Astray

Wavesongs #1

by Elvira Bell

Nick Andrews has grown up in poverty in a tiny village. All his life he’s been told that he’s useless. After getting one scolding too many he decides to go far away, off to sea. But his experience as a farmhand has done little to prepare him for the hardships of a sailor’s life.

When his ship is attacked by pirates, Nick’s life is miraculously spared by the notorious pirate captain, Christopher Hart—a man in charge of a crew feared for their brutality. Nick is forced to join the pirates, and he dreads finding out for what reason the captain has saved him.

But Hart is nothing like his reputation suggests, and Nick soon finds himself entangled in a relationship that could endanger both their lives. Unless Nick can help Hart on his quest to find a long lost treasure, their forbidden love may tear his new life apart.

Warning: This book ends with a cliffhanger, and it does not have a happy ending. The series as a whole will have a HEA ending.

Content note: This book contains dark themes and depictions of torture, murder, and rape.

Genres: Historical, Dark, Pirates, Romance, M M Romance

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2018

About the author

Elvira Bell lives in Sweden and spends most of her time writing, reading or watching movies. Her weaknesses include, but are not limited to: vintage jazz, musicals, kittens, oversized tea cups, men in suits, the 18th century, and anything sparkly.

Elvira writes m/m romance and has a penchant for historical settings. She adores all things gothic and will put her characters through hell from time to time because she just loves watching them suffer. It makes the happy endings so much sweeter, after all.

Reviews

[Lost in a Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

*Deep Breath* THIS ENDS ON A EPICALLY MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER!!



I’m not one of those readers that like can handle a cliffhanger. I’ll eventually read it but I always wait until a series is complete so I can move on to the next book. Immediately. My motto has never been patience is virtue. But you know what I’m even more peeved about besides a surprise cliffhanger??? That I actually really liked this book. I was swept away into the land of pirates and at the end it’s all…



Note: This book now contains a cliffhanger warning on Goodreads.

Alright, I’m done being whiny and dramatic so let’s do this.

Astray is set in the 1700’s and begins with Nick at home living with his family. He’s a dreamer which provides more frustration for his family as they are poor and Nick’s another mouth to feed. He leaves home in search of the same open seas his father once sailed. He quickly learns that being on a ship isn’t a place for dreamers but he can’t return home. Soon, his ship is overtaken by pirates and the Pirate Captain, Christopher Hart spares his life.

Christopher Hart is the mercurial captain of the Victory. The pirates are terrors of the sea, brutal in obtaining bounty, and they’re in search of the ultimate long lost treasure. Captain Hart has quite the reputation and Nick gets first hand knowledge of the merciless man. Christopher brings Nick to his ship where he must find his place if he wants to survive. Captain Hart begins asking Nick to complete small tasks in his cabin and over time, lines are crossed and boundaries in private become non-existent. Nick is enamored with Hart and Hart confuses Nick with his public versus private persona.

The crew is uneasy with the developing closeness of the two men and circumstances become more dangerous. Hart must prove himself to the pirates and we get to follow along on their journey full of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

Hart and Nick are opposites. Nick’s laid back, needy for affection, and trying to find himself. Hart is commanding yet insecure, on a quest for validation, and obsessive about Nick. I felt the connection even though their relationship was very rocky and they spent so much time apart.

The world building is thorough and drew me in. The secondary characters are endearing and entertaining. Goldie. Oh Goldie, I love him and would like his story any way I could get it. This is a dark and gritty read. They are pirates that do piratey things while living and dying by their articles.



There were some areas for improvement IMO. There are many time lapses without notation or even a line break from one sentence to the next. Sometimes these were happening in the middle of conversation or action so I’m *assuming* the scene was a fade to black? There were also times when the pacing was slow and parts dragged and on the other hand, parts where there should have been character/relationship development but it was rushed/lacking.

I enjoyed the world Astray allowed me to escape to. I’ll continue with the series but... I’ll be waiting until it’s complete before moving on to the next book. Recommended for fans of ruthless pirates and all that entails.

Copy provided for honest review.

[Jennifer☠Pher☠ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avast Ye! Savvy...?

No, probably not, me either really but it sounds cool to talk like a Pirate especially when reviewing a Pirate book and this me hearties, was a Pirate book, one with warnings.

It’s almost impossible for me to rate and review this withougt talking about the warnings so I need to get that out of the way first. They truly had a huge effect on me.

So, let’s talk about the first warning:

Warning: This book ends with a cliffhanger, and it does not have a happy ending. The series as a whole will have a HEA ending.

I could have done without this one. I know some people need to know this information. I am not saying I don’t need to know this but in this case I feel it is on the verge of spoilery. When I didn’t have the internet I had no idea how a book would end and really, I didn’t want someone to tell me how it would end. This kind of hung over me the entire read. I was just waiting for the cliffhanger and I was wondering what the non HEA would be. So, I am on the fence about how I feel about this “warning”. I don’t know how many books the author plans for this series but, let’s say it is three, I already have a spoiler for book two, yes?

The next warning I would normally be more appreciative of and truly, had it been in the blurb before I requested this book I would not have requested this book.

Content note: This book contains dark themes and depictions of torture, murder, and rape.

I don’t want to read dark themes and I especially don’t want to read about rape. But, had I chosen to skip this book based on the warning, well, that would have been bad. I really enjoyed the book. I am, in this case, glad I didn’t see this warning prior to my request. I did end up seeing it before I started the book and I was scared out of my mind. Really. I am glad I pushed through my fright though; this was a really good book.

Whew. Ok. Let’s talk about the book.

Well, shiver me timbers! I am really surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. There was a lot, I mean A LOT that is just not my thing, but I was not bothered by any of it. I am really intrigued I guess and that is just pushing my normal hang-ups right out the window. I don’t know yet how I feel about Nick or Christopher but I want to know them better. No, I need to know them better. Christopher even more than Nick honestly. I am very concerned about his state of mind. Very.

So, like I said at the beginning. This is pretty much the most pirate-y Pirate book I have ever read. Pirates are not good people. They are not nice people. Actually, they are pretty fucking bad people who do really bad things. You got that in this book. I mean, they are still people and aren’t bad every second, but yeah, they are bad. Bad things happened. Some really bad, heed the warnings friends. But through all of that there is a story. There are a lot of characters. There is a lot of past. There are a lot of unknowns and my God I have a lot of questions.

To wrap up, warnings can be good and they can be bad. For this book, I am glad that I didn’t know about them. I truly would have missed out on a pretty great book. Oh and yeah, I am dying for more.

Oh! And this, matelotage, FASCINATING.

Pirate translations http://www.playcrossbones.com/Pirate_...

**ARC provided by IndiGo Marketing & Design in exchange for an honest review.**

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

3.75 stars

I love me some pirates. I’m not sure why given their propensity for lawlessness and parrot puns, but they’ve been a fascination for me since childhood. So I was definitely looking forward to Astray. In some ways, it’s an excellent book and in others, it’s a bit of a train wreck. Let’s start with the strong points, shall we? Astray does a wonderful job stripping away the romance of life at sea. Nick’s struggles are portrayed realistically and his misery is palpable. He is a man without options though and his resiliency is part of what makes his character interesting. It’s hard to grasp the emotions of both Nick and Christopher. They seem like automatons at times and more flesh and blood at others. So while they’re both intriguing characters, they aren’t always relatable. This has a negative effect on their romance as well. It never makes much sense why Christopher and Nick are together or how they came to love one another. It just sort of happens and as readers we’re expected to accept it.

The story of Astray, which represents the first in a series, is relatively developed and the basic structure is strong. The hunt for buried treasure and a missing map is somewhat passé, but it’s a dependable trope if nothing else. The pacing is problematic, however. Astray flows exceptionally well during its first and last quarters. But the middle half is laggy and overly burdened with extraneous activity. There’s a lot of going back and forth to bars and wandering beaches. Whole sections of Astray could have been removed without affecting the wider narrative.

Read Sue’s review in its entirety here.

[Santy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really have conflicted feelings about this book.

On one hand I liked reading about pirates and how they functioned back in the day but on the other hand, it didn’t save this book from being quite boring despite the interesting premise.

This book had the potential for so much more with the story and characters(both the villains and the friendly characters) but that potential was hardly met. Pierce, Jasper, Grey and Goldie are examples of characters that needed to be milked for all their worth and not just glossed over or used sparingly.

Also, even after how many pages, I knew Christopher as well as Nick did, which was: not so well. You would have thought that for someone as mercurial as Christopher, he would at least have some redeeming qualities but all I could think of in that sense was “at least he cares for Nick...I think.”

Sure, we got day by day breakdowns of what happens to Nick and the crew & I get that it was meant to show his growth from a village boy to a pirate but it made for such booooring reading . I kept waiting for something else to happen for a majority of the story but nothing happened aside the usual.

We only got some action after 96% and THEN the story ended on a cliffhanger. I was not amused at all. At this point, I don’t know whether I’m more frustrated or irritated.

All I know is that I feel I deserved a proper ending after reading the whole book but alas,I couldn’t even get that.

***ARC provided by Indigo Marketing & Design In Exchange For An Honest , Unbiased Review ***

[Leyna]

I love the cover *.*

http://mmgoodbookreviews.com/astray-b...

[Mari Cardenas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars!

First of all, read the warnings. This book ends on a cliffhanger, a bad one, not that any cliffhangers are good, but this one was especially jarring. This is a pirate book, and as we all know, pirates are not good people, so there's lots of graphic violence and torture. This is just a heads-up, if you're fine with both of those, by all means, pick this book up or if you prefer to wait until the series is done, you can do that, too.

Astray gives us a very realistic, pretty accurate portrayal of pirates and life on a pirate ship. While Captain Christopher Hart was a somewhat more benevolent master, the same couldn't be said for Pierce, his quartermaster and the ones loyal to him and his unquenchable thirst for blood plays a big part in the story. The camaraderie between shipmates contrasted with the violence against the ships they encountered on their path or even Pierce's glee when he had to deliver a punishment to one of the men.

At 20, Nick was younger than most and more innocent, and maybe because of that, it was easy to believe that he'd fall so fast for the captain, after realizing such things were possible between two men. Captain Hart was a tougher sell for me. I wasn't too sure about him, what with the way he was all hot and cold with Nick and his past with Pierce. He seemed less psycho than Pierce, but it actually took Nick pointing out that he didn't need to agree with Pierce on everything for him to actually stand up to him. I liked how Christopher and Nick were together, Nick seemed to bring Christopher out into the light.

I loved that Goldie took Nick under his wing and getting to know the rest of the men who were friendly to him. But Goldie was definitely my favorite. *cries* Pierce was a horrible man and I really hope he'll get his comeuppance in a very gruesome way.

Other than the fact that I hate cliffhangers with the passion of a thousand suns and that it's likely that I'll just wait to read the rest of the series when it's completed, this was a really good read. Different and darker than I usually pick up, but well-written and entertaining, so if you don't mind the cliffhanger, I have no trouble recommending it.

*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***

[Stacey Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was provided by the author via IndiGo Marketing & Design in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I love stories with pirates, and this is a good one. Nick, who is 20, is on a ship that is taken over by the pirate captain, Nicholas Hart and his crew. It's a good depiction of pirates because they are vicious and bloody when they attack. But when it comes to their crew, they are loyal to each other and take care of each other. Although there are bad seeds among them and mutiny is always a possibility. There are definitely interesting side characters who help carry the story along and create interesting subplots. Captain Heart, or Chris, what Nick eventually calls him, is an interesting character with many sides to him is a lot older than Nick. They have to hide their relationship at first, especially from Chris' former lover who is aware of what is going on and is not at all happy he's been replaced. This becomes a major twist in the story. There is a lot of action aboard the ship, hot sex. Lots of scheming, mutiny, fighting, and true love. There are very likable characters and characters you like to hate. It does end in a cliffhanger but it leaves you desperately wanting to find out what happens next. Fortunately the second book is already out so you can have it ready to pick up, and it starts where this one leaves off. If you like pirates, this is definitely one to read.

[RjS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this 18th century-set story.

It seemed to me to have an excellent sense of time and place. It wasn’t a romanticized view of pirates which I appreciated but there is definitely a romance - and a huge cliffhanger! (I was reading these stories as they were being written and the gaps between the books was agonizing!)

Nick is a well-developed character from the start, Christopher seems less so at first but does develop gradually. I thought many of the secondary characters were drawn well - two in particular stole my heart and the author then casually stomped on it. Life as a pirate was indeed ‘nasty, brutish and short.’

[Laura ~Passion flower]

Astray (Wavesongs, #1) (ARC) was graciously provided to me by Indigo Marketing & Design for an honest review. Review to follow.

[Ekollon]

Note to self: apparently this is a cliffhanger, so wait until the later books are released to read it.

[Riina Y.T.]

DNF after SAMPLE.