The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries

Humor is very subjective. Most of the time, "humorous" romances don't work for me. Maybe I'm too literal, but a lot of authors leave me cringing instead of laughing, when they are writing "funny". Other times, I just don't get the joke. But every now and then, I'll happen across a downright silly comedy that, surprisingly enough, works for me. Who knew?

The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries
(1998, Regency Historical) 3/14/08
Grade: 4

Sara Willis is determined to accompany a group of convict women to New South Wales, to report on the disgraceful conditions. But when the ship is attacked by pirates - pirates who want to retire and need wives - her adventure begins! To her surprise, she finds the notorious Pirate Lord, Gideon Horn, to be kind and thoughtful, and not what she’d expected at all.

This book had the potential to be very, very silly. The plot itself was beyond implausible, but somehow, the author made me willing to suspend disbelief and just go with it. Despite the back story, the characters themselves were well written and grounded. I especially appreciated that the pirate hero wasn’t the typical 80’s alpha jerk pirate - he was nice (and even a bit tortured), while the heroine was strong and not at all ninny-ish. There was strong chemistry between the hero and heroine, and their dialogue was both witty and sexy. The secondary characters were also well done and added to the story. There were a few false notes - surprisingly, I didn’t think the hero’s back story worked here - even though I love a tortured hero, the part about his parents and how that problem was resolved seemed a little too pat. And some of the travel times in the book seemed way too short, especially near the end when people were popping over to the island like it was next door. But overall, it was truly enjoyable, and I had a lot of fun reading it.

One reason I think this worked was because in the middle of the silly plot, there was a real story - not just "hijinks".