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Raised by Wolves #1
Brethren
John Williams, the Viscount of Marsdale, libertine, duelist, dilettante, haphazard philanthropist and philosopher, is asked by his estranged father to start a plantation in Jamaica in 1667. He doesn't realize that he is going to the right island for the wrong reasons until he meets buccaneers and learns he has far more in common with the wild Brethren of the Coast than he does with the nobility of Christendom. Still, he questions joining them and leaving his title and the plantation behind, until he meets Gaston the Ghoul, a mysterious French buccaneer who is purportedly mad. He quickly decides that the freedom of the buccaneer life and even the mere chance of love that a man such as Gaston might offer are better than anything he could ever inherit. But even though Gaston seems intrigued by him, can the crazy Frenchman ever love him?
541 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
49 people are currently reading
3233 people want to read
About the author
W.A. Hoffman
8 books104 followersW. A. Hoffman, aka Wynette A. Hoffman, is a middle-aged white woman of English/Welsh/Irish descent (with a little German and Spanish to add flavor). Born in March, 1964. Married for 16 years. A geek: comic book collector, movie fanatic, anime watcher, gamer, MMORPG player (multi-box World of Warcraft.) Lives in a big suburban tri-level in Aurora, Colorado, with two German Shepherd Dogs, two Siamese cats, and a pod of gerbils. She don't have any children. She drives a station wagon. She's allergic to soy and alcohol. She used to be an IT manager; before that she was an administrative assistant. Now she just writes. (That doesn't mean you can make a living at this: it just means she married well.)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
October 31, 2011
My favorite m/m books of all time. Are they perfect? No. Are they long? Yes. Is there straight sex in them? Sure. It doesn't matter. This entire series blew me away. There's times I was angry, times I was sobbing. There were times I thought Ms. Hoffman was fucking with me personally given how she carried the characters. It doesn't matter. Every single book is epic. Every single book is badass. I've read each one so many times that I've lost count. And that is the end of my fanboy gush.
April 20, 2009
Pirate Romance. This is basically every pirate AU ever; in particular, the AU where gay pirates mate for life and spend a lot of time doing improbable things in hammocks in between killing people and having emotional problems. The first hundred pages aren't exciting or even necessary, so if you're trying to read this, go ahead and skim or just skip right to Jamaica. Will, our pirate narrator, has a pretty arbitrary set of morals and a weird hangup with classifying everyone as either a sheep or a wolf -- I mean, who does that? Psychopaths, I'd imagine -- and his pirate mate Gaston seems to have no set personality at all, beyond a severe case of PTSD. Together they try to overcome their emotional scars in order to find love and buggery. What I'm saying is that this is a schmoopy, smarmy, piratey romance that reads just like really good badfic. Is that a rec? I don't know, but I'll read the next book in the series. These pirates cry, okay? And cuddle. It's ridiculous, yet compelling.
Three stars for being really gay and piratey.
Three stars for being really gay and piratey.
August 9, 2016
wildly self-indulgent, fully 80 percent discussion, and more or less fun as fuck.
that i am likely to read another half million words of this is all the endorsement you need.
pick this when you want a book that takes a month to read and has pirates in it talking about their feelings in different caribbean settings.
it's long, and sometimes boring; also sexy, heartwarming, and exciting.
both with and without the dysentery.
i have every reason to read anything else but volume two—but i won't.
that i am likely to read another half million words of this is all the endorsement you need.
pick this when you want a book that takes a month to read and has pirates in it talking about their feelings in different caribbean settings.
it's long, and sometimes boring; also sexy, heartwarming, and exciting.
both with and without the dysentery.
i have every reason to read anything else but volume two—but i won't.
July 16, 2015
***This is not a series. This is a single novel divided in 4 volumes.***
I’ve been 6 days reading this book.
I’m not a fast reader, but I’m an avid one. In my defense I must say it is quite long (540 pages) and the density of each one of them was surprisingly heavy.
Furthermore, the MC don’t meet till page 134.
If you are scared at this, please, quit reading and forget about this book.
But if you have curiosity as for why I loved Brethren so much, please, go on.
This book is ambitious in more than one sense. Yeah, it’s a long book. Yeah, the setting is unusual and requires lots of research. Yeah, the MC are not bidimensional, instead a layer and a layer and a layer have been painted, so in the end they are alive and spirited and problematic, because it’s an understatement that it’s not easy to solve conflicts with that level of intelligence and conscience in such characters. It’s marvelous the way the author achieved to build minds and souls like those. Because, you see, Will is not the typical hero. And calling Gaston an anti-hero is a way too simple.
In a certain fashion, this series reminds me of Diana Gabaldon’s one. It could be a coincidence Gaston is red haired, or ¿virgin?, or too scarred to be considered the result of a normal punishment for some mild crime. But he is not the only reason about this reminiscence, I also point to the growth of the characters. They are good bred by the author, they are cared for, they are ALIVE. I said this with awe, because I’m used to well defined characters in m/m, and even well developed, but once or twice I bump into a book like this one and I remember why I didn’t give 5 stars to those. It seems… unfair to do so. It doesn’t make justice to books like this one.
It’s not that the events in the beginning are useless, it’s just that it seems the length of them is excessive. In any case, these chapters serve a purpose: to get to know our hero, Will, because we will definitely not know Gaston at his entire being. So I least we have a person to be intimate with.
Will is an open-minded man who lives against the flow. He doesn't believe in God. He doesn't think women don't have a whole soul. He is raised like a wolf who feels the need to look for his sheep. He is a romantic at heart but it has cost him his soul. His pain is deep and he is still bleeding, but he manages to go on and enjoy the day. But nobody knows him, not really.
Will is nonchalant and carefree, and his inner thoughts are the same: well constructed yet humorous, with the time-honored manner of speaking.
Sometimes it amused me, that way of explaining and being honest and using bigger words than we human in the twenty first century do. But sometimes it makes sense, not only because otherwise it would be anachronistic, but also because his romantic nature and breeding makes sense with the story he is going to start with Gaston. I think their love timeless and atemporal, but also I feel their tale wouldn’t be that heart wrenching and tender, in the naivete this period of time shows in some issues. I believe the epoch makes this story purer, cleaner and fresher, because no pollution comes from outside forces.
I don’t mean to sound metaphysical, sorry if I did.
Now, the plot. But first, I have to say something about this era. The Golden Age of piracy comes between 1680-1720. We are in 1666, before the piracy rush but also in an important age. In this year London was burnt (although not for the first time). In this year the Spanish Empire held most of the colonies in the American continent (well, not Brazil because the union with Portugal ended some decades before), but Jamaica is new in the hands of Englishmen, which is destiny and home for buccaneers, filibusters and raiders.
In Europe, the Christendom is set in most of the territory. Will sells his sword to nobility and rich people in intrigues and conspiracies. He also is involved in more than one a woman trouble. Due to that, he had had to run from several countries and cities, and this is no exception.
Tired of eluding risks and death menaces, he decides to come back home. His family there is… pleasant.
Well, really, I felt more like this.
So his… lovely father makes him take on the responsibility to lead a plantation in Jamaica. Will has no lost love between his relatives, so he gets on board to the West Indies. During the trip he meets interesting people, some of them with important roles afterwards, a few become friends, and others are enemies he must evade for the time being.
Once on land, he discovers a thing or two about buccaneers and he is surprised to find more in common with them than with his peers. As a result, he considers embracing roving.
And that’s when he meets Gaston the Ghoul. Be prepared because the trip will be rough.
Gaston has issues.
He has won a reputation as madness in person. His inner demons are spoken of, but not known about deeply. In a one word:
He is lonely and isolated. He has never thought about the future because there is no future worth living for. In his words, he is alive because he hasn’t died, but not because he is careful to be living. Until he catches Will in the street, and something within him stirs and recognizes him.
One day they meet.
The second day they set fire to a boat.
The third day they aremarried matelots not that forcefully.
Sorry… what is a matelot?
A matelot, my dear, is the gay paradise in the 17th century!
Matelotage is like marriage… between two guys in a boat. They are a couple with whom they share profits, supplies… and carnal benefits. It’s not frowned on, in fact, it’s respected and even worshipped. I fell in love with the concept as well as with the MC. The thing is, it’s so obvious there is something between Will and Gaston that the crew itself assume they are matelots, so theyreluctantly agree.
Gaston doesn’t favor men. But he doesn’t seduce women either. He doesn’t touch, he doesn’t kiss, and of course, he doesn’t sleep with anyone. Will doesn’t like it, not at all.
This book left me breathless. Caput. They make sense together. Caput. I. Want. More. Caput.
Without any kind doubt, one of the best "series" I've ever read in my life.
I’ve been 6 days reading this book.
I’m not a fast reader, but I’m an avid one. In my defense I must say it is quite long (540 pages) and the density of each one of them was surprisingly heavy.
Furthermore, the MC don’t meet till page 134.
If you are scared at this, please, quit reading and forget about this book.
But if you have curiosity as for why I loved Brethren so much, please, go on.
This book is ambitious in more than one sense. Yeah, it’s a long book. Yeah, the setting is unusual and requires lots of research. Yeah, the MC are not bidimensional, instead a layer and a layer and a layer have been painted, so in the end they are alive and spirited and problematic, because it’s an understatement that it’s not easy to solve conflicts with that level of intelligence and conscience in such characters. It’s marvelous the way the author achieved to build minds and souls like those. Because, you see, Will is not the typical hero. And calling Gaston an anti-hero is a way too simple.
In a certain fashion, this series reminds me of Diana Gabaldon’s one. It could be a coincidence Gaston is red haired, or ¿virgin?, or too scarred to be considered the result of a normal punishment for some mild crime. But he is not the only reason about this reminiscence, I also point to the growth of the characters. They are good bred by the author, they are cared for, they are ALIVE. I said this with awe, because I’m used to well defined characters in m/m, and even well developed, but once or twice I bump into a book like this one and I remember why I didn’t give 5 stars to those. It seems… unfair to do so. It doesn’t make justice to books like this one.
“I do not wish to live without you.”
“Nor do I.”
“We will not allow that to happen to us. If we die, we die together.”
“If you feel yourself mortally wounded, you will take me with you?”
“Oui, with my dying breath I will kill you. Will you do the same?”
“I do not know if I could.”
“Neither do I, and if I knew I would die I would want you yo live.”
“And I cannot imagine it without you. So we are back at the beginning.”
“Let us not die.”
“You give me hope.”
“How so?”
“If you can… do anything with a man then there is a chance I can learn how not to… slip into madness at any reminder of it.”
It’s not that the events in the beginning are useless, it’s just that it seems the length of them is excessive. In any case, these chapters serve a purpose: to get to know our hero, Will, because we will definitely not know Gaston at his entire being. So I least we have a person to be intimate with.
Gaston leaned to me during the confusion and hissed, “Damn you, Will, we have not even made it through the soup and already you have threatened a priest and drive them from the house! Are you in such a hurry to return to our room?”
Will is an open-minded man who lives against the flow. He doesn't believe in God. He doesn't think women don't have a whole soul. He is raised like a wolf who feels the need to look for his sheep. He is a romantic at heart but it has cost him his soul. His pain is deep and he is still bleeding, but he manages to go on and enjoy the day. But nobody knows him, not really.
Will is nonchalant and carefree, and his inner thoughts are the same: well constructed yet humorous, with the time-honored manner of speaking.
“They are like beasts,” he said with a tired sigh.
“Oui, two beasts. I think they are quite beautiful. In my eye, men appear at their most powerful when they strain to reach that momentary perfection. Every muscle and sinew is taut, and for them there is nothing else except their bodies and the sensations. Fighting in concert, side by side, it is as if they storm the gates of Heaven demanding entry.”
I was gripped with a red-hot fury like I had experienced few times in my life. I could not see him for the blood haze in my eyes. I sat very still, thinking that if I moved, I would spring upon him and strangle him. When I could trust myself to look at him, I found him glaring at me. His eyes glittered dangerously in the lamplight.
Sometimes it amused me, that way of explaining and being honest and using bigger words than we human in the twenty first century do. But sometimes it makes sense, not only because otherwise it would be anachronistic, but also because his romantic nature and breeding makes sense with the story he is going to start with Gaston. I think their love timeless and atemporal, but also I feel their tale wouldn’t be that heart wrenching and tender, in the naivete this period of time shows in some issues. I believe the epoch makes this story purer, cleaner and fresher, because no pollution comes from outside forces.
“So what do centaurs do with their lives?”
“Hide in caves.”
“Oui, but when that grows dull.”
“Become shepherds and physicians and train great heroes.”
“Are we hiding in a cave?”
“Oui, and in truth, Will, now that you are here I feel no need to leave it.”
I don’t mean to sound metaphysical, sorry if I did.
Now, the plot. But first, I have to say something about this era. The Golden Age of piracy comes between 1680-1720. We are in 1666, before the piracy rush but also in an important age. In this year London was burnt (although not for the first time). In this year the Spanish Empire held most of the colonies in the American continent (well, not Brazil because the union with Portugal ended some decades before), but Jamaica is new in the hands of Englishmen, which is destiny and home for buccaneers, filibusters and raiders.
“What do you feel centaurs should do?”
“Be with other centaurs.”
“And when that grows dull?” He grinned.
“I do not foresee that.”
In Europe, the Christendom is set in most of the territory. Will sells his sword to nobility and rich people in intrigues and conspiracies. He also is involved in more than one a woman trouble. Due to that, he had had to run from several countries and cities, and this is no exception.
Tired of eluding risks and death menaces, he decides to come back home. His family there is… pleasant.
Well, really, I felt more like this.
So his… lovely father makes him take on the responsibility to lead a plantation in Jamaica. Will has no lost love between his relatives, so he gets on board to the West Indies. During the trip he meets interesting people, some of them with important roles afterwards, a few become friends, and others are enemies he must evade for the time being.
Dickey regarded the horizon thoughtfully. “I wish to find or grow love.”
I swallowed a lump of meat I was not finished chewing, so that my mouth would be free to say nothing.
“It will cost in ways you never consider, and it will be worth any price,” Gaston said.
Once on land, he discovers a thing or two about buccaneers and he is surprised to find more in common with them than with his peers. As a result, he considers embracing roving.
“I know now that I am not as scared of the possibility of you hating me for what we might do – as I am of me hating you for what we will not do.”
“Non, truly,” he said, “I see us as the dark and the light. Two sides of the same thing. You are bright and shining and I am a thing of shadows.”
“I will be your white horse and you can be my black.”
And that’s when he meets Gaston the Ghoul. Be prepared because the trip will be rough.
Gaston has issues.
“I have given the matter great thought and I fear it is more a matter of lancing and draining and possibly even bleeding. There is one other time when it functions, though thankfully I have never acted upon it; and that is when the madness grips me.”
“It is all tied together in some Gordian knot in your mind, is it not?”
He has won a reputation as madness in person. His inner demons are spoken of, but not known about deeply. In a one word:
“I lived because I could not die,” he breathed. “I gave no thought to the future. I was not careless with my life, but not careful either. I was mad before and I am mad now; it merely takes a different form. I was always alone. I think I hoped that eventually I would be unlucky and it would end.”
He is lonely and isolated. He has never thought about the future because there is no future worth living for. In his words, he is alive because he hasn’t died, but not because he is careful to be living. Until he catches Will in the street, and something within him stirs and recognizes him.
“Do I frighten you?” he asked.
I found myself studying my hand, watching you see if it would succumb to the tremors again.
“It is not you precisely,” I murmured. “The demon that possesses you manifest in rage and sorrow. My demon shows itself in fear and shame and sometimes melancholy. Yours just calls to mine, that is all.”
One day they meet.
“I will fight it with you as best I am able,” he whispered. “But Will, I foresee a very long war.”
The second day they set fire to a boat.
“I wish you to understand that I don’t find you… revolting.”
The third day they are
“It is no matter. I am Gaston the Ghoul, and a centaur and matelot to Lord Will the Fool.”
Sorry… what is a matelot?
A matelot, my dear, is the gay paradise in the 17th century!
He shook his head. “I cannot imagine a woman adoring me as Pete does, or caring for me the way he can, or fighting at my side, or watching my back, or any of the things he does for me. Pete is an extension of myself now. I think of us as two parts of a whole. I can rely on him as I do on myself. I do not have time to care for another who is not my equal. A man needs a matelot and not a wife to survive. Women are luxuries, like fine clothes and sweetmeats.”
Matelotage is like marriage… between two guys in a boat. They are a couple with whom they share profits, supplies… and carnal benefits. It’s not frowned on, in fact, it’s respected and even worshipped. I fell in love with the concept as well as with the MC. The thing is, it’s so obvious there is something between Will and Gaston that the crew itself assume they are matelots, so they
“There is no harm in it,” I said. “If anything, we are the wives.”
“I make no comment on that,” Theodore said. “I believe I meant that you two are the more business-minded of your pairings.”
“I would not say that,” I said. “Gaston is far wealthier than I.”
“Theodore threw his hands wide in exasperation. “More socially acceptable perhaps? More likely to have the proper attire? Less likely to kill another guest?”
Gaston doesn’t favor men. But he doesn’t seduce women either. He doesn’t touch, he doesn’t kiss, and of course, he doesn’t sleep with anyone. Will doesn’t like it, not at all.
“Will, I am sorry.”
“For what?”
“That I do not favor men.”
I cursed silently under the weight of those words. “You do not know how many times I am sorry that I do. It has been the bane of my damn existence.”
“And now the irony of your existence,” he said. “Here you are amongst the Brethren where it is acceptable, and yet you are with me.”
I did not find his comment amusing, and I looked at him sharply. He was studying the surf quite somberly.
“It is not fair,” he added. His eyes met mine. “I will do what I can.”
He shrugged. “It is usually not a pleasant emotion I find myself filled with.”
“And now? Do you feel it know?”
“Oui. It is pleasant. I have no name for it. Can you name yours?”
“Oui.” I bit my lip. I was hesitant to speak it, as I had always been soundly rebuked for it before. “Love.”
“Do not leave me,” he whispered.
“I will not.”
“I will try to make you.”
I frowned and held him tighter. “You will not succeed.”
This book left me breathless. Caput. They make sense together. Caput. I. Want. More. Caput.
Without any kind doubt, one of the best "series" I've ever read in my life.
September 1, 2020
Spoiler free review for entire series
I wish I had magnificent words to entice everyone to read this series, because it is truly one of the best stories I've ever read and I cannot wait to re-read it.
This story is big and epic.
It's a long but worthwhile journey.
It's worth the price it costs.
It's a journey about two men, Gaston and Will. Both scarred, physically and emotionally by their past. Both men of noble birth discarded for being different. A union that will lead to self-growth and a powerful love that conquers all.
A chance encounter in Jamaica begins a beautiful journey.
It's an adventure.
It's a love story.
It's an exploration of sexuality.
It's an analysis of human nature and behavior.
It's about being free to love and live.
It's about truth.
It's about fighting against adversity.
It's about sanity and insanity.
It's about family and friends.
Will and Gaston have the kind of epic love story that remains with you long after you've finished reading.
Their resilience. Their willingness to analyze and dissect everything in order to understand themselves, each other and be better. It is a long winded battle. It is a slow burn. When one falters the other one steps up. They put each other first above all else. They are honest even when it hurts.
Seriously exceptional read and this is not the kind of genre I'm ever drawn too. It is a testament to W.A. Hoffman's story telling skills that I found myself loving a historical book. For those like me who are not a huge fan of glacial slow-burn's. The MC's are always together and there is a lot of intimacy that is beautiful.
5 glorious stars.
Is it too soon to re-read now? I seriously just want to go back and re-read it right this second.
I wish I had magnificent words to entice everyone to read this series, because it is truly one of the best stories I've ever read and I cannot wait to re-read it.
This story is big and epic.
It's a long but worthwhile journey.
It's worth the price it costs.
It's a journey about two men, Gaston and Will. Both scarred, physically and emotionally by their past. Both men of noble birth discarded for being different. A union that will lead to self-growth and a powerful love that conquers all.
A chance encounter in Jamaica begins a beautiful journey.
It's an adventure.
It's a love story.
It's an exploration of sexuality.
It's an analysis of human nature and behavior.
It's about being free to love and live.
It's about truth.
It's about fighting against adversity.
It's about sanity and insanity.
It's about family and friends.
Will and Gaston have the kind of epic love story that remains with you long after you've finished reading.
Their resilience. Their willingness to analyze and dissect everything in order to understand themselves, each other and be better. It is a long winded battle. It is a slow burn. When one falters the other one steps up. They put each other first above all else. They are honest even when it hurts.
Seriously exceptional read and this is not the kind of genre I'm ever drawn too. It is a testament to W.A. Hoffman's story telling skills that I found myself loving a historical book. For those like me who are not a huge fan of glacial slow-burn's. The MC's are always together and there is a lot of intimacy that is beautiful.
5 glorious stars.
Is it too soon to re-read now? I seriously just want to go back and re-read it right this second.
May 1, 2014
Most importantly, thank you to whomever of my GR friends gave me this for Christmas. I am touched by your thoughtfulness and generosity.
Much like Falls Chance Ranch, on paper this is not my book: it's a soap opera, on a ship, with much cuddling, and the angstiest of angsty slow burns. And yet I loved it. I give it four stars, with the understanding the fifth star is bound and gagged in the hold, ransomed and under guard at cutlass point, until I finish the series.
Much like Falls Chance Ranch, on paper this is not my book: it's a soap opera, on a ship, with much cuddling, and the angstiest of angsty slow burns. And yet I loved it. I give it four stars, with the understanding the fifth star is bound and gagged in the hold, ransomed and under guard at cutlass point, until I finish the series.
October 3, 2013
This book is just the first part of what is effectively a tremendously long 4-part novel, not a series. It can be read alone, and has a breathing point at the end, not a cliffhanger. But much of the story is yet to come in the subsequent thousand pages or more.
When I first picked up this book, I needed to read a few pages to become accustomed to the deliberately-historical narrative style that opens it. It felt distant and didn't immediately capture my interest. But that stilted prose eases quickly, and I became enmeshed in this extended story of two men fighting battles both internal and external in the exotic setting of the privateers based in Jamaica in the late 1660s.
Will, the narrator, was a lonely boy whose childhood was brightened by the arrival of his orphaned older cousin Shane. Their friendship turned to love for Will, and then to sex. But Shane was a cruel, self-centered boy who became an even more vicious man, willing to commit sodomy in the dark, but only for his own pleasure. If he had unacceptable desires, he quickly began blaming them on Will, forcing and abusing him, and supplanting him with his father, until Will ran away to the Continent at sixteen. For the next decade, he roamed Europe as a professional duelist and sometime assassin. He found friends of a sort, and even lovers, in a Spaniard and the beautiful courtesan who managed their affairs. But when a death made him persona non grata in yet another city, Will found he didn't love either of them enough to bend his life to theirs, and tried to return home.
A brief visit convinced him that, while his father was slightly more impressed with him at 26 than at 16, he was still secondary to Shane at home. And since he couldn't safely kill Shane, although he might want to, he needed to leave again. His father offered to send him to Jamaica, to supervise the establishment of a plantation there on a grant of land. Whether this was offered because he might succeed, or meant as a test that he would fail, or perhaps a way to kill him at a distance with the fevers of the New World, so Shane could inherit, Will wasn't sure. It looked like adventure and escape, and he accepted the commission.
In Jamaica, Will finds a completely different world. And for Will, the most salient part of that difference consists of the Brethren of the Coast, the boucanniers and privateers who sailed the waters or attacked ports in search of treasure, under questionable letters of marque from one government or another. These men, who spent months at a time on board ship, had discovered the enormous benefit to be obtained in having a trusted man at your back. So in their society, many of them were paired up as matelots, a pair who share risk and rewards, who watch each other and often inherit from each other, and who may or may not also have a sexual relationship. Some of those men were straight, and sex if it was a part of the partnership, was a matter of convenience set aside on shore if women were available. Others preferred men, or had become so fond of their matelot that their natural inclination was surpassed by the desire to be exclusive and remain everything to one another.
Because these men held much of the wealth, and the fighting force, along the coast, even the townsfolk were forced to at least acknowledge and to some degree respect these partnerships. And so, for the first time and probably in the only place in the developed world in that era, Will finds himself among men with openly gay and proud relationships. For someone whose darkest moments included being someone's filthy secret, this is a revelation.
Most of the Brethren are rough, uneducated men. But one day, while sitting outside reading a German edition of Plato found in a shop in the port, Will encounters Gaston. Gaston is the exiled son of a French Marquis, a man badly scarred in body, mind and soul, by an event he barely remembers. He's known among the Brethren to be mad, and to go into fugues and rages, especially during and after battle. Gaston's interest in Will is immediate, but complicated, and the kind of thing a sane man might choose to avoid. But for Will, Gaston is a man with a fine mind, an education, a beauty and strength and mystery that calls to him. Before he can turn around, they are friends, and then declared as matelots, partners, off on a venture far more to Will's liking than farming.
Being matelots does not quickly involve sex for Will and Gaston. Will is very attracted to Gaston, but wary and scarred by his past. Gaston has always preferred women. Even with them, he has very little experience, and sex ties into his past trauma, which he remembers as blood on white fabric and destruction and a whipping that almost killed him. It will be a very long slow journey, full of setbacks, before these two men trust each other completely, and an even longer one before they share attraction and enough understanding of the dark places in their minds to give each other pleasure. It doesn't help that these explorations must happen in the context of piracy and battle, and the very close-quarters company of many other men.
This book is long, and does not move swiftly, but into the third volume I still find myself engrossed in the story. This is hurt-comfort of epic proportions. Gaston is truly damaged, and at times his madness runs amok and can destroy anyone, even Will. And Will is more traumatized by his childhood at his cousin's hands than he realizes. Although affection, and then love, become deep and abiding with these men, they cannot trust themselves to be kind with each other. The story includes outer adventures - fighting, shipwreck, betrayal, threats, loss and cruelty received and committed - but the true adventure is that of the mind. Both men must heal, and face their inner demons, if they are ever to be truly safe. It will be an extended, painful, and fascinating journey.
The historical context for this story feels fairly plausible. The Brethren do not seem whitewashed by much, as they quite cheerfully attack merchant ships, kill and torture for gold, and drink and fight when able to do so. The degree of acceptance of matelotage, and the monogamous nature of so many relationships, may be a little idealized, but it is possible that in this brief time and place, such a thing existed and formed a society where gay marriage was in many ways more equal than any between a man and woman of the time. The language used in the narration retains phrases that give it an historical flavor, but did not give me any pause after the first chapter. Recommended, but start this when you have time to read four long, long volumes back to back.
When I first picked up this book, I needed to read a few pages to become accustomed to the deliberately-historical narrative style that opens it. It felt distant and didn't immediately capture my interest. But that stilted prose eases quickly, and I became enmeshed in this extended story of two men fighting battles both internal and external in the exotic setting of the privateers based in Jamaica in the late 1660s.
Will, the narrator, was a lonely boy whose childhood was brightened by the arrival of his orphaned older cousin Shane. Their friendship turned to love for Will, and then to sex. But Shane was a cruel, self-centered boy who became an even more vicious man, willing to commit sodomy in the dark, but only for his own pleasure. If he had unacceptable desires, he quickly began blaming them on Will, forcing and abusing him, and supplanting him with his father, until Will ran away to the Continent at sixteen. For the next decade, he roamed Europe as a professional duelist and sometime assassin. He found friends of a sort, and even lovers, in a Spaniard and the beautiful courtesan who managed their affairs. But when a death made him persona non grata in yet another city, Will found he didn't love either of them enough to bend his life to theirs, and tried to return home.
A brief visit convinced him that, while his father was slightly more impressed with him at 26 than at 16, he was still secondary to Shane at home. And since he couldn't safely kill Shane, although he might want to, he needed to leave again. His father offered to send him to Jamaica, to supervise the establishment of a plantation there on a grant of land. Whether this was offered because he might succeed, or meant as a test that he would fail, or perhaps a way to kill him at a distance with the fevers of the New World, so Shane could inherit, Will wasn't sure. It looked like adventure and escape, and he accepted the commission.
In Jamaica, Will finds a completely different world. And for Will, the most salient part of that difference consists of the Brethren of the Coast, the boucanniers and privateers who sailed the waters or attacked ports in search of treasure, under questionable letters of marque from one government or another. These men, who spent months at a time on board ship, had discovered the enormous benefit to be obtained in having a trusted man at your back. So in their society, many of them were paired up as matelots, a pair who share risk and rewards, who watch each other and often inherit from each other, and who may or may not also have a sexual relationship. Some of those men were straight, and sex if it was a part of the partnership, was a matter of convenience set aside on shore if women were available. Others preferred men, or had become so fond of their matelot that their natural inclination was surpassed by the desire to be exclusive and remain everything to one another.
Because these men held much of the wealth, and the fighting force, along the coast, even the townsfolk were forced to at least acknowledge and to some degree respect these partnerships. And so, for the first time and probably in the only place in the developed world in that era, Will finds himself among men with openly gay and proud relationships. For someone whose darkest moments included being someone's filthy secret, this is a revelation.
Most of the Brethren are rough, uneducated men. But one day, while sitting outside reading a German edition of Plato found in a shop in the port, Will encounters Gaston. Gaston is the exiled son of a French Marquis, a man badly scarred in body, mind and soul, by an event he barely remembers. He's known among the Brethren to be mad, and to go into fugues and rages, especially during and after battle. Gaston's interest in Will is immediate, but complicated, and the kind of thing a sane man might choose to avoid. But for Will, Gaston is a man with a fine mind, an education, a beauty and strength and mystery that calls to him. Before he can turn around, they are friends, and then declared as matelots, partners, off on a venture far more to Will's liking than farming.
Being matelots does not quickly involve sex for Will and Gaston. Will is very attracted to Gaston, but wary and scarred by his past. Gaston has always preferred women. Even with them, he has very little experience, and sex ties into his past trauma, which he remembers as blood on white fabric and destruction and a whipping that almost killed him. It will be a very long slow journey, full of setbacks, before these two men trust each other completely, and an even longer one before they share attraction and enough understanding of the dark places in their minds to give each other pleasure. It doesn't help that these explorations must happen in the context of piracy and battle, and the very close-quarters company of many other men.
This book is long, and does not move swiftly, but into the third volume I still find myself engrossed in the story. This is hurt-comfort of epic proportions. Gaston is truly damaged, and at times his madness runs amok and can destroy anyone, even Will. And Will is more traumatized by his childhood at his cousin's hands than he realizes. Although affection, and then love, become deep and abiding with these men, they cannot trust themselves to be kind with each other. The story includes outer adventures - fighting, shipwreck, betrayal, threats, loss and cruelty received and committed - but the true adventure is that of the mind. Both men must heal, and face their inner demons, if they are ever to be truly safe. It will be an extended, painful, and fascinating journey.
The historical context for this story feels fairly plausible. The Brethren do not seem whitewashed by much, as they quite cheerfully attack merchant ships, kill and torture for gold, and drink and fight when able to do so. The degree of acceptance of matelotage, and the monogamous nature of so many relationships, may be a little idealized, but it is possible that in this brief time and place, such a thing existed and formed a society where gay marriage was in many ways more equal than any between a man and woman of the time. The language used in the narration retains phrases that give it an historical flavor, but did not give me any pause after the first chapter. Recommended, but start this when you have time to read four long, long volumes back to back.
March 16, 2014
I could probably sell this book to you with two words: Gay and Pirates. Ha! I know you all just imagined a whole lot of Captain Jack slash because that was my first thought too :)
But this is better! So, so much better than better, this is outstanding!
Brethren is everything you could ever want from a seafaring historical novel with admittedly not quite pirates, but buccaneers because duh, pirates came a bit later in history than 1666 ya know. But let’s not split hairs shall we…
Let’s explore the New World of the West Indies and the infamous pirate havens of Tortuga, Port Royal and Chocolota Hole – towns swarming with ‘purported deserters, dissidents, escaped bondsmen and white slaves, former convicts and all other manner of rabble’ all of whom are armed and wild and most of whom, are sodomites. Whoop! *fist pump*
Now let me tell you about the man you will journey with: Lord John Williams (aka: Will), Viscount of Marsdale, heir to the Earl of Dorshire, he is your narrator and your very awesome companion. Will is an ex assassin, a rogue, a philanthropist, a holder of romantic notions and idealistic folly, an occasional philosopher and a champion of humanity who – with much satisfaction – disregards social boundaries to embrace his fellow man regardless of social rank or standing. And so, it is through him, no – with him – that you will embark on this most epic of voyages.
Together you’ll raid Spanish galleons with cutlass & muskets and share the spoils with the wild men, your Brethren. You’ll lie on the deck and look up at the stars and scratch at the fleas crawling in your hair while listening to the sounds of sodomy. You’ll share the poop deck and contribute to the feeding of the sharks. You’ll suffer sickness and rail against the treatment of your fellow man. You will plot, you will fight, you’ll get drunk and you’ll philosophise; defining the characters you meet as wolves or sheep, leaders or followers, and those in between. You will grow and learn and fall down and be the anchor for the madman you will fall in love with. Hell! You might even fall in love a few times. I did :)
If this is not enough, know that there is more here because, for me, every single element of this story is remarkable. The setting and mood of the era is simply faultless as the author incorporates (with only slight fabrication) history and hearsay of the time to create a world that is exciting, harrowing and bursting with vitality. It’s not all action and adventure though; there are many moments of quiet reflection, journey time and not inconsequential detail about the small things. The author is in no rush to tell this story and I wasn’t in a rush to finish it.
But the standout element for me is the romance. It’s different, it’s shadowed by haunting pasts on both sides, it’s chaste, it’s consuming and it is a constant two steps forward and three steps back, its angst and it’s crazy but it makes sense, they match. It feels right and perfect, despite the challenges and the scars. For once this is a relationship that sates the corners of my dark heart while simultaneously feeding my soul. Gaston’s madness pushes the limits of my acceptance and yet I am helplessly in love with him, just like Will.
Okay, it’s not perfect and I’ll tell you straight off that this took me a while to get into, but oh boy, once I hit the 10% mark I was flying… So be patient. This is a long book and only the first in a series and sometimes it feels like you need for it to move faster but the pace, for me, is all part of the journey. I’m not taking points away for that. In fact I’ll take nothing away.
I LOVE these wild men who are now my Brethren, especially Pete and Striker. I loved the humour, the language (especially Pete’s) and the feeling of belonging … It’s like I have a relationship with these characters, I feel for them, would kill for them. I kept thinking about them, worrying about them and couldn’t wait to get back to them. So guys and girls, I can’t give you a better recommendation for a historical novel, and I’m sorry I’m going to echo the sentiments of another reader after discovering this series …
WE HAVE A GAY PIRATE SERIES PEOPLE!!!! GAY PIRAAAATES!
Favourite Quotes, without spoilers:
But this is better! So, so much better than better, this is outstanding!
Brethren is everything you could ever want from a seafaring historical novel with admittedly not quite pirates, but buccaneers because duh, pirates came a bit later in history than 1666 ya know. But let’s not split hairs shall we…
Let’s explore the New World of the West Indies and the infamous pirate havens of Tortuga, Port Royal and Chocolota Hole – towns swarming with ‘purported deserters, dissidents, escaped bondsmen and white slaves, former convicts and all other manner of rabble’ all of whom are armed and wild and most of whom, are sodomites. Whoop! *fist pump*
Now let me tell you about the man you will journey with: Lord John Williams (aka: Will), Viscount of Marsdale, heir to the Earl of Dorshire, he is your narrator and your very awesome companion. Will is an ex assassin, a rogue, a philanthropist, a holder of romantic notions and idealistic folly, an occasional philosopher and a champion of humanity who – with much satisfaction – disregards social boundaries to embrace his fellow man regardless of social rank or standing. And so, it is through him, no – with him – that you will embark on this most epic of voyages.
Together you’ll raid Spanish galleons with cutlass & muskets and share the spoils with the wild men, your Brethren. You’ll lie on the deck and look up at the stars and scratch at the fleas crawling in your hair while listening to the sounds of sodomy. You’ll share the poop deck and contribute to the feeding of the sharks. You’ll suffer sickness and rail against the treatment of your fellow man. You will plot, you will fight, you’ll get drunk and you’ll philosophise; defining the characters you meet as wolves or sheep, leaders or followers, and those in between. You will grow and learn and fall down and be the anchor for the madman you will fall in love with. Hell! You might even fall in love a few times. I did :)
If this is not enough, know that there is more here because, for me, every single element of this story is remarkable. The setting and mood of the era is simply faultless as the author incorporates (with only slight fabrication) history and hearsay of the time to create a world that is exciting, harrowing and bursting with vitality. It’s not all action and adventure though; there are many moments of quiet reflection, journey time and not inconsequential detail about the small things. The author is in no rush to tell this story and I wasn’t in a rush to finish it.
But the standout element for me is the romance. It’s different, it’s shadowed by haunting pasts on both sides, it’s chaste, it’s consuming and it is a constant two steps forward and three steps back, its angst and it’s crazy but it makes sense, they match. It feels right and perfect, despite the challenges and the scars. For once this is a relationship that sates the corners of my dark heart while simultaneously feeding my soul. Gaston’s madness pushes the limits of my acceptance and yet I am helplessly in love with him, just like Will.
Okay, it’s not perfect and I’ll tell you straight off that this took me a while to get into, but oh boy, once I hit the 10% mark I was flying… So be patient. This is a long book and only the first in a series and sometimes it feels like you need for it to move faster but the pace, for me, is all part of the journey. I’m not taking points away for that. In fact I’ll take nothing away.
I LOVE these wild men who are now my Brethren, especially Pete and Striker. I loved the humour, the language (especially Pete’s) and the feeling of belonging … It’s like I have a relationship with these characters, I feel for them, would kill for them. I kept thinking about them, worrying about them and couldn’t wait to get back to them. So guys and girls, I can’t give you a better recommendation for a historical novel, and I’m sorry I’m going to echo the sentiments of another reader after discovering this series …
WE HAVE A GAY PIRATE SERIES PEOPLE!!!! GAY PIRAAAATES!
Favourite Quotes, without spoilers:
He was beautiful and brought to mind a fine rapier or even my grandfather’s wheellock musket: a finely crafted thing of grace and tempered strength inlaid with jewels and designed for killing
“I wish my heart could come,” I blurted. He frowned with consternation and so I explained about how I was uncomfortably swollen with emotion. “I know that feeling,” he said soberly. “I feel it.” “Then what do you do?” “Kill something,”
In my eye, men appear at their most powerful when they strain to reach that momentary perfection. Every muscle and sinew is taut, and for them there is nothing else except their bodies and the sensations. Fighting in concert, side by side, it is as if they storm the gates of Heaven demanding entry.”
This was the stuff of poetry, play, and myth. It was equally transcendent and harrowing. There was no condition that could be placed upon it. It was enduring and conquering. And I had never felt its like before.
June 17, 2013
Let me tell you what I adore about this book.
The two main characters MAKE SENSE as a couple. They complement each other in both good and bad ways, drawing out both the dark and the light of each other, and that makes so much sense for why these two would be drawn specifically to the other above all else.
The character progression is awesome, as is their progression as a couple. Every three steps forward is two steps back with them, and it would not have felt realistic for them as characters if it had been any other way.
I stayed up until 3 am two nights in a row because I didn't want to stop reading it, and I was impatient all the day between to get back to it.
One of the things I adore the most about it (or at least, equally adore) is that it takes topics seriously. I am all too accustomed to seeing things like rape, domestic abuse, mental illness, and the like, be used as dramatic plot points forgotten the second it's no longer suitably convenient for the characters or plot involved. Actually, there are a sadly large number of works out there that don't even view these things as bad, problematic, or traumatic in the first place. (I'm basing this largely on BL manga, by the way, as I haven't read enough m/m slash to be able to make a comparison)
But Brethren took it all seriously. It showed the subtlety of mental illness, the way it could be more frightening for the person experiencing it even than those viewing it. It showed how someone who had been sexually or physically assaulted by a loved one could still react violently years later to triggering events. It showed the way people DON'T magically understand everything about themselves, and sometimes they have epiphanies to the most mundane of comments or situations, as they see themselves and their history in a new light. It showed the sometimes irrational tendency toward self-loathing or doubt of oneself, and the equal or greater belief in another, and the way those feelings are mirrored back by their loved one in doubting themselves and not the other.
And it showed how even damaged people can find a way to be together, and can find a way to love.
While I liked the general cast of characters well enough, it was definitely Will (well, John, but I can't think of him as anyone but Will) and Gaston who really made the book for me. They have such a sad, tragic, but also sweet and hopeful story, and I loved all the facets of them we saw along the way. For all that Gaston is enigmatic, misunderstood, at times dangerous and resigned, when he opens up to Will he has a keen sense of humor and can be quick to smile. For all that Will is apt to recklessness and self-assigned moralities, when he becomes withdrawn only Gaston seems able to fully understand him. (He's described by another character as a curious angel who metes out justice as he sees fit, and I find that to be appropriate for him)
They're both so desperate at times to hold on to the other, and I love that about them, because it reinforces how much they truly love each other more than the words "I love you" ever do.
Another reason I was really happy with this book is because it's been too long since I felt such a drive to read a book that I missed it when it was away from me, and was impatient to get back to it. The fact it was slash made it even better. It felt like I was reading a book I could find on any shelf in a bookstore, but it had the added bonus of featuring male characters in relationships with one another. (And boy, were they not ashamed of it)
Oh yeah, and pirates. I vastly enjoy pirates. One might even call me 'enamored.'
There were quite a few passages that amused me greatly, and I won't go into all of them of course. But I have a number of markers in the book to remember a quote or two. Still, I feel compelled to leave you with some examples of Will and Gaston's interactions so you can have a glimpse of what I love about them.
Don't worry, there are no spoilers.
---
Dressed and shorn, I handed him the gold hoops he had bade me purchase. "I do not think I can get these on myself."
He nodded with a degree of resignation and pulled a fine-pointed dagger. I winced. He rolled his eyes.
"Sit down."
"How many of these have you done?" I asked as I doffed my shirt.
"None."
"Truly? So in your estimation am I honored or a fool?"
He grinned. "You are a fool but it has nothing to do with allowing me to poke holes in your ears."
----
(a different scene is below)
----
"So he is in the New World?"
"If everything went according to the plans he relayed to me, oui."
"Do you wish to see him again?"
"Non, but perhaps out of curiosity. Are you jealous?" I teased, wondering if he would deny it.
"Non." He would not look at me.
I chuckled. "Well, you are doing a fine job convincing me otherwise."
-----------
There are others I wanted to do but they encroach on spoiler territory, so I'll leave it at that. But don't expect based on the two light-hearted conversations above that they have a very easy and jovial relationship, because they don't.
I suspect that's what makes me love passages like that even more.
The two main characters MAKE SENSE as a couple. They complement each other in both good and bad ways, drawing out both the dark and the light of each other, and that makes so much sense for why these two would be drawn specifically to the other above all else.
The character progression is awesome, as is their progression as a couple. Every three steps forward is two steps back with them, and it would not have felt realistic for them as characters if it had been any other way.
I stayed up until 3 am two nights in a row because I didn't want to stop reading it, and I was impatient all the day between to get back to it.
One of the things I adore the most about it (or at least, equally adore) is that it takes topics seriously. I am all too accustomed to seeing things like rape, domestic abuse, mental illness, and the like, be used as dramatic plot points forgotten the second it's no longer suitably convenient for the characters or plot involved. Actually, there are a sadly large number of works out there that don't even view these things as bad, problematic, or traumatic in the first place. (I'm basing this largely on BL manga, by the way, as I haven't read enough m/m slash to be able to make a comparison)
But Brethren took it all seriously. It showed the subtlety of mental illness, the way it could be more frightening for the person experiencing it even than those viewing it. It showed how someone who had been sexually or physically assaulted by a loved one could still react violently years later to triggering events. It showed the way people DON'T magically understand everything about themselves, and sometimes they have epiphanies to the most mundane of comments or situations, as they see themselves and their history in a new light. It showed the sometimes irrational tendency toward self-loathing or doubt of oneself, and the equal or greater belief in another, and the way those feelings are mirrored back by their loved one in doubting themselves and not the other.
And it showed how even damaged people can find a way to be together, and can find a way to love.
While I liked the general cast of characters well enough, it was definitely Will (well, John, but I can't think of him as anyone but Will) and Gaston who really made the book for me. They have such a sad, tragic, but also sweet and hopeful story, and I loved all the facets of them we saw along the way. For all that Gaston is enigmatic, misunderstood, at times dangerous and resigned, when he opens up to Will he has a keen sense of humor and can be quick to smile. For all that Will is apt to recklessness and self-assigned moralities, when he becomes withdrawn only Gaston seems able to fully understand him. (He's described by another character as a curious angel who metes out justice as he sees fit, and I find that to be appropriate for him)
They're both so desperate at times to hold on to the other, and I love that about them, because it reinforces how much they truly love each other more than the words "I love you" ever do.
Another reason I was really happy with this book is because it's been too long since I felt such a drive to read a book that I missed it when it was away from me, and was impatient to get back to it. The fact it was slash made it even better. It felt like I was reading a book I could find on any shelf in a bookstore, but it had the added bonus of featuring male characters in relationships with one another. (And boy, were they not ashamed of it)
Oh yeah, and pirates. I vastly enjoy pirates. One might even call me 'enamored.'
There were quite a few passages that amused me greatly, and I won't go into all of them of course. But I have a number of markers in the book to remember a quote or two. Still, I feel compelled to leave you with some examples of Will and Gaston's interactions so you can have a glimpse of what I love about them.
Don't worry, there are no spoilers.
---
Dressed and shorn, I handed him the gold hoops he had bade me purchase. "I do not think I can get these on myself."
He nodded with a degree of resignation and pulled a fine-pointed dagger. I winced. He rolled his eyes.
"Sit down."
"How many of these have you done?" I asked as I doffed my shirt.
"None."
"Truly? So in your estimation am I honored or a fool?"
He grinned. "You are a fool but it has nothing to do with allowing me to poke holes in your ears."
----
(a different scene is below)
----
"So he is in the New World?"
"If everything went according to the plans he relayed to me, oui."
"Do you wish to see him again?"
"Non, but perhaps out of curiosity. Are you jealous?" I teased, wondering if he would deny it.
"Non." He would not look at me.
I chuckled. "Well, you are doing a fine job convincing me otherwise."
-----------
There are others I wanted to do but they encroach on spoiler territory, so I'll leave it at that. But don't expect based on the two light-hearted conversations above that they have a very easy and jovial relationship, because they don't.
I suspect that's what makes me love passages like that even more.
April 5, 2021
Books like this remind me why I love historical fiction above all others.
Fabulous story, fabulous characters, superb worldbuilding.
Thank you, Claudie, for the recommendation!
I'll write a longer review when I finish the entire series.
For now I only have two philosophical questions:
1. Did Gaston do the right thing ?
2. Doucette
Fabulous story, fabulous characters, superb worldbuilding.
Thank you, Claudie, for the recommendation!
I'll write a longer review when I finish the entire series.
For now I only have two philosophical questions:
1. Did Gaston do the right thing ?
2. Doucette
December 29, 2008
Gay pirates. Straight pirates acting like gay pirates. Psychosis. Dyslexia. And a whole lot of diarrhea. Fantastic!
Read
June 22, 2020Non so esattamente perché questo libro sia stato scritto.
Non so se è una cosa necessaria al mondo.
Non riesco a valutarne la qualità senza mettermi a ridere o guardarlo con occhi a stellina.
Non so perché ci sia una BIBLIOGRAFIA ALLA FINE DI UN ROMANCE
Non so manco se sia un romance.
So che se questo libro è stato scritto per qualcuno nel mondo è stato scritto per me.
Vedo una strada lunga e pericolosa nella mia relazione con questa saga.
Non so se è una cosa necessaria al mondo.
Non riesco a valutarne la qualità senza mettermi a ridere o guardarlo con occhi a stellina.
Non so perché ci sia una BIBLIOGRAFIA ALLA FINE DI UN ROMANCE
Non so manco se sia un romance.
So che se questo libro è stato scritto per qualcuno nel mondo è stato scritto per me.
Vedo una strada lunga e pericolosa nella mia relazione con questa saga.
December 26, 2021
Imagina um navio cheio de caras se pegando ( ah, lembrei que não preciso imaginar, aconteceu faz pouco tempo no cruzeiro gay que deu o que falar😅onde os caras tava brigando ao som de Rihanna e tentando imitar uma famosa cena de Titanic 😂). JURO QUE TENTO COMEÇAR MINHAS PEQUENAS RESENHAS DE FORMA SÉRIA ( FALHO BONITO).
Eu era totalmente leiga sobre piratas bucaneiros, mas esse livro fez eu mergulhar de uma forma profunda no tema. Devo dizer que o autor (a) foi extremamente detalhista em sua história, talvez seja o motivo do livro ter muitas páginas. Um nível de narração meticulosa feita através do protagonista da história. Foi realmente uma boa surpresa para mim! Acompanhar toda jornada de Will no mundo dos piratas foi bastante interessante, me sentia aprendendo junto com ele sobre esse novo mundo. Ser um cara que gosta de aventuras e não tem medo do diferente foi essencial para Will entrar nessa jornada ao desconhecido. Através de Will pude entender mais sobre aquela época de descobertas do novo mundo e foi bem intrigante para mim ( confesso que não queria nascer nesses tempos, ainda mais por ser mulher, mulheres e negros sempre foram os mais desvalorizados). Eu gostei muito de acompanhar Will nesse início de aventura pirata, mas gostei mais ainda de Gastão, Gastão claramente sofre de transtorno de personalidade ( algo que naqueles tempos não tinha nome) Uma doença psicológica complicada que até hoje considero que muitos não compreendam. Gastão passou por coisas dolorosas e isso só aprofundou em seu problema, o mistério em volta do que aconteceu com ele no passado foi algo que gostei de desvendar junto de Will. Quando todo o passado foi revelado, eu meio que já desconfiava do que se tratava e não fui pega de surpresa pela grande revelação, imaginei exatamente que tinha sido aquilo ( fiquei orgulhosa de mim mesma). Além de Will e Gastão, devo dizer que amei o Peter e o Strike, amei esse casal de piratas! O jeito do Peter falar é muito engraçado, sua relação com Strike é uma coisa gostasa de ver, adorei eles e tenho medo de que possam morrer nos próximos livros. Espero que não, mas tudo pode acontecer nessa jornada e preciso me preparar mentalmente para o segundo livro.
Será que existia mesmo matelots entre os piratas? Fiquei curiosa e farei umas pesquisas sobre isso no Google😅
Eu era totalmente leiga sobre piratas bucaneiros, mas esse livro fez eu mergulhar de uma forma profunda no tema. Devo dizer que o autor (a) foi extremamente detalhista em sua história, talvez seja o motivo do livro ter muitas páginas. Um nível de narração meticulosa feita através do protagonista da história. Foi realmente uma boa surpresa para mim! Acompanhar toda jornada de Will no mundo dos piratas foi bastante interessante, me sentia aprendendo junto com ele sobre esse novo mundo. Ser um cara que gosta de aventuras e não tem medo do diferente foi essencial para Will entrar nessa jornada ao desconhecido. Através de Will pude entender mais sobre aquela época de descobertas do novo mundo e foi bem intrigante para mim ( confesso que não queria nascer nesses tempos, ainda mais por ser mulher, mulheres e negros sempre foram os mais desvalorizados). Eu gostei muito de acompanhar Will nesse início de aventura pirata, mas gostei mais ainda de Gastão, Gastão claramente sofre de transtorno de personalidade ( algo que naqueles tempos não tinha nome) Uma doença psicológica complicada que até hoje considero que muitos não compreendam. Gastão passou por coisas dolorosas e isso só aprofundou em seu problema, o mistério em volta do que aconteceu com ele no passado foi algo que gostei de desvendar junto de Will. Quando todo o passado foi revelado, eu meio que já desconfiava do que se tratava e não fui pega de surpresa pela grande revelação, imaginei exatamente que tinha sido aquilo ( fiquei orgulhosa de mim mesma). Além de Will e Gastão, devo dizer que amei o Peter e o Strike, amei esse casal de piratas! O jeito do Peter falar é muito engraçado, sua relação com Strike é uma coisa gostasa de ver, adorei eles e tenho medo de que possam morrer nos próximos livros. Espero que não, mas tudo pode acontecer nessa jornada e preciso me preparar mentalmente para o segundo livro.
Será que existia mesmo matelots entre os piratas? Fiquei curiosa e farei umas pesquisas sobre isso no Google😅
March 25, 2016
okay, this was damn near perfect for me. I am going right on to the second book in the series.
Want to read
August 11, 2013This is apparently NOT about shifters! It's pirates. PIRATES. THERE ARE GAY PIRATE BOOKS!
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June 30, 2011
I'm rarely moved enough by a story to want to write a review but I really want to rave about this book. It moved me : P
I’ll admit right now that I have a soft spot for historical seafaring yarns. Perhaps brought on by the BBC Horatio Hornblower series from way back,when I donned slash goggles for the first time...Ioan Gruffudd and Jamie Bamber...yum. All the homoerotic possibilities of a bunch of men in tight pants and open shirts, cooped up together in the confined space of a tall ship pushes all my kink buttons.
However, this book is so much more than those cheap thrills. It’s about redemption, love, freedom and finding home...even if that happens to be a small corner on a deck of a ship. At 544 pages Brethren is long, but it rarely lagged. And with so many too-short gay romances out there it was a real pleasure, a luxury even, to sink myself into this story. The writing is wonderful. It’s rich in world building and the historical facts about piracy and the politics of the New World at the time are cleverly told without seeming to be too much of an info dump. I found the ways of pirates, their very strict code and their positions of hierarchy on the ship absolutely fascinating.
But it’s the characters themselves that make this such an intense read. Will and Gaston are killers and thieves. They are part of a group of buccaneers, essentially a gang, who cold-bloodedly seek out vulnerable ships and slash, hack and shoot their way to get the booty, if there is anything of value to be grabbed at all. That I could feel so much for these men is testament to some brilliant writing. Both are heavily scarred, physically and mentally and have fled the Old World and the tragedies of their aristocratic upbringing for the freedom of the New World. Together with a rag tag group of outcasts, former slaves and criminals they find a place for themselves and a degree of peace. I loved that for these pirates, bonding or finding a partner (or matelot) is so commonplace and for them, having a man as a lover makes total sense.
Two secondary characters, Pete and Striker are adorable;
“I cannot imagine a woman adoring me as Pete does, or caring for me the way he can, or fighting at my side, or watching my back, or any of the things he does for me. I don’t recall women being that strong. Pete is an extension of myself now. I think of us as two parts of a whole. I can rely on him as I do on myself. Women you leave in port, and they are generally frail, and they cannot fight or sail, though I am sure they can be taught. But they lack the strength. They are things one must care for, and here in the West Indies, I do not have time to care for another who is not my equal. A man needs a matelot and not a wife to survive.”
There is a large cast of very likeable characters, most are couples, but some have yet to find their matelot and will likely do so in the two books that follow. I'm hoping anyway.
There’s not much explicit sex but there is a slow, burning attraction and a connection that goes beyond the physical. Will and Gaston are soul mates.
‘The Devil with title and family; I now gazed upon a man I would live and die for and, perhaps more importantly, spend my days caring for. This was the love I had wondered at. This was the stuff of poetry, play and myth. It was equally transcendent and harrowing. There was no condition that could be placed upon it. It was enduring and conquering and I had never felt its like before.’
Their story is harrowing and thankfully, it’s not over. I fear Will and Gaston have a way to go before they can really find the peace they’re looking for.
I’ll admit right now that I have a soft spot for historical seafaring yarns. Perhaps brought on by the BBC Horatio Hornblower series from way back,when I donned slash goggles for the first time...Ioan Gruffudd and Jamie Bamber...yum. All the homoerotic possibilities of a bunch of men in tight pants and open shirts, cooped up together in the confined space of a tall ship pushes all my kink buttons.
However, this book is so much more than those cheap thrills. It’s about redemption, love, freedom and finding home...even if that happens to be a small corner on a deck of a ship. At 544 pages Brethren is long, but it rarely lagged. And with so many too-short gay romances out there it was a real pleasure, a luxury even, to sink myself into this story. The writing is wonderful. It’s rich in world building and the historical facts about piracy and the politics of the New World at the time are cleverly told without seeming to be too much of an info dump. I found the ways of pirates, their very strict code and their positions of hierarchy on the ship absolutely fascinating.
But it’s the characters themselves that make this such an intense read. Will and Gaston are killers and thieves. They are part of a group of buccaneers, essentially a gang, who cold-bloodedly seek out vulnerable ships and slash, hack and shoot their way to get the booty, if there is anything of value to be grabbed at all. That I could feel so much for these men is testament to some brilliant writing. Both are heavily scarred, physically and mentally and have fled the Old World and the tragedies of their aristocratic upbringing for the freedom of the New World. Together with a rag tag group of outcasts, former slaves and criminals they find a place for themselves and a degree of peace. I loved that for these pirates, bonding or finding a partner (or matelot) is so commonplace and for them, having a man as a lover makes total sense.
Two secondary characters, Pete and Striker are adorable;
“I cannot imagine a woman adoring me as Pete does, or caring for me the way he can, or fighting at my side, or watching my back, or any of the things he does for me. I don’t recall women being that strong. Pete is an extension of myself now. I think of us as two parts of a whole. I can rely on him as I do on myself. Women you leave in port, and they are generally frail, and they cannot fight or sail, though I am sure they can be taught. But they lack the strength. They are things one must care for, and here in the West Indies, I do not have time to care for another who is not my equal. A man needs a matelot and not a wife to survive.”
There is a large cast of very likeable characters, most are couples, but some have yet to find their matelot and will likely do so in the two books that follow. I'm hoping anyway.
There’s not much explicit sex but there is a slow, burning attraction and a connection that goes beyond the physical. Will and Gaston are soul mates.
‘The Devil with title and family; I now gazed upon a man I would live and die for and, perhaps more importantly, spend my days caring for. This was the love I had wondered at. This was the stuff of poetry, play and myth. It was equally transcendent and harrowing. There was no condition that could be placed upon it. It was enduring and conquering and I had never felt its like before.’
Their story is harrowing and thankfully, it’s not over. I fear Will and Gaston have a way to go before they can really find the peace they’re looking for.
March 21, 2021
I have no idea how to review this, but I want to give it a try because I promised myself I'll start reviewing books I loved at the same rate I review those I don't like. So here goes.
The main character (and the one whose POV we're in throughout the book) is Will, an adventurer and a mercenary. He is from a noble family, but ran away from his home in England as a teenager and did odd jobs as a mercenary across the Continent. When he had to flee Florence because he killed a noble's son in a duel, he decides to return to England. He is sent by his father to tend the family's property in Jamaica to the English town of Port Royal.
There he meets Gaston the Ghoul, a French buccaneer of some ill repute. They form a fast friendship and Will is quickly thrown into an adventure on a privateer ship set to rob the Spanish galleons. The rest of the crew assumed Will and Gaston are matelots (pairs of buccaneers committed to each other in all things - practical and romantic alike; matelotage is a marriage in all but name).
Will and Gaston are aware there's something between them and they don't try to set the record straight, and they continue to deepen their (mostly platonic) relationship.
It is my understanding that the writer did extensive research into the ways of 17th century buccaneers, and I always enjoy reading fiction with a historical setting backed by facts. I have no doubt the setting has been romanticized a bit but it doesn't seems excessive, and I have no trouble believing things were exactly as represented in the book (though I am by no means an expert).
The writing is also contemporary to the setting, which added to the general feel of reading a personal account or maybe an adventure novel written at the time.
Will is a languid narrator prone to philosophizing. I personally enjoyed his voice but I've seen some reviewers who didn't. By MM romance standards, this story moves at a glacial pace. Slowest of the slow burns. There is little to no sex and a few action packed scenes. You have been warned :D
Do not start this book if you're not in it for the long haul. This book could arguably be read as a stand-alone (I have done it the first time I read it 4 years ago), but it is not a finished story. It doesn't end in a cliffhanger, but be ready to want to read the entire series in one go.
I encourage anyone who enjoys historicals to give it a try!
The main character (and the one whose POV we're in throughout the book) is Will, an adventurer and a mercenary. He is from a noble family, but ran away from his home in England as a teenager and did odd jobs as a mercenary across the Continent. When he had to flee Florence because he killed a noble's son in a duel, he decides to return to England. He is sent by his father to tend the family's property in Jamaica to the English town of Port Royal.
"That remark, coupled with the name of the Chocolota Hole, visited upon me the realization that I may have landed in a town full of armed sodomites."
There he meets Gaston the Ghoul, a French buccaneer of some ill repute. They form a fast friendship and Will is quickly thrown into an adventure on a privateer ship set to rob the Spanish galleons. The rest of the crew assumed Will and Gaston are matelots (pairs of buccaneers committed to each other in all things - practical and romantic alike; matelotage is a marriage in all but name).
"If we fight alongside men we love, we do not fight for our lives or gold or glory or kings, but for each other. Death is less painful than watching a loved one die; and no fear is as great as being alone after the battle. And no man would appear as a coward in his lover’s eyes."
Will and Gaston are aware there's something between them and they don't try to set the record straight, and they continue to deepen their (mostly platonic) relationship.
"I may be embarrassed that others consider me to have a lover, but I am honored that it is you."
It is my understanding that the writer did extensive research into the ways of 17th century buccaneers, and I always enjoy reading fiction with a historical setting backed by facts. I have no doubt the setting has been romanticized a bit but it doesn't seems excessive, and I have no trouble believing things were exactly as represented in the book (though I am by no means an expert).
The writing is also contemporary to the setting, which added to the general feel of reading a personal account or maybe an adventure novel written at the time.
Will is a languid narrator prone to philosophizing. I personally enjoyed his voice but I've seen some reviewers who didn't. By MM romance standards, this story moves at a glacial pace. Slowest of the slow burns. There is little to no sex and a few action packed scenes. You have been warned :D
Do not start this book if you're not in it for the long haul. This book could arguably be read as a stand-alone (I have done it the first time I read it 4 years ago), but it is not a finished story. It doesn't end in a cliffhanger, but be ready to want to read the entire series in one go.
I encourage anyone who enjoys historicals to give it a try!
August 9, 2020
When I saw that Raised by Wolves is one of TJ Klune’s favorite m/m romance series, I knew I had to read it. And sure enough, this is historical romance/adventure at its finest. It’s a lengthy read, and a first installment in a reeeaaally long-ass series. I like long books, but considering the genre and my sometimes not-so-great attention span, I was afraid I might get bored halfway through. WRONG! There is not one boring moment in this book.
Will (aka John Williams) and Gaston are two extremely scarred people who are still dealing with the aftermath of their past experiences. They're beautifully complicated characters, and they work so well together - they’re like two pieces of a whole, complimenting each other in many different ways. I liked that there’s no insta-love in this. The way their relationship progresses - the gradual build-up of trust and affection and the deepening intimacy - is just so freaking genuine. It’s definitely one of the highlights of this book.
This isn’t an easy read by any means. It addresses some serious issues , and is one of the angstiest and slowest burns I’ve ever read. It’s not all so dark as it may seem, though, and the plot is actually super entertaining. Will is an excellent narrator with a very interesting worldview and I loved being in his head. All the pirate shenanigans provide an excellent balance to the complex character & relationship development, and the dynamics among the Brethren are something else entirely!
Let me just say that before reading this, I had no particularly strong feelings about pirates, one way or another, but now I want to become one. 😂
Will (aka John Williams) and Gaston are two extremely scarred people who are still dealing with the aftermath of their past experiences. They're beautifully complicated characters, and they work so well together - they’re like two pieces of a whole, complimenting each other in many different ways. I liked that there’s no insta-love in this. The way their relationship progresses - the gradual build-up of trust and affection and the deepening intimacy - is just so freaking genuine. It’s definitely one of the highlights of this book.
This isn’t an easy read by any means. It addresses some serious issues , and is one of the angstiest and slowest burns I’ve ever read. It’s not all so dark as it may seem, though, and the plot is actually super entertaining. Will is an excellent narrator with a very interesting worldview and I loved being in his head. All the pirate shenanigans provide an excellent balance to the complex character & relationship development, and the dynamics among the Brethren are something else entirely!
Let me just say that before reading this, I had no particularly strong feelings about pirates, one way or another, but now I want to become one. 😂
July 6, 2024
Lord Marsdale tiene 10 años fuera de Inglaterra, de donde huyo después de un enfrentamiento con su primo. Desde que salió de Inglaterra, Marsdale ha recorrido varios países de Europa, donde ha amado, luchado y matado en duelos a varias personas. Así que cuando es obligado a regresar a Inglaterra y a casa de su padre (de quien no ha sabido nada en 10años), se resigna a aceptar lo que debería ser su obligación, al ser el heredero al título. Sin embargo, se ve de nuevo saliendo de Inglaterra, pero ahora hacia las islas en Nuevo Mundo, donde conseguirá no solo nuevas aventuras, sino que conocerá a la persona que realmente es para él.
Ahora embarcado en la vida de bucanero, junto a su Matelot, viajan por las aguas del Caribe buscando fortuna y luchando contra los Españoles.
Este fue uno de esos libros sorpresa, que lo comienzas sin esperar mucho y que al final resulta muy buena lectura. La forma como el autor retrata a la Clase Alta Inglesa internamente y no de forma romántica, es bastante realista. Incluso, la forma como las islas de Latinoamérica se conquistaron y como las colonias inglesas, francesas y españolas torturaron e invadieron estas tierras solo para su beneficio, te hace ver la historia de una forma totalmente diferente.
Me gusto, especialmente, la forma como el autor manejo el crecimiento personal de nuestros protas, sin grandes descripciones físicas, sino mayoritariamente psicológicas.
En fin, esta saga es mas como un diario de un bucanero, lleno de aventuras, paisajes, realismo y realización y quiero seguir conociendo mas de ello.
Ahora embarcado en la vida de bucanero, junto a su Matelot, viajan por las aguas del Caribe buscando fortuna y luchando contra los Españoles.
Este fue uno de esos libros sorpresa, que lo comienzas sin esperar mucho y que al final resulta muy buena lectura. La forma como el autor retrata a la Clase Alta Inglesa internamente y no de forma romántica, es bastante realista. Incluso, la forma como las islas de Latinoamérica se conquistaron y como las colonias inglesas, francesas y españolas torturaron e invadieron estas tierras solo para su beneficio, te hace ver la historia de una forma totalmente diferente.
Me gusto, especialmente, la forma como el autor manejo el crecimiento personal de nuestros protas, sin grandes descripciones físicas, sino mayoritariamente psicológicas.
En fin, esta saga es mas como un diario de un bucanero, lleno de aventuras, paisajes, realismo y realización y quiero seguir conociendo mas de ello.
June 4, 2016
Six Stars. I just adored this epic, could not put it down, so pleased there are another three books in the series. A combination of Hornblower, the Scarlet Pimpernel and Pirates of the Caribbean with a gay twist!
Written in the first person from Will's pov, this book is an m/m historical fiction set in the 1660s in the Caribbean. Will is an English Lord's son who ran away to Europe aged 16. He returns home 10 years later to be sent away again to Jamaica to start a sugar cane plantation for his father. He is drawn to the life of a buccaneer (pirate to you and me) and meets the mentally disturbed Gaston the Ghoul, a French aristocrat's son. They fall in love at first sight and become matelots (lovers). The adventure continues..
'The devil with title and family; I now gazed upon a man I would live and die for and, perhaps more importantly, spend my days caring for.
This was the love I had wondered at. This was the stuff of poetry, play, and myth. It was equally transcendent and harrowing. There was no condition that could be placed upon it. It was enduring and conquering. And I had never felt its like before.
Or had I?'
Written in the first person from Will's pov, this book is an m/m historical fiction set in the 1660s in the Caribbean. Will is an English Lord's son who ran away to Europe aged 16. He returns home 10 years later to be sent away again to Jamaica to start a sugar cane plantation for his father. He is drawn to the life of a buccaneer (pirate to you and me) and meets the mentally disturbed Gaston the Ghoul, a French aristocrat's son. They fall in love at first sight and become matelots (lovers). The adventure continues..
'The devil with title and family; I now gazed upon a man I would live and die for and, perhaps more importantly, spend my days caring for.
This was the love I had wondered at. This was the stuff of poetry, play, and myth. It was equally transcendent and harrowing. There was no condition that could be placed upon it. It was enduring and conquering. And I had never felt its like before.
Or had I?'
July 6, 2024
Lord Marsdale tiene 10 años fuera de Inglaterra, de donde huyo después de un enfrentamiento con su primo. Desde que salió de Inglaterra, Marsdale ha recorrido varios países de Europa, donde ha amado, luchado y matado en duelos a varias personas. Así que cuando es obligado a regresar a Inglaterra y a casa de su padre (de quien no ha sabido nada en 10años), se resigna a aceptar lo que debería ser su obligación, al ser el heredero al título. Sin embargo, se ve de nuevo saliendo de Inglaterra, pero ahora hacia las islas en Nuevo Mundo, donde conseguirá no solo nuevas aventuras, sino que conocerá a la persona que realmente es para él.
Ahora embarcado en la vida de bucanero, junto a su Matelot, viajan por las aguas del Caribe buscando fortuna y luchando contra los Españoles.
Este fue uno de esos libros sorpresa, que lo comienzas sin esperar mucho y que al final resulta muy buena lectura. La forma como el autor retrata a la Clase Alta Inglesa internamente y no de forma romántica, es bastante realista. Incluso, la forma como las islas de Latinoamérica se conquistaron y como las colonias inglesas, francesas y españolas torturaron e invadieron estas tierras solo para su beneficio, te hace ver la historia de una forma totalmente diferente.
Me gusto, especialmente, la forma como el autor manejo el crecimiento personal de nuestros protas, sin grandes descripciones físicas, sino mayoritariamente psicológicas.
En fin, esta saga es mas como un diario de un bucanero, lleno de aventuras, paisajes, realismo y realización y quiero seguir conociendo mas de ello.
Ahora embarcado en la vida de bucanero, junto a su Matelot, viajan por las aguas del Caribe buscando fortuna y luchando contra los Españoles.
Este fue uno de esos libros sorpresa, que lo comienzas sin esperar mucho y que al final resulta muy buena lectura. La forma como el autor retrata a la Clase Alta Inglesa internamente y no de forma romántica, es bastante realista. Incluso, la forma como las islas de Latinoamérica se conquistaron y como las colonias inglesas, francesas y españolas torturaron e invadieron estas tierras solo para su beneficio, te hace ver la historia de una forma totalmente diferente.
Me gusto, especialmente, la forma como el autor manejo el crecimiento personal de nuestros protas, sin grandes descripciones físicas, sino mayoritariamente psicológicas.
En fin, esta saga es mas como un diario de un bucanero, lleno de aventuras, paisajes, realismo y realización y quiero seguir conociendo mas de ello.
October 23, 2013
Wonderful characters. Complex personalities. Amazing world building. Captivating story. Charismatic writing style.
What more can I say?
Parting words: It's so worth the read!
What more can I say?
Parting words: It's so worth the read!
January 30, 2022
4 1/2 stars. Don’t judge a book by its cover. I don’t remember why I bought this book quite a while ago but it sat in my to read folder, neglected & ignored since. The cover just looked so “Harlequin Romance” to me. My Good Reads friend Calen recommended it and that reminded me that I already owned it The very beginning reinforced my fears but then it got better and better and I was hooked. This book seems really well researched. Throughout the engrossing story is a deep dive into the main protagonists psyches. I can’t wait to see where the sequels go.
dnf
November 29, 2016Después de meses en mi estantería de "on-hold" he decidido hacer DNF, ¿por qué? Pues me he espoileé en su día y ya sé que los derroteros que va a tomar la historia, no me van, me caen muy bien los MC para verlos destrozarse.
March 19, 2021
I liked this so much and then Book 2 broke me so bad I can't imagine reading the rest of the series. I'm still going with 4 stars for this one since I don't regret reading it -- even though it's a To Be Continued kind of ending so I don't think it's satisfying on its own.
The thing is, it wasn't the MCs that broke me in Book 2, and that one had a satisfying enough ending. If I had just trusted my instincts and stopped there, I would have been ok.
But I LOVED the MCs and my obsessive little heart couldn't believe I was going to pass on the opportunity for TWO MORE WHOLE BOOKS, so I scoured the review/spoilers hoping they would change my mind about stopping while I was ahead. And then promptly destroyed the only benefit of STOPPING WHILE I WAS AHEAD!!!! Jesus. But I'll save that for my Book 2 review.
So...normally this kind of overall series experience would affect my rating of all the books (since I read them back-to-back), but the historical time period that's explored here is just so very interesting.
Moral philosophizing buccaneers are fucking fascinating; an in-depth look at the early years of a 1600's European colony is a pretty effective remedy when you're feeling shitty about being an American in 2020/2021 (it's a low bar); and the fact that it's in a country that I'm relatively knowledgeable about in modern times (Jamaica) makes for a really interesting contrast/history lesson. (Most of the history I'm familiar with is from this time, or a little after, and onward.)
Will is very self-aware, and I really like that in an MC. But Romance readers beware: Hoffman ain't fuckin' around with romanticized matelots. There are absolutely some gay and bisexual (hi, Will) pirates, but the vast majority are not. Even those with matelots. And we get to know and love a lot of matelots. And this is not a series where all the brothers/teammates/band members turn out to be secretly gay. You think you understand this, especially when Book 1 repeatedly reminds you about it, and then Book 2 happens. FUCK. It's brutal, y'all. This series is not for the faint of heart.
The thing is, it wasn't the MCs that broke me in Book 2, and that one had a satisfying enough ending. If I had just trusted my instincts and stopped there, I would have been ok.
But I LOVED the MCs and my obsessive little heart couldn't believe I was going to pass on the opportunity for TWO MORE WHOLE BOOKS, so I scoured the review/spoilers hoping they would change my mind about stopping while I was ahead. And then promptly destroyed the only benefit of STOPPING WHILE I WAS AHEAD!!!! Jesus. But I'll save that for my Book 2 review.
So...normally this kind of overall series experience would affect my rating of all the books (since I read them back-to-back), but the historical time period that's explored here is just so very interesting.
Moral philosophizing buccaneers are fucking fascinating; an in-depth look at the early years of a 1600's European colony is a pretty effective remedy when you're feeling shitty about being an American in 2020/2021 (it's a low bar); and the fact that it's in a country that I'm relatively knowledgeable about in modern times (Jamaica) makes for a really interesting contrast/history lesson. (Most of the history I'm familiar with is from this time, or a little after, and onward.)
Will is very self-aware, and I really like that in an MC. But Romance readers beware: Hoffman ain't fuckin' around with romanticized matelots. There are absolutely some gay and bisexual (hi, Will) pirates, but the vast majority are not. Even those with matelots. And we get to know and love a lot of matelots. And this is not a series where all the brothers/teammates/band members turn out to be secretly gay. You think you understand this, especially when Book 1 repeatedly reminds you about it, and then Book 2 happens. FUCK. It's brutal, y'all. This series is not for the faint of heart.
June 11, 2010
It’s a big book. About 550 pages. Big in scope and ambition. Slightly too large a paperback to hold comfortably in bed or in the bath. That being said it’s set in a fascinating era which isn’t often written about in a fictional and accurate capacity, so I was looking forward to tackling it, although a little daunted by the size.
(It must be said that this was originally part of a trilogy, and now the author has announced that this has expanded and will be a quartet.)
At its core it follows the traditions of a typical love story – an arranged marriage which isn’t consumated and a long long road in which the two protagonists learn to love and trust each other. Layered on top of this is a healthy dose of piratey action with some good secondary characters and some obvious hard research.
The author tries a little too hard, and she’s guilty of “doing a Dan Brown” from time to time and info dumping hard about buccaneers and filibusters and the history behind it all – and mostly that was ok, as I didn’t know a lot of it, but I also shook my head at times and said “And I should care about this over-richness of facts WHY exactly?” Too much of it and I was pulled away from the story itself. It is the same with the interractions between Gaston and Will (of which there are legion.) Granted, I admit there are boring bits in a sailor’s life, but all these two seem to do is yak; chapters and chapters of it, and it got rather boring at times.
As for the actual daily life of the seaman, it was disappointingly absent for much of the book, replaced by the conversations. Only at rare points did I get the tang of salt in my nostrils and feel the rigging beneath my bare feet. They sailed around without the crew doing very much except shag and talk.
There is a over-arching plot, though and eventually it kicks in and starts to progress, but it takes too long getting there, and I had lost interest, both in the love affair and the backstory. I didn’t like Will much – he didn’t catch my imagination. He was a murderer/mercenary, and although Hoffman attempted to show me he was a “Good Egg” at the beginning by getting him to look after his bondsmen, and rescuing a sailor who was being abused, he lost any sympathy he gained there by promptly sailing off and leaving the bondsmen to rot in the hands of his overseer without a backward wave and never bothering much with the rescued sailor again.
As to the “Wolves” motif: it was overdone – He’s a nobleman, he considers himself a wolf, being on top of society and he’s always explaining about the wolves and the sheep (those who take orders.) I understood the concept after half a page, but the point was rammed home so often I was screaming at Will not to treat me like an idiot. The repetitive “hook” at the end of each chapter discussing “the Gods” too affected me like a dripping tap after 10 chapters, and I was dreading the last line of each one.
There were a few confusing or inaccurate details that I noticed. Right in chapter 1 Will says “I was not a Protestant” and then later he refers to “You Papists” so I’m all confused and thinking “well, what are you, then? Jewish?” No matter what he considered himself to be, he’d be one or the other. Then he celebrates Mass with his family so he must have been a Catholic. But even in the Restoration, I am fairly sure that Catholics weren’t celebrating Mass so openly. But feel free to contradict me, I haven’t checked this.
However, it’s not a bad read. The inaccuracies didn’t make me want to throw it against the wall, and as an adventure story it’s well researched and not horribly written. Some of the speech is a little too modern and there are some typos, but that’s to be expected in a self-published novel. Where the self-publishing REALLY lets Hoffman down, however, is the bloated size of the book itself. She would have done the book a favour to let a professional editor loose on it and rip out large sections; all the unnecessary chit-chat and scenes where nothing happens. It could have been reduced to 350 pages without losing any of its flavour, and would have been a much better, tighter book for the reduction.
Fans of seafaring tales will love this – and they do by all accounts but it wasn’t for me. After the cliffhanger ending, I don’t care enough about the characters to find out what happens to them next and the emotional involvement in reading a book 2 or 3 times the size of the average novel wasn’t repaid, as the book, in essence, contained no more actual content than a book of 200 pages.
(It must be said that this was originally part of a trilogy, and now the author has announced that this has expanded and will be a quartet.)
At its core it follows the traditions of a typical love story – an arranged marriage which isn’t consumated and a long long road in which the two protagonists learn to love and trust each other. Layered on top of this is a healthy dose of piratey action with some good secondary characters and some obvious hard research.
The author tries a little too hard, and she’s guilty of “doing a Dan Brown” from time to time and info dumping hard about buccaneers and filibusters and the history behind it all – and mostly that was ok, as I didn’t know a lot of it, but I also shook my head at times and said “And I should care about this over-richness of facts WHY exactly?” Too much of it and I was pulled away from the story itself. It is the same with the interractions between Gaston and Will (of which there are legion.) Granted, I admit there are boring bits in a sailor’s life, but all these two seem to do is yak; chapters and chapters of it, and it got rather boring at times.
As for the actual daily life of the seaman, it was disappointingly absent for much of the book, replaced by the conversations. Only at rare points did I get the tang of salt in my nostrils and feel the rigging beneath my bare feet. They sailed around without the crew doing very much except shag and talk.
There is a over-arching plot, though and eventually it kicks in and starts to progress, but it takes too long getting there, and I had lost interest, both in the love affair and the backstory. I didn’t like Will much – he didn’t catch my imagination. He was a murderer/mercenary, and although Hoffman attempted to show me he was a “Good Egg” at the beginning by getting him to look after his bondsmen, and rescuing a sailor who was being abused, he lost any sympathy he gained there by promptly sailing off and leaving the bondsmen to rot in the hands of his overseer without a backward wave and never bothering much with the rescued sailor again.
As to the “Wolves” motif: it was overdone – He’s a nobleman, he considers himself a wolf, being on top of society and he’s always explaining about the wolves and the sheep (those who take orders.) I understood the concept after half a page, but the point was rammed home so often I was screaming at Will not to treat me like an idiot. The repetitive “hook” at the end of each chapter discussing “the Gods” too affected me like a dripping tap after 10 chapters, and I was dreading the last line of each one.
There were a few confusing or inaccurate details that I noticed. Right in chapter 1 Will says “I was not a Protestant” and then later he refers to “You Papists” so I’m all confused and thinking “well, what are you, then? Jewish?” No matter what he considered himself to be, he’d be one or the other. Then he celebrates Mass with his family so he must have been a Catholic. But even in the Restoration, I am fairly sure that Catholics weren’t celebrating Mass so openly. But feel free to contradict me, I haven’t checked this.
However, it’s not a bad read. The inaccuracies didn’t make me want to throw it against the wall, and as an adventure story it’s well researched and not horribly written. Some of the speech is a little too modern and there are some typos, but that’s to be expected in a self-published novel. Where the self-publishing REALLY lets Hoffman down, however, is the bloated size of the book itself. She would have done the book a favour to let a professional editor loose on it and rip out large sections; all the unnecessary chit-chat and scenes where nothing happens. It could have been reduced to 350 pages without losing any of its flavour, and would have been a much better, tighter book for the reduction.
Fans of seafaring tales will love this – and they do by all accounts but it wasn’t for me. After the cliffhanger ending, I don’t care enough about the characters to find out what happens to them next and the emotional involvement in reading a book 2 or 3 times the size of the average novel wasn’t repaid, as the book, in essence, contained no more actual content than a book of 200 pages.
June 22, 2016
I started this months ago, put it down at 4% as I found it difficult to get into for some reason, then finally picked it up again after GR friends recommended it. I'm so glad I gave it a second chance. I like my books with a lot of detail and very wordy but I'll admit that even I found this too much at times and it took me a very long time to start to really enjoy it (probably about 300 pages which is a lot I know!). I'm now totally with the program and can't wait to get my next fix of matelots Will and Gaston.
March 8, 2016
Entertaining though sometimes frustrating pirate soap opera. A little too heavy handed with the details for me. Ends on a cliffhanger.
July 7, 2023
La serie me ha encantado, tiene todo lo que me gusta, es ficción histórica en la que he aprendido muchísimo sobre la época dorada de los bucaneros y filibusteros y con personajes reales de la época, múltiples secundarios que no son meros figurantes, una historia que engancha y bien hilada con referencias mitológicas, conversaciones profundas, estudios psicológicos....(.vamos , que no te podías perder una frase!), unos protagonistas interesantes y " mogollón" de paginas.
El primer libro es maravilloso, luego va bajando el nivel un poco y en el último patina con la rapidez en que soluciona todas las tramas, pero después de 2000 páginas en las que solo transcurren cinco años, tenía tantas tramas abiertas que remató un poco "a la brava"
El primer libro es maravilloso, luego va bajando el nivel un poco y en el último patina con la rapidez en que soluciona todas las tramas, pero después de 2000 páginas en las que solo transcurren cinco años, tenía tantas tramas abiertas que remató un poco "a la brava"
June 7, 2018
Finally getting around to reading this series was one of my New Year's resolutions this year. Seems like I've been meaning to read this forever.
This took me four days to finish. Four days! Five-hundred-and-however-many pages isn't an unreasonable length, but this baby is dense. At one point, I felt that so much had happened to Will and Gaston that I must surely be nearing the end, only to find that I was at 46%. The scope and depth demand careful reading and frequent pauses for consideration. Also, frequent pauses to visit Google for further information on various bits of history and lore. It's wonderful.
I can't wait to find out what happens for these two next. I just need to find time in my reading schedule to make sure I can devote the proper amount of time and attention these books obviously deserve.
This took me four days to finish. Four days! Five-hundred-and-however-many pages isn't an unreasonable length, but this baby is dense. At one point, I felt that so much had happened to Will and Gaston that I must surely be nearing the end, only to find that I was at 46%. The scope and depth demand careful reading and frequent pauses for consideration. Also, frequent pauses to visit Google for further information on various bits of history and lore. It's wonderful.
I can't wait to find out what happens for these two next. I just need to find time in my reading schedule to make sure I can devote the proper amount of time and attention these books obviously deserve.
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