only 46 pages long, so I couldn’t really expect a long, meandering plot with in-depth character analysis.
Pirate’s Booty accomplished precisely what it was supposed to do: it entertained and (dare I admit it) aroused the reader. You can’t really ask for more than that.
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