As a Pirate King, Captain Jaxon Steele has to make sure that he remains in charge of his ship, the Scarlet Night, and his crew. His ruthless reputation makes him both feared and respected by all he meets. Then Annalise Gatherone is discovered aboard and things start to change for Jaxon. Annalise is running away from a Duke who wants her dead and out of sheer desperation she has snuck aboard the Scarlet Night in hopes that the ship will head to Port St. Maria. Along the way Annalise gets the idea to win over Jaxon’s affections except her plans have unexpected consequences.


So, Lisa A. Olech is a new-to-me author and I love me some pirate romances. Within a Captain’s Hold wasn’t bad at all. I liked the fact that Olech gave me what I wanted: Pirates. Stinky, mean, thieving, and deadly. Lol, I know. Stinky? Well yeah, they’re on the sea for long periods of time doing hard core work and they can’t use all their drinking water for baths now can they? Anyway, they were pretty realistic. Olech didn’t shy away from painting the harsh picture of what life was like on the seas back then which made the book as a whole entertaining.


Jaxon, the “hero” of the story (Because he’s a pirate you know) was what I hoped he would be: Fearless, ruthless, dashing, dangerous, and passionate. He had his good side and his bad side which made him an overall interesting character. I enjoyed his progression from badass pirate captain to lovesick pirate captain. Just like a man, he was in denial for the longest time but he was a goner almost from the moment he met Annalise.


Now Annalise was a little harder for me to like. She was too sweet and innocent at first and I found her a little bland and boring. I wrote her off as too much of a damsel in distress until about the last half of the book where she got interesting. I did think that she could have been a bit more multi-dimensional from the beginning but she wasn’t bad by the end. By that time she had seen and done quite a bit to survive so I think that’s what made her a better character to me.


The supporting cast of characters helped make Within a Captain’s Hold more than just a love story. They brought humor and life to the story and I enjoyed them all. I also enjoyed the villains believe it or not because the hero and heroine are only as good as the villain is bad and in this case the duke that was chasing Annalise was bad and his actions definitely justified Annalise’s desperation to get away.


I will say that sometimes the book ran a little long in certain areas and I felt myself losing interest at times but when the pace picked up it was worth it.


Final Verdict: Not a bad way to spend my time. I’ll definitely be picking up the other books in the series.