Review: The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World

The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World by Tilar J. Mazzeo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

She is the captain’s wife and just nineteen: Mary Ann. 

The Sea Captain's Wife was an account of how Mary Ann Patten became the first recorded woman captain of a merchant ship. Footnotes abounding, the author clearly did through research, which some readers will appreciate and others might find their eyes glazing over at times as I felt some tangents tied-in and others a little spun-off. While we start off at the moment Mary Ann's husband, Joshua, collapses from illness on their sea voyage and she's about to have to take over, the story quickly goes back to give historical context to how these two have ended up where they are. 

We are on a dangerous journey. A journey in which wealthy shipowners pit young men against each other with the promise of riches, urging them on to reckless dangers, in the name of another man’s lucre. The year is 1856. 

The beginning delves into Mary Ann and Joshua's family trees, you'll get a lot of geographical, economical, and genealogy background to help give a good idea who these two might be and why they made the decisions they did. As Mary Ann and Joshua had ties in Maine and lived in Boston, the Old North Church and other landmarks make numerous appearances, helping to set the reader in the time and place. There's also delving into the US's economical context at the time, highlighting how important shipping was, discussion on how Matthew Maury changed the game, and the way the business was set-up, with backers, companies, and so forth, and how important having good captains were. The describing captains as the “rock stars and professional athletes” of the time, along with salaries put into today's context, along with going through a ship crew's hierarchy and politics helped to lay-out the atmosphere for when the story gets to the moment readers are probably looking for, when Mary Ann becomes captain. 

Never before had any woman been acclaimed captain of a merchant clipper. 

Around the halfway mark is when all the lead up pays off and we get Joshua becoming too ill and Mary Ann having to navigate Drake's Passage and fend off a mutiny from a disgruntled crew member. I was a little disappointed with what I was, mostly, reading the book for was such a little part of the overall story. Her time in charge was, factually a short time in her overall life story, but I felt somewhat bereft as that was what I went into this for. The journey she faced after, getting back to Boston, caring for Joshua, having a baby, and trying to secure enough funds to live on, all while having her legend grow through newspapers, was engrossing in a sedate way and sad in how the lack of medical advances at the time had her story ending far too soon. 

For nonfiction, this had a fair amount of conjecture in it, which is explained/discussed in the author's notes in the end; how documents/records weren't kept for middle-class, everyday people. I agree that these people's stories should still be told but when emotions and thoughts are more readily inferred, I get a little uneasy. This was a good read for looking at a moment in time where sea faring could make or break individuals and the US, you'll get a good look at two American families who Mary Ann and Joshua tied together and how Mary Ann gained the knowledge to be able to captain the clipper Neptune's Car and become the first recorded woman merchant captain.

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Review: Her Baseborn Bridegroom

Her Baseborn Bridegroom by Alice Coldbreath
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


3.5 stars 

I Buddy Read this over on BlueSky BR thread. 

I need to read some more Medievals again, they're the subgenre that brought me to romance and the time period vibes were pretty good in this. 

The ending machinations I wasn't really a fan of because of how it was Mason choosing for Linnet and then of course we got a perfect bow. It was light and fun with pinches of heavy at times. I liked Mason but he had some uneven, Linnet was pretty solid throughout and I liked getting to see her freed from her shell, and they had enjoyable chemistry. Will definitely read this author again!

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Review: Reborn

Reborn by Meredith Wild
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Look, when the MMC was standing outside the FMC's bedroom door with a silencer on a gun because he was sent to assassinate her but pauses when, as she's pleasuring herself, calls out his name, I Was Sat. 

Blew through this first part but about halfway through it did start to feel like treading water and I was getting bored as much as I was locked in for the beginning. Will read the next parts but seeing there's 8 more parts to go, I'm a little worried this really gets dragged out.

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Reading Update: 12%

His brother appeared by their side as Mason started chafing her cold hands lightly between his 

I love little acts of caring like this, it's such a great way to show instead of of spelling out his character and emotions.

Buddy Reading this over on BlueSky!

Review: Silver & Blood

Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

He was an Etheri sovereign---the very thing all the cautionary tales warned about. I couldn't lose my head just because he'd smiled at me. 

Silver and Blood was a romantasy story you're going to want to snuggle in for. This first installment ends on a cliffhanger and was more about establishing the fantasy world and relationships, before the big battles. The fantasy world, where our FMC Riela comes raised from the human side and at late twenties has just shown signs of having mage power and our MMC Garrick who at around chronologically one thousand years old but biologically thirties is an Etheri sovereign from the magical world of Lohka, was created and filled out in a complete way that I want the fantasy side in a romance to be. The gist of the story is that Garrick has been locked out of Lohka for decades by the Blood King, and when he finds Riela wondering around in the forest, he thinks she's a honey pot sent by the Blood King to kill him. Riela, for her part, is vastly clueless, she's grown up thinking that Etheri are fairy tale stories and has no clue why she has some magic and why she can't control it. 

“I want everyone to know you're under my protection.” His eyes flashed fully silver. 

A big chunk of the middle of this is Riela and Garrick stuck in his castle, on the human side of the fantasy world along with Garrick's magical wolf Grim, learning to trust each other's motives and having lusty feelings. This was told in dual pov, so you can see the internal struggles of both. I did think there was some slow moving going on in the middle because of Riela's forced obliviously to Garrick's feelings. I know I'm the reader getting both sides but there was some Riela being “completely unaware” that Garrick could ever have feelings for someone like her that got dragged out one, two, twenty-five too many times for the sake of tension, that honestly I couldn't believe/feel between them any longer. You get more of Garrick when the story moves to Lohka for a bit, which helped with his character but I could have stood for more depth from him and less dragged out obliviousness from Riela, but they did deliver on the handful of times they got physical.

There was only one way to protect Riela now, and as much as I might tell myself I didn't want to do it...I did.

As I mentioned, the fantasy side was definitely worth the price of admission with Etheri (think in the fairy family) and their different kingdoms/sovereigns divided into colorful magical houses and the different types of mages and magical beasts. I never felt overwhelmed with the world-building and information which is a testament to the storytelling skill going on here and even though the clues being given throughout about Riela, the clear reveal answers was still exciting to get to. The set-up for the next book, I think, will have more action as the villainous Blood King only discussed here will be getting screen time. 

“I am going to kill the Blood King.” 

Riela's background doesn't give her support from secondary characters, but Garrick's friends Grim and Bria add a lot (yes I'm clinging to that brief moment as promise for a romance). Riela and Garrick struggled with their trust issues and even though both mess up at times, this had some of those cozy vibes because you do think that they'll be gentle with each other as they work it out. The fantasy world had me enjoying this, Riela needed less repeated obliviously, Garrick maybe a little more depth to his character, but overall, it was a story that drew me in and I'm very ready to see what happens when Riela and Garrick face the Blood King.

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TRBChallenge Review: Captive of Fate

Captive of Fate by Lindsay McKenna
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars

“Damn you, Colonel. You're going to get everything that's been coming to you. I promise. God, how I promise.” 

I know, I can't believe there isn't an exclamation point in that sentence either.(!) 

The theme for this month's TBRChallenge was Change of Plans. In Captive of Fate Alanna is a twenty-nine year old woman who works for a Senator in D.C. She's been pulling sixty hour work weeks when he suddenly springs a trip to Costa Rica on her. She's supposed to go down there and prove that the US's head of a relief effort for earthquake victims, Marine Colonel Matt Breckenridge, is running and making money off a survivor goods black market. Having worked for the senator awhile and been tainted against Matt with all the horrible stories the senator has told her and that Matt is at fault for the senator's son's death in Vietnam, Alanna is gung-ho to get the evidence. 

He was honest in a way she had never known a man to be.

Of course, she gets a change of heart (plans) when she meets and spends time with him. Their first meeting initially sets up the friction with Alanna's presence bumping a radio specialist Matt really needed and him being angry at her but that dynamic doesn't rage as hard in this as I was anticipating as Matt softens and pretty obviously likes/falls for her quickly. Alanna for her part tries to keep her distance because she's been listening to the senator for so long but seeing Matt in action in Costa Rica and then realizing the evidence doesn't point to him at all for the black market has her leaning more into her attraction. 

He represented the emotional freedom she longed for. Yet, at the same time, he was a threat to her sense of security. He was dangerous. 

With the 1983 publishing date of this, you'll get a lot of Matt is so hot because of his masculine masculinity, He's sooooooooo male!, and leaned a bit too much into the fish out of water Alanna with some overemotional helpless female. With the Vietnam War fresh in memories there was a ton of “[...]Politicians versus military. Dove versus hawk.[...]” dialogue and ideology going on, I about fell off the couch when Alanna made a crack about Marines having a reputation for being rapists; 2000s military rom-suspense were, for the most part, ever up to touching that. It was interesting to me how Matt was portrayed, his thoughts on Vietnam (war is hell and all that but with how it was a waste of human life) and how though he was a Marine Recon the author worked hard at portraying him softer, very invested in emotions and wanting out of that kind of life, again I feel like the 2000s subgenre works hard at the messaging of for good of country/way of life and all that. (we're getting some years removed from the Afghanistan War so maybe I need to dip back more into rom-suspense and see if these feelings are being grappled with again) 

The last 40% they've left Costa Rica and the story kind of lost it's way for me. They romp around Maine for awhile as love, sex, and marriage are declared, had, and planned for but there's the senator wanting to take Matt down lingering in the background. There's a, sort of, third act breakup for the last 10% and Alanna leans way too hard into helpless female as Matt takes care of business and we eventually get our HEA. Some interesting character aspects to Matt, some disappointing from Alanna, the constant talk of “maleness” was wearing, a story that seemed to lose it's way for a while, kind of an odd late betrayal reveal, and interesting post war authorial thinking in the fabric, all lead to a not bad but probably not memorable book.

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Review: The Ferryman and His Wife

The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

At a quarter past five in the morning Nils Vik opened his eyes, and the last day of his life began. 

Prepare to sob, really, that's all you need to know. I mean, if this doesn't gut punch you with the grief: He simply stared at his eldest daughter. Her clear eyes, her feminine movements, the way she said things, the way she laughed – and all the while, he saw her mother. It was all he had now. To other people it would have been nothing, but for Nils it was almost too much. 

All his passengers – they ooze out of the logbooks, arise from his handwriting, grow out of his memory. They line the fjord, they are with him, they present themselves in the hope of being recognised. See us. Touch us. Speak of us. 

The Ferryman and His Wife was a shorter story of a Norwegian man who knows it's his last day on earth and he becomes a sort of Charon on his fjord as he ferries ghosts from his past and thinks back on his life. 

After Marta, he still flicked off the lamp on the nightstand and said: Goodnight, sweetheart, sleep well. After Marta, he whispered the words from his side of the bed, but from the other there was no longer any reply. 

It's all from Nils' point-of-view with such descriptive setting writing that you'll freeze on the fjords with him at times. Readers learn that he still lives in the home that he grew-up in and he's followed in his father's footsteps as a ferryman for the community since he was fourteen. 

Everyone needs to be seen – there isn’t a single person on this earth who isn’t longing to be discovered. 

His wife has already passed on and he has two grown daughters, are the bare facts we know as he starts his ferry up for the last time. It's all pretty intrapersonal but through his thoughts and feelings you get such a beautiful scope of all the people and moments that make a life. 

He can remember no point in his life when he hasn’t loved her, or when he’s doubted that she truly loved him back. Sometimes, when he turned on the radio at home and heard people harping on about being unhappy in love, all the bitter experiences of their lives, he would walk into whichever room Marta was in and just look at her. What are you staring at, Nils Vik? she might ask him then. I’m staring at you, Marta Haugen Vik. Well, you can bloody well stop it – go on, get away with you, Nils Vik. 

Nils first passenger is his dog that died twenty-five years ago and their communication and love will be your first sob-fest and from there on readers are treated to vignettes about passengers Nils has had over the years. It's a heartfelt look at how his job integrated him into the community and how everyday people can make such a huge difference. 

A cigarette in her hand, and strangely enough it was the cigarette that had shaken Nils the most – not the smoking itself, but that she was sitting there on the edge of the bed with a cigarette, when she usually never smoked. It was as if there were another Marta, one he had no knowledge of, one to whom he had no access. Who was his wife? And who was his best friend?

As he's traveling picking up some ghostly passengers and reminiscing about others, there's always going back to thoughts and feelings about his time with his wife Marta. I loved how his memories showed the highs and lows of a longterm relationship, the way that couples can grow apart and grow together; Nils changing and working a little harder for Marta is subtle but there in a big way. 

How could I ever have prepared myself for you? he whispered. How could I ever have prepared for these days, which became these weeks, which became these months, which became these years, which became this life? 

This, to me, is the best of literary fiction, it set me in a place I could feel and delivered on the emotions that make you run the gamut, crying, smiling, struggling, questioning, and wanting to understand yourself and others more. The grief, love, connection, and with all the mistakes and doing right of a life well lived was beautifully relayed in this story. Read this, get your book clubs to read this, and then come talk to me about it (sob with me about Luna and let's talk tea about that photographer bestfriend).

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Reading Update: 30%

After Marta, he still flicked off the lamp on the nightstand and said: Goodnight, sweetheart, sleep well. After Marta, he whispered the words from his side of the bed, but from the other there was no longer any reply.

On his last day alive they started with his dog that died 25yrs ago joining him and they talk. Tears for days. 

Now I have to try and survive him reliving, talking about his wife who died. As someone who has been with the same person for 23yrs, well, trying not to sob my way through this.

Review: The Library of Fates

The Library of Fates by Margot Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The Book of Dark Nights was gone. 

I devoured The Library of Fates in the beginning as I found the magical realism world where an 18th century book created by a witch for Voltaire acts as a sort of Ouija board and powers a library. The lore created about and around this book was fascinating, you're supposed to write in the book a true confession, shut the book, and then open it to read what the book has written in answer to you. Only the writer can read their confession and the tell you something about your future answer. Told in dual time-line and povs from our two leads, more story about the book's origins and purpose gets revealed as you read on. 

To him the touch meant nothing, while for her it roused far too many memories. 

As the story goes back and forth between Now (2019) and Then (1995) we get the story, mostly, from Eleanor, a college student and then eventual librarian of The Library of Fates, and Daniel, the professor's son, who introduces them to The Book of Dark Nights, and eventual former flame of Eleanor's. We start off with Daniel's mother having died and Eleanor discovering that The Book of Dark Nights is missing from the library. As the book gives the library it's power and makes Eleanor feel special because she's one of the few who the book “talks” to by directing her to select the exact book a person needs at that time and place in their life, she's devastated and worried. Daniel comes into the picture as he's showing up for the first time back at Harvard, where the library is, in twenty-four years, and realizes his mother's will states that he doesn't get his inheritance if the Book is not in the library by the time of his mother's wake. When it becomes obvious that Eleanor's mentor and Daniel's mother hid the book and left them clues, we have them going on a scavenger hunt for the Book in the current time-line as the Then time-line goes back and shows us how Eleanor and Daniel met in his mother's special Book class and the events that lead up to their separation. 

“You protected the Book, Eleanor. You've been protecting it all this time, haven't you? What if I said I think we should destroy it?” 

From Eleanor's pov, it's clear there was a lot to her and Daniel's relationship, readers get to see it in the Then sections, but Daniel doesn't seem to remember Eleanor at all in the Now. There's a slow build to that reveal as they search for the Book and secondary characters come into the picture, others from the special Book class and Daniel's father. As I mentioned, the plot about the Book immediately drew me in but when we got towards the ending with reveals and tying the characters and plot together, I couldn't help feel some disappointment, it all felt messy and somewhat underdeveloped. There was a henchman that came out of nowhere, and some secondary character usage that had them staying off-screen too much to suddenly come in and make the impact they were supposed to. 

What if, when you confessed, a sliver of your soul stayed in the Book? 

The second chance romance stays a thread throughout the story but it didn't encompass enough to be a strong genre element. I thought the dual timelines of furthering the plot while going back and showing how the foundation of it was built worked but I can't help feeling the climax felt like a whiff. I'd definitely recommend for some cool magical realism as The Book of Dark Nights plot will definitely fascinate (witches! Voltaire! confessions!) and textual potential shenanigans that give fun shout-outs to literature of yore, but just be prepared for a little bit of a messy letdown on the wrap-up.

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Reading Romance Bingo Challenge

 That's What I'm Talking About (Twimom227) 2025 Romance Reading Bingo Challenge

Trying to get one more bingo before end of year!

*clicking on book title takes you to my review

Sports - The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan

Snow/Ice on cover - Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey

Forced Proximity - A Cowboy to Remember by Rebekah Weatherspoon

SciFi/Fantasy - Order of Swans by Jude Deveraux

Non-US/UK setting (real country) - A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera

TBR over 1 year - The Liar's Dice by Jeannie Lin

LGBTQ+ - Les Normaux by Janine Janssen with S. Al Sabado

Non-US Author - Gate to Kagoshima by Poppy Kuroki

One Word Title - Prophecy by M.L. Fergus

Royal MC - Where Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell

MC name starts with a "M" - Too Hot to Handle by Portia MacIntosh

Shirtless Man on Cover - Sweet Starfire by Jayne Ann Krentz

Food on Cover - Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau

Borrowed From Library - Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

MC Over 35 years old - Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale

MC Works on a Farm - Look Before You Leap by Virginia Heath

Fake Dating - Love is A War Song by Danica Nava

Romantic Suspense - Your Knife, My Heart by K.M. Moronova