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Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9781602020894 ISBN: 1602020892 Label: Linden Bay Romance Manufacturer: Linden Bay Romance Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 194 Publication Date: January 15, 2008 Publisher: Linden Bay Romance Release Date: January 15, 2008 Studio: Linden Bay Romance Editorial Review: Product Description: Ambitious and handsome, Joshua Andrews had always valued his life too much to take unnecessary risks. Then he laid eyes on the elegant picture of perfection that is Peter Kenyon. Soon to be promoted to captain, Peter Kenyon is the darling of the Bermuda garrison. With a string of successes behind him and a suitable bride lined up to share his future, Peter seems completely out of reach to Joshua. But when the two men are thrown together to serve during a long voyage under a sadistic commander with a mutinous crew, they discover unexpected friendship. As the tension on board their vessel heats up, the closeness they feel for one another intensifies and both officers find themselves unable to rein in their passion. Let yourself be transported back to a time when love between two men in the British Navy was punishable by death, and to a story about love, about honor, but most of all, about a Captain-s Surrender. Related Items:      see moreAverage Rating:
 Rating: - Intelligent, adult, accurate -- and hot!It's rare but wonderful to run across a book that's written by an adult, for an adult. This is no X-rated Disney fantasy about horny sailors--the dangers men faced are apparent from page 1. Beecroft's research is excellent, the characters are believable, and though there's not a lot of explicit sex, the passion is powerfully evident. One of the better m/m books I've read, definitely one of the top 10 m/m historical stories. But if you're looking for fluff and fantasy, don't bother--this is a serious piece of writing. Rating:  - Didn't Believe the RomanceI had high (perhaps too high) expectations for this novel, and ordered it expecting a high seas naval romance. The author can obviously tell a story, but I felt no genuine emotional investment between the two main characters. And it took Kenyan until the end of the book to decide to be happy with Andrews, rather than do what was expected of him. Understandable given the laws at that time, but still. I was disappointed but maybe the book is too cerebral for this reviewer. Rating: - AFRAID OF LIVING, SCARED OF DYINGCaptain's SurrenderThat is the life Joshua Andrews must live, his turmoil really heats up when he meets Peter Kenyon. What starts out as friendship, develops into love, yet Peter seems to be unaware of Joshua's anxiety. Peter thinks they are just exploring their curiosity until he takes his place in society, but events changes his view of how he really feels. The story's pace is a little slow, but the emotional drama more than makes up for that. Very enjoyable for anyone who likes gay historical. Rating: - What a SurrenderThe year is 1779 and if you are serving on a ship in this era the Captain is God, or at least he thinks and acts like a deity. The Nimrod's tyrannical Captain is pretty horrible by all accounts. He wants every man on board ship to know who the boss is by terrorizing and beating his crew into submission; if any of them fail to give him the absolute obedience he demands they pay the ultimate price. The first scene in the book is horrific - a hanging that the Captain makes everyone watch, even the youngest members of the crew who are barely into their teens. The sin for which the poor sailor is hanged is sodomy which is punishable by death. But fear not my hearties the story gets a little more upbeat from here on with the arrival on board the Nimrod of the new First Lieutenant, Peter Kenyon. When Peter meets midshipman Josh Andrews for the first time it is not earth shattering lust immediately and they start out as friends, but Josh does fall hopelessly in love with his roommate whom the Captain very cleverly puts in Josh's sights as bait. He suspects Josh's sexual orientation and hopes to catch him in the act so that he can have the pleasure of another hanging. The relationship between the two men starts off very slowly as both are afraid of the consequences, if caught, and in addition Peter does not believe that he is gay while Josh is absolutely sure of his own sexual orientation. There is no action between the sheets until half way into the book and for me to become so immersed in the story without any overt sex is testament to the writer's skill in weaving such a wonderful tale of men at sea. The unspoken understanding and caring between Peter and Josh with just heated glances as they embark on their romance was wonderfully done and for Peter it was a step into unchartered waters. In the masterful telling of this tale Alex Beecroft made me believe that I was actually on the Nimrod riding the waves with those unhappy midshipmen. The sustained beatings for minor misdemeanors may have been brutal but I suppose they were historically true of the era and made the story more authentic. What really impressed me was the amount of painstaking detail in the book about every aspect of life on board the Nimrod, and I found it remarkable that the writer did not shy away from the blood and gore. Since I'm not an expert on the period I could not judge its accuracy but it seemed real to me - the author must have done an incredible amount of research to make this book feel as genuine as it did. It is difficult to believe that this is Ms Beecroft's first book as she is a mistress at the art of world building and sets the stage wonderfully for our two protagonists. WOW! I have lost my ability to articulate, or to put it simply, words fail me. Captain's Surrender shattered any preconceived biases or notions I might have had about historical romances, particularly those involving men at sea, as I was absolutely captivated and transported to the Age of Sail. The characterizations were very realistic although I loved Josh more than Peter who seemed a bit dim and selfish when it came to matters of the heart. Peter is determined to marry a suitable woman who would bear his children and he does not understand how much he is hurting Josh. When he almost loses him in battle he realizes how much Josh really means to him. The author uses the minor characters in a way I have seldom seen and they add to the story rather than detract from it as at times I was able to glimpse the action through their eyes. For the genre there is not a whole lot of sex in the book, instead it is a true action adventure and a romance in every sense of the word - from the first meeting between the Peter and Josh, through their fumbling attempts at sex, separations, war, serious injury and ultimatums. There is so much more to the book but I would be a spoiler if I elaborated any further. Captain's Surrender surpasses genre - it is a superb story that would rank up there with any mainstream book, and the story is what drew me in kept me enthralled until the very last page. It would be remiss of me not to add my voice to others who decried the awful cover with which this book was saddled and I hope that future stories by this author will be given better treatment. Run, don't walk to your nearest bookstore or e-book retailer to purchase a copy of Captain's Surrender. For those readers who would like a bit more sex in the book there is a free story called INSUBORDINATION on the Linden Bay and Ms Beecroft's websites which detail the further sexual adventures of our heroes. Rating: - Beautiful.I almost didn't buy this book. The cover was a decided turn-off. But then I read some enthusiastic reviews for it and finally had to read the book for myself, to know if it was really that good. It is. The cover might lead you to believe this is just another raunchy, endless-sex-scene-every-other-page gay "romance" (emphasis not so much on the romance). Ignore the cover! It doesn't even come close to living up to the story within. Captain's Surrender is a romance for those of us who are unabashedly romantic at heart and know a good love story when we read it. From first glance, Joshua falls head over heels with Peter, and so did I. Peter's handsome, as well as immediately likeable. But he's also wonderfully flawed--a little arrogant and too placidly confident that he always knows what's expected of him and that he's entirely capable of living up to everyone's expectations, including his own. It takes a self-aware and emotional man like Joshua to shake Peter to the core and upset his tidy world-view. Joshua's the wiser, but more vulnerable in a way, because he is afraid to let himself think he's capable of falling in love. He has seen himself as something perverse for so long, his feelings for Peter are a revelation--and his vulnerability in that regard endears him utterly to the reader. He falls first and falls hard--and the reader hopes desperately with him that his love doesn't go unrequited. Peter's got plenty to deal with, himself, in trying to fend off both a potential mutiny aboard ship and the matchmaking efforts of a friend hoping to marry off his only child to the dashing, eligible lieutenant. Usually I dislike female characters in gay romance novels. They are usually either obnoxious BFFs of the main characters or they are overbearing relatives, usually moms who can't quit meddling. In Captain's Surrender, I am happy to say that Emily was a breath of fresh, feminine air. She was independent without being obnoxious about it, and still innocent and vulnerable without being the damsel-in-distress. She came across like a real woman of her time period and I liked her and rooted for her and wondered how the author would work it out that no hearts ended up broken. One particular appeal of this novel is that it does have its unpredictable twists. Just when you think it will go a certain way, it goes another, and keeps you reading to find out where the new path will lead. All the characters, including secondary ones, are so well-rounded, I could easily visualize them and understand what drove each one, even when their mindsets led them to choices that were maddening or exasperating. That's another strength of the book. The author's characters live in *their* world, in their time period, and they respond to each other and the rest of society accordingly. It makes for some powerfully affecting and interesting situations, particularly for Peter. One other thing I must mention--if you love lyrical prose and description that makes another time period come to life all around you as you read--then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. I adored the descriptions of time and place. The author can turn a phrase with that kind of rare beauty that makes you want to stop for an instant and re-read just to savor the way it is written. There was very little I didn't like about the book. One thing I would've liked more of was the developing relationship between Josh and Peter early on. The author gives some of it in a flashback-y way that, while evocative and romantic, only left me wishing for more details of their courtship, as secret as it was and had to be. I also had some trouble following a lot of the nautical terms, but this is the first real sea story I've ever read, apart from YA books twenty years ago, so I am not up on the lingo. More experienced readers would probably follow it just fine. It was a little too much for me and I had to do some re-reading to figure out what was going on in the big battle scenes. The depth and care with which details are included do immerse you wonderfully into the story. I am also extremely appreciative of certain details left out, namely long, graphic sex scenes. The intimacy in Captain's Surrender is tender, sexy, sweet, and just exactly right. One more thing--in case the publisher reads Amazon author reviews. Dear Linden Bay: How about a romantic, elegant, beautiful cover to go with a romantic, elegant, beautiful book? You are obviously capable of signing up first-class writers. It'd be great if you provided covers worthy of their stories. You might also want to look more closely at the formatting, because it was somewhat off in places, in the copy I received. |
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