The Ransom

The Ransom
Legacy of the King's Pirates, Book 4
Marylu Tyndall
(Marylu Tyndall Books)
ISBN: 978-0991092123
March 2014/412 pages/$14.48
Port Royal, Jamaica 1692

Living in a city deemed the wickedest in the world is no easy task for Miss Juliana Dutton. To make matters worse, with an ailing father and a drunken fool for a brother, she is forced to take over the running of the family business in order to survive. When a meddlesome suitor threatens to discover her secret and cast them all onto the streets, she agrees to a spurious engagement with the town buffoon, Lord Munthrope. She only hopes the man is trustworthy.

The Pirate Earl, Alexander Hyde, son of the infamous Captain Edmund Merrick Hyde, is the most feared pirate in Port Royal. Disillusioned with the religion of his parents and the pleasures of the world, Alex staves off his emptiness by leading a dual life to hide his deepest secrets.

A long-time enemy is out to destroy Alex and take Juliana for his own. Struggling to maintain her faith in the Divine, Juliana faces her problems bravely, but the harder she tries, the more it seems everything is working against her. Unwittingly, she and her weak fiancé become entangled in the hostility between the Pirate Earl and his enemy, while even more dangerous forces are rising up to destroy them all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Christy Award finalist, MaryLu Tyndall dreamt of tall ships and swashbuckling heroes during her childhood years on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. She holds a degree in Math and worked as a software engineer for fifteen years. Trapped in a land-locked cubicle, she was often seen pounding furiously upon the keyboard during her lunch hour, creating what would become her Legacy of the King’s Pirates series, all the while believing God’s promise to her that. “If you write it, I will get it published”. And He did! Fourteen books later, her loving husband and six children still haven’t gotten used to her historic costumes and nautical speech. MaryLu describes herself as an introvert, patriot, mother of six, the neighborhood cat-lady, tall ship enthusiast, friend of pirates and mermaids, obsessive compulsive control freak, history lover, hopeless romantic, and a sword wielding princess-warrior of the King of Kings. Her books are filled with adventure and romance and themes that are guaranteed to touch your heart! She continues to pen her romantic tales on the California coast while managing a home, husband, six adult kids, and several stray cats who have decided that her keyboard is the best place to sleep! She believes that without popcorn and chocolate, life would not be worth living, and her sole motivation in life is to bring others closer to God.

Learn more at her website.


MY THOUGHTS

Oh. My. MaryLu Tyndall pulls out all the stops in this standalone sequel to her Legacy of the King's Pirates series and the resulting adventure held me captive from start to finish. Brilliant character portrayals combine with breathless action and a setting so real that I could almost smell the dank air of the wharves and hear the splash of the waves. No one pens an adventure quite like Tyndall and I'm always a bit surprised that the pages aren't damp or gritty with salt by the time I'm through. I ached for all that Juliana Dutton experiences as she endures one hardship after another, all the time endeavoring to do enough good deeds to earn the approval from God that she never receives from her father. Incredibly determined, compassionate, and brave but not always wise, Juliana naively and repeatedly places herself in dangerous situations and finds herself in the company of the mysterious and fearsome Pirate Earl. Her heart wasn't the only one pounding as I was turning the pages as fast as I could read! In the midst of the mayhem, Lord Munthrope's bumbling rhymes provides a bit of comic relief, and the children at the orphanage where Juliana serves in memory of her mother tugged at my heart. A startling and magnificent conclusion made me gasp, as did the historical Afterword. One of Tyndall's finest novels, this will be on my keeper shelf. Highly recommended!


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from MaryLu Tyndall. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”