At the fourth book in the series there is always the risk that the story becomes “ordinary”; actually for some readers this can be even a good point, many readers like to be familiar with the heroes, like to know a lot about their life and love. I think Lee Rowan did a trick with this novel to satisfy both types of reader.

Home is the Sailor is again, and always, the story about Davy and Will, and as always, is the story about their forbidden love. This is a point Lee Rowan respected in all her novels about these men, and I think respected even according to the period in which this novel is set, beginning of the XIX century: very seldom Davy and Will allow their love to be freely expressed, and actually they are more the times they need to hide than when they can share a moment alone; strangely enough, the most daring places, like a riding carriage, is probably the place where they can be more safe, since no one would expect from them to do such things inside.

But to renew the plot, Lee Rowan decided to shift the setting from the sea to the mainland: and actually in doing so, she not only adds novelty to the intercourse between Davy and Will, she also shifts the balance and brings back the reader to the very beginning of this series, when Davy and Will first met. In the course of the series, Will gained “strength” on Davy for his harsher experience, and also since he self-proclaimed himself Will’s protector. But actually Davy’s social status is a step, or maybe two or three, above Will, and when they need to go back to Davy’s family home, that void they filled up with their love, open again. Davy has responsibility that Will has not; Will can allow himself to be an unmarried old sea wolf, but Davy probably not. With the shift in setting there is also a little change in the subtheme; more or less the previous three books were romance/adventure stories, this last one instead have also a little bit of mystery in it.

What I probably liked best, of this novel but also of all the series, is that the author allows to her heroes to be men in love, and so there is the romance, without taking decisions that are not realistic; even the end of this novel (probably not the end of Davy and Will’s adventures) is a mix of happiness and bittersweet feeling: true, Davy and Will will find a way to be together, but actually it’s not a totally pink perspective; the need of secrecy still lingers and Davy and Will have yet another little bickering right at the last page, so that the reader is enticed to search for a following story to know if they will find an agreement.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982826702/?tag=elimyrevandra-20