FINAL DECISION:  Exciting and adventurous conclusion to the Adventurers Quartet, this is a second chance at love story. The focus here is more on the adventure than the romance, but I enjoyed both.  The only negative is that I didn’t like that the entire set up was because the two characters didn’t talk to one another for important things for years.

THE STORY: Royd Frobisher, the eldest brother, is prepared to take on the final leg of the rescue mission that his brothers have been participating in.  The brothers are working for the English government to try and find out what is happening to people going missing in the West African town. Royd’s younger brothers have discovered that the people going missing have been captured by slavers and taken to work in a diamond mine. Now it is time for the rescue to happen. Just at this moment, Isobel Carmichael comes to Royd and insists that he take her to search for her missing cousin Katherine (whose story is told in Book 3 of the series). Isobel is Royd’s childhood sweetheart, the woman who was Royd’s handfasted bride until she broke off with him. Isobel is also Royd’s current business partner. Royd ends up agreeing with Isobel’s demand in order to discover what if anything still exists between them.  When the two find a surprise aboard Royd’s ship, everything changes.

OPINION:  This was a very enjoyable conclusion to the Adventurers Quartet.  There is a lot of action in this book and readers of the series are rewarded with a full cast of characters from the series.  The only criticism is that this book is more focused on the adventure than the romance.  The romance is there, but it is less developed on a page to page basis than one might expect.

Isobel is a strong woman. She is a ship designer and in charge of her family’s shipbuilding business.  She and Royd have been connected to one another since childhood.  She also has a big secret that she has been hiding.

One of my favorite parts of Laurens’s books is that she has such tough heroines. Strong willed, smart, unwilling to be pushed aside or protected, they make their own decisions and take their own risks. Isobel and the other Frobisher women quickly build a bond. There is something special about the power of women working together. A companionship. A joint effort that shows the power that women can have working together.

Royd is a man who lost the woman he loved and is determined to not make the same mistakes again. He is a natural leader and wants to protect Isobel but recognizes that he cannot smother her. I loved the maturity of Royd. The willingness to make concessions to get what he wants — Isobel.

The biggest weakness of this book is the reason that Isobel and Royd fell apart years ago. I’m not a fan of people failing to talk and that causing problems for a couple. I really have a hard time believing that these two could have allowed so many years to go by without addressing their past. However, that is something that I could reluctantly accept in order to set the stage for this story.

I thought the strength of this story was the adventure story.  The pacing of the rescue of the captives and the revelation of the people in charge worked very well.  Using a large cast of characters from the series, Laurens neatly wrapped up all the loose ends.

WORTH MENTIONING: Fans of Stephanie Laurens will be treated to appearances by characters from the Bastion Club series and the Cynsters themselves.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  LORD OF THE PRIVATEERS is the fourth and final book in the Adventurers Quartet.  The book assumes knowledge of the prior books in the series and should be read in order.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 4.5 stars.

FINAL DECISION:  I generally love Laurens books, but this one was almost boring for the first half. The second half (after the hero and heroine meet) was really good, but I couldn’t help but wish that they had met earlier to pick up the pacing.

THE STORY: Captain Robert Frobisher picks up the investigation into the disappearances of people in West Africa. He travels there with the mission to find the camp of the slavers who have been kidnapping men, women and children.  When he arrives, Robert finds another person doing her own search. Miss Aileen Hopkins has come to West Africa searching for her younger brother who is one of the missing.  Robert knows that he has to convince Miss Hopkins to stop her search before she disturbs the wrong person and ends up missing as well.

OPINION:  This book was just so-so for me.  Once Robert and Aileen met and began investigating together, things heated up and the pace of the story picked up.  Unfortunately, that really didn’t happen until halfway through the book.

For the entire first part of the book Robert and Aileen are engaged in their own investigations and the investigation is the central story in the book.  What I really wanted was to know more about these characters, but instead, I got detail about the kidnapping and methods of investigations.  Those items don’t bother me in a Laurens book because the mystery is central to the story, but here, the hero and heroine spent too much time apart on the investigation.

Once Robert and Aileen join forces, the story picked up and I was happily turning pages.  The two are clearly the perfect match and there wasn’t much keeping them apart except for the adventure they are on.  Truthfully, the adventure/mystery itself was much more intriguing and exciting once they joined forces.  If there was more of that in the book and less of them apart, I would have really enjoyed this book.

WORTH MENTIONING: I usually never mention things like covers, but I have to say this one might be one of the worst I have seen.  The expression on Robert’s face on the front creeped me out every time I looked at it.

CONNECTED BOOKS: A BUCCANEER AT HEART is the second book in the Adventurers Quartet.  These book feature a continuing overarching storyline and are meant to be read in order.  That being said, the romance itself is completely self contained.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 2.5 stars.

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