The Pirate's Booty by Alex Westmore

The Pirate's Booty
by Alex Westmore
Pages: 301
Date: October 19 2015
Publisher: Broad Winged Books
Series: The Plundered Chronicles (first in the series)

Review
Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0
Read: January 7 to January 8 2016

A fun exciting pirate story set mostly in the Irish seas and the Atlantic off the coast of Scotland, Portugal, and Morocco.

Quinn witnessed her friend being kidnapped and taken aboard a ship. Based on a childhood promise made between them, and a third child, Quinn immediately gets passage on the next ship to arrive at the port to try to track down the kidnapped friend named Shea.

For various reasons Patrick joins Quinn on the quest, Patrick being a brother. Maybe the only brother, I'm not sure if the cast of siblings was gone over in the book. Patrick and Quinn were trained since childhood to protect themselves with swords, and to speak several languages (French, Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, English, and Latin). Patrick, or Paddy, is more geared for the soft life and not that good with tongue or sword. Quinn, though, seemed born to be a dashing pirate, bouncing around and having manly adventures on the high seas. Plundering, attacking, fighting, and bedding many a woman.

The women are quite taken with the boyishly handsome Quinn. There's probably more to it than this, but a large portion of the women’s happiness at seeing and being with Quinn is how much more interested Quinn is in them, and in pleasing them. The other rough dirty pirates are more likely to grab at them or make crude comments.

And bed them Quinn does. More than one woman is quite pleased by the experience, as Quinn is quite good at giving pleasure. Licking or teasing to pleasure.

While I got distracted there, Quinn doesn’t get distracted from the mission of trying to find Shea. The ship Paddy and Quinn joined is captained by one of the few female pirate captains on the seas, a Grace O’Malley – based on a real life woman. Grace and crew bounce around the seas, attacking English ships, taxing them or killing them, as fortune prefers. One of the people they bounce into is one Francis Drake, another figure from the history books. Drake and Grace seemed tied together – in that one or the other always seems to be attempting to ‘run down’ the other and destroy them.

So, the book unfolds with Quinn learning what can be learned from the position of a pirate. Learned about finding Shea, I mean, though learning to be freed from the constraints tightly binding them from their prior situation in live is also learnt. Which leads directly to something probably already known by someone reading this review, but which I’ve been purposely avoiding as best (or poorly) as I could. Namely the nature of Quinn’s gender.

For Quinn is an Irish noblewoman living in the sixteenth century. Her place in society is tightly restricted. And, frankly, boring. She must ask permission, basically, to do anything. From a father, or, assumptions lead, from a husband if one were forced upon her. For that is likely what would happen – a marriage of some convenience or another, to strengthen the family fortunes, as opposed to a marriage of love or the like. She finds the act of pretending to be a man, a pirate, to be quite liberating and freeing.

If I recall correctly, I believe this is the second female pirate book I’ve read. This one felt like it had a deeper connection to history, while the other had humor. There were a few funny moments here or there, but this wasn’t intended to be a humor book.

Solid cast of characters and story. Quite enjoyable.

January 8 2016