The Sea Captain and the Lady by Vada Foster

Publisher:          Intaglio Publications

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, being a privateer, which is basically a legal pirate, is a respectable occupation.  Colleen Edwards learns the family’s business by serving on her father’s ship and they sail the Caribbean Sea with permits from the king of England raiding the ships from other countries.  Abby Hume is the daughter of the English governor of the Bahamas  and has already met Colleen when she is kidnapped by pirate captain Jack Rackham.  When Rackham demands a ransom, Colleen and her father decide to rescue Abby.  When Colleen’s father is wounded, she takes over command of her father’s ship and the crew follows her because she has lived disguised as a man.  Her objectives are to save Abby and create a life together for them.

It’s never a good sign when an author starts out saying that she has taken “liberties” with the facts, so lovers of history will probably find reading this book to be a struggle.  There is just too much that is wrong to enjoy it much.  Since neither one of them is a prostitute, the characters know too much about sex and indulge in it too freely to be living in the 18^th century.  The dialogue isn’t true to the period either.  There was obviously very little research into the period to make the story believable.  Throwing in the names of real pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read does not make up for the other inconsistencies.  The number of editing errors would almost seem to indicate that the rough draft was printed instead of the finished version.

Things happen too quickly in the story also.  There is very little development as it jumps from scene to scene and the relationship between Colleen and Abby shows practically no thought.  Lesbian readers will probably be unhappy with the fact that Colleen lives her life as a man throughout the book, although that is the one realistic touch.  It’s the only way the women would have had a chance of staying together.

There are a number of very good and accurate historical romances in lesbian literature.  The reader should look for those and leave this one alone.