The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody

The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the third book by Colette Moody that I’ve reread – and each of Moody’s three books improved on rereading. Like this one here, the pirate one, I found to have a lot more detail in it that I had recalled. I believe I might have initially read this one too quickly – still enjoyed it on first read, but read it too quickly.

Right, so – the action takes place in various locations in or near the Caribbean Sea. Florida (St. Augustine), Cuba, Jamaica (Kingston, Port Royal (which is actually just across a stretch of water from Kingston)), Bahamas, Santo Domingo (in what is now the Dominican Republic). And the Berry Islands (just north of Bahamas). Action took place during a few months in 1702.

And that action? A pirate ship, the Original Sin is attacked by a military ship and the captain is injured. With the doctor killed in the same action, the crew (and daughter Gayle Malvern, who takes over as acting captain) need to find a doctor. A few are tasked with heading to the nearby coast of Florida to find the lucky fella. Instead they find Celia Pierce, who just happened to be visiting her doctor fiancée – that fella was in the backroom but is quite the coward and hid while the pirates were there. Since Celia is a seamstress, and the doctor apparently is in some other town, the pirates ‘make-do’ with the seamstress.

Dark haired Celia and fiery haired Gayle go to work on Captain Mad Malvern, and the rest of the injured crew. Then start sailing around – dropping Captain pops at a particular tavern where the ex-ship doctor is currently residing. Ex-doctor will tend to injured captain, while the ship bounces around the region. First mission: retrieve a captured sister of another doctor – a doctor who had been following her from England and is willing to work aboard the pirate ship if they go get his sister. And then more fun and exciting things occur as Celia and Gayle take a cruise around a very small portion of the Caribbean (months apart in sailing time, but just a tiny bit of the Caribbean Sea).

There’s much humor, action, romance, and graphic depictions of sex to be found within the pages. Quite fun all around. And the humor was not just reserved for the ‘good characters’ – like, for example, a few bits dribbled out of others. Like right in the beginning with the feckless doctor who talks about his attempts to woo women in Spanish Florida when he himself only knows English (‘luckily’ for him, there’s a British fella there who married a Spanish woman and had an offspring – that being Celia, making her half British and half Spanish).

It was astoundingly difficult to woo a lady who thought he was either trying to purchase a chicken or a few tomatoes from her, or ask her for directions.

And while there’s no real romance between Celia and Philip (the doctor), there’s much humor to be found in their interactions. Like when Philip calls Celia his cabbage. And she calls him on it – and he is so dim it takes him a while to understand she’s being sarcastic.

”I find you attractive as well, my cabbage.”

She fought her natural urge to grimace at his unpleasant metaphor. “Cabbage? Might you compare me to a vegetable with a slightly more palatable smell?”

His brow furrowed. “My little . . . mushroom?”

“You would liken me to a fungus?” Celia laughed. “Such wooing, sir. You might make my heart burst within my breast.”

Phillip eyed her with belated suspicion. “Are you mocking me?”

“I? Your devoted mushroom dares not,” Celia replied insincerely. “Were I perhaps a potato or a leek, however, I would be brimming with mockery. They, sir, are victuals of the trickiest sort and are not to be trusted.”

But the humor is not just limited to Phillips and people talking around him (which is good, since he isn’t the main character and is rarely in the book). The humor with Celia by herself, or between Celia and Gayle is also quite good. Like when Celia, after waking up hung-over, asked what happened the night before between herself and Gayle . . .

”Did we…” She jumbled her fingers chaotically together in some sort of peculiar, yet demonstrative hand gesture.

“Milk an animal of some kind?”

Right, so, many more moments of humor – better in context, I’m sure, than randomly strewn about my review here.

As mentioned – this is the third book I’ve reread by Moody – and all three improved with rereading. ‘Parties in Congress’ rose from 4.5 (since bumped to 5) stars to 6 stars (and top tier) on reread; while ‘The Seduction of Moxie’ moved from 4.5 stars up to 4.25 stars. Wait. Mmphs. Okay, so now that I actually look at the ratings, they did not actually all improve on rereading. Mmphs. Probably due to all the vomiting, diarrhea, and nastiness* in Seduction that knocked it down a little (* yes, instead of firing your agent – poison him). This book here, ‘Sublime’, was rated 4.75 on first read and 5+ on second read (which rearranges the order of ‘favorite Moody books’ – had been 1) Sublime, 2) Parties; 3) Seduction; and is now 1) Parties; 2) Sublime; 3) Seduction.

Rating: 5+

January 12 2018



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