This is the sixth book in the Dukes of War series. Though each does stand alone, it is my humble opinion that all series should be read in the order of release.

I read it in a single day – sneaking it when I should have been sleeping. Yes, work will be rough tomorrow, but it will be worth it!

One of the things I loved best about this book was that the main characters were older adults in their 40s. It was refreshing to read something acknowledging that we still crave love, affection, and adventure far past those daring years when we are in our 20s. Add in the salty cast of pirates that kept me in stitches and this has become an immediate favorite.

Erica Ridley never fails to deliver heat, heart, and humor and has become one of my instant-click authors.

Note: while I was given this book as a gifted ARC, through NetGalley, my opinions are my own and are given freely.

Nice, exciting and very well written. Not a heavy read and a nice summer read type book.

I found this book while searching for books by Erica Ridley on netgalley and I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I was searching for her because she will be at a conference I am thinking of attending and am trying to get a sense of all the conference author's works.

For this book, the writing is good and the length is short. At 200 pages, it felt like a slightly longer novella. We had as much plot, character development, and romance as you would expect for 200 pages. Meaning the plot moved quickly, we really only learned about the hero, Blackheart/Steele, and heroine, Clara, and the romance was almost non-existent until the last third of the book. Why is that? Because we have a pirate with honor, education, and earnest sincerity. "Blackheart" may in fact be a huge misnomer since he really was a nice guy all along. There was no reforming of a rake and the only real conflict came from two people, in love, trying to compromise and work out how to have a life together.

In general, while this is the 6th book in the series, it works well as a standalone. If you're curious about other couples in the series, you can go read the rest of the books and learn more about them. But, for me, I am rather tepid about this book. As the two star rating indicates, it was OK. There wasn't a lot of action or adventure. The pirate crew was more comedy chorus than bloodthirsty or riches seeking crew. There was no real conflict or villain. The romance was so so. The hero was too goody-two-shoes with nothing remotely piratical about him. And, the heroine was such a doormat - always letting her life happen to her, rather than taking action. Needless to say, while I am grateful to netgalley and the publisher for the experience of reading this book, I don't have much interest in reading the rest of the series.

This series has been like an old friend. Each book, you get a glimpse of past characters. It's fun, to catch up with them, see what they are doing now and to have characters you just "interacted" with as small characters in their books, become headliners.
It was nice to have an older character. The pirate falling in love story, was so good! You can't help but have feelings for these characters! They draw you in, make you love them, and then the story ends, and you're left feeling empty. Haha, it's a great read, and you won't be disappointed.