The Winds of Fate by Elizabeth St. Michel

The story starts off with our h, Claire, who is an orphan and has been living with her cook (named Cookie 😊) and her cousin,Lily. And I’m glad I didn’t because usually I get a little wary of pirate and adventure stories as I am not a fan of bodice rippers, so boy was I glad that this wasn’t a bodice ripper. I was in the mood for a moc story so I came upon this by chance, I didn’t read any reviews before I started reading this. A plague strikes the island, the Spanish attack and a French pirate tries to capture Claire. There are lots of twists and turns as Devon turns pirate and becomes wealthy, commanding his own ship. Most of the book takes place in the Caribbean and for most of that the hero and heroine are squabbling. (She is balanced by her wise, bookish cousin, Lily.) The hero, Devon Blackmon, is a London physician of Irish origin who gets swept up in the king’s raid on a nest of rebels. The heroine, Claire Hamilton, is flighty and impulsive. It is set in the late 17th century, but reads more like a Regency with glib banter and lots of hyperbole. While the plot is similar to Shanna (both heroines end up on a Caribbean isle where the hero, who has survived Newgate, is sold as a slave and demands his conjugal rights from the heroine), this is a very different book in the writing style, the characters’ personalities and in some of the later story developments. This is from the back cover blurb of Shanna: 'Behind the walls of Newgate Prison a secret pact is sealed, as a condemned man consents to wed a beautiful, free-spirited heiress thereby rescuing her from an unwanted arranged union.' So I grabbed Shanna off the shelf and discovered I was right. Shanna! It is one of my favorites by Kathleen Woodiwiss. The first thing I noticed as I began to read this was that I recognized the plot.

Wildly untrusting on both sides, they struggle to navigate their newfound positions-until Blackmon seizes a chance to escape, soon rising to fame as the Black Devil Pirate, commanding his Caribbean kingdom and striking fear in the crowned heads of Europe.īut the outlaw is not finished with Claire yet, as their paths eventually cross once again and Blackmon takes her captive.Ĭaught in a war between France, England, and their own hearts, will Claire and Blackmon survive? In retaliation, Claire is banished to the wild outpost of Jamaica, where on impulse she buys a slave of her own, only to discover that she has inadvertently bought her own husband-a move that does anything but endear him to his new “wife.”įorced together in order to fight the deadly plague ravaging the island, Claire and Blackmon slowly develop a forbidden friendship that neither expected. Devon Blackmon, a prisoner in Newgate Prison.

Claire Hamilton will do anything to avoid marrying the vile duke to whom her uncle has her betrothed-including marrying convicted felon Dr.

The Winds of Fate by Elizabeth St. Michel