I don't like kidnappings and protagonists falling in love with their kidnappers. I should have checked the date on this when I checked it out of the library. It's from 1986 and a bit 80's rapey.

An old-school historical set mostly on a ship and in the New England colony of Salem, MA.

The female protagonist named Brianna McCardle escapes Scotland after her aunt is burned at the stake for witchcraft and the zealous witchfinder accuses her as well because of her beauty.

The male protagonist is named Lord Sloan Treveyan and he is a Welsh ship captain who is a friend of the exiled William and Mary.

Brianna is 18ish and has zero clue how the world works. She meets Sloan when he is waiting for a prostitute and pretends to be the prostitute. The miscommunication and withholding of information simply spirals out of control from there.

They spend a lot of time aboard Treveyan's ship the Sea Hawk and of course, they become intimate. This is a flowery adjective type of sex -think "he loved her as a man loves a woman and she was entranced by her emotions" type of descriptions.

The first two sex scenes are messy and sadly some readers will call them non-con or worse; does that make them so? Each reader is responsible for their own understanding but in the intention of the novel itself, they both fit into character trait, plot device, and story action thus far.

When things move to Salem, of course it's right smack at the start of the Salem Witch Trials. This entire plot seemed very convoluted and not really of substance; though in reality, the fear and danger were very real and yet, the characters didn't convey it enough. Brianna acts stupid and stubborn while everyone around her seems more panicked and understands the direness of the situation.

I didn't like Brianna as the FMC. Sloan was a tool but he came through in the end. The HEA didn't feel earned, especially for Brianna.

**All thoughts and opinions are my own. Read on my nook ereader as a free download from B&N Nook Library.** ( )

This book was not what I expected. I loved Sloan, but I hated Brianna. She was annoying to the point that it almost ruined the book for me. This was, however, a good representation of the witch hunts and trials through Scotland, England and Salem though. ( )

oh my freaking god, was brianna annoying as all hell. ok, so shes had a terrible experience seeing her aunt burned as a witch, but really. she acts like an idiot for the. whole. book. any time she thinks something isn't going her way she throws a hissy fit, yelling, screaming, threatening and hitting sloane. (or trying to) not that he's a perfect gentleman, but he's not so glaringly stupid he made me want to throw nook 42 across the room like she did.

Oh, and apparently she's trying to suffocate him with her boobs on the cover. ( )

From BackCover:
A MAN POSSESSED

If there was truly a devil who could lure and seduce the innocent, Lord Sloan Treveryan was that man. Captain of the Sea Hawk and bound to the king's business, he might have been a lord but he was no gentleman. He carried Brianna off to America and branded her with a love she could never forget, never escape, yet he refused to take her as his wife.

A WOMAN WHOSE BEAUTY DROVE MEN TO MADNESS

Bewitched by her beauty, the Scottish inquisitors called Brianna MacCardle the devil's own. Only Treveryan could save her. But how could she be grateful? He'd claimed her as his own and taken her innocence. She vowed he wouldn't take her heart. Defiantly, she fought him. Against her will she loved him, swearing to reap revenge against the arrogant lord who made her the... ( )