Jayne Ann Krentz – The Pirate

The first book in the Ladies and Legends Trilogy series, published September 28,1990.
Genre: contemporary romance with a dash of suspense
Cover: I am happy to report that I have the trilogy, with a better cover.



Overworked, stressed-out and indifferent to love, romance writer Katherine Inskip desperately needs some R and R. A tropical vacation, complete with sun and surf, sounds perfect. But relaxation is the last thing on the mind of dashing island resort owner Jared Hawthorne, a descendant of South Seas pirates.


Historical romance author Katherine Inskip has just returned from a book promotion tour, and is exhausted. She has been working non stop for two years now, and so her two best friends intervene. They have booked a tropical vacation for her, a month in a nice resort on a tropical island. And so Kate has no choice but to, as they practically put her on the plane themselves.
What Kate does not expect is to find the hero of her last pirate book come alive, and sweeping her of her feet.
Jared Hawthorne owns the island, and he really is a descendant of a pirate. Both him and his young son David are instantly attracted to Kate. Kate is very happy surprised when she finds out the island has the ruins of a real castle, but disgruntled when Jared tells her the ruins are off limits to her and everyone else, except for the tour given once a week. Kate wants to explore it by herself! So when she sets out one night to do just that, she stumbles upon some suspicious behaviour by Jared and one of the other resort guests. Her writer mind immediately jumps to different scenarios, and she wants to know the truth. But Jared refuses to tell her anything, it is none of her business.
David enjoys spending time with Kate as well, as he teaches her how to snorkel and such. And he cons her into cooking for them, normal American fare instead of the gourmet dinners he and his father have been eating for years now, cooked by one of the three chefs on the island. I do love how he also cons her into spending time with his father. But what will happen when her month is over, will she return to Seattle? Jared’s first wife was an angel, a fragile woman who loved to take care of her husband and son, and who was a wonderful painter. Kate is nothing like her. Is Jared still pining for his wife, or is he ready to move on? And is Kate the one?


I had fun reading this story. Kate is a writer of historical romance, mainly pirates, and now she finds her hero in real life. I also like that the main characters are in their thirties, a second chance at love theme is going on here. Kate has been badly burned in romance before, with her needy ex husband who could not handle it when she was successfully published and he was not. She loves the island and the live here though, and gets quickly used to the heat. She falls in love with Jared and his son, but can he really love her in return?
She needs the words, and not just commands from him.

Jared thinks he likes the kind of woman his wife was, sweet and biddable, so he is not really prepared for liking Kate so much. But he does find her interesting and attractive and can’t stay away from her. He loves being her lover, but he does not really share anything about his past with her, or the dealings going on in the castle ruins. And that just might make him loose her. He will have to open up and trust her, or she will just go home and leave him behind.

I especially loved the start of the book, when a stressed out Kate takes care of a would be mugger with a knife, thanks to her stress and two weeks of a self defense course. Jared loves telling the tale of what he saw everywhere, but Kate is not happy with that at all. She does not like to be gossiped about. It was fun how she put Jared in his place about that. She is certainly not a doormat type of woman, but a take charge woman, used to do things on her own.

Their romance is of course watched by everyone on the island, and they love to make bets on things that are happening or not. In fact, it is the only words Jared’s parrot can say: wanna bet?

It is a fun story, and for me extra fun as the heroine is an author. I really liked Kate, Jared and David a lot, and I do look forward to the next two books in this trilogy.

8 stars.





It is no longer available in print as a new book, nor as an ebook, but JAK is very busy getting her enormous backlist available as ebooks. So you will have to wait, or buy a copy secondhand.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian