Play Book Tag discussion

I was tempted to put this under fun, since I enjoy sea stories, but it does start and end with bloody battles, so that would have been weird. I went through the whole Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien, on wonderful audios. This book is set during the same time, the British navy during the Napoleonic wars. However, in this book it is still the 1790's and there is only a rumor about an upstart Corsican. British ships are encouraged to basically be pirates and take over ships from enemy nations as prizes.

Charles Edgemont is a young lieutenant who ends up in charge of his ship when the captain and first mate are killed. He gets credit as a hero, but he knows that he was terrified the whole time and that it was the captain who made all the decisions before being killed. Still as he is rewarded with his own command, he learns from the styles of various officers and ends up with a loyal crew. He also turns out to have a gift for strategy. Meanwhile at home, he has fallen in love with a Quaker woman who detests war and the military. She is a wonderfully strong character, as is Charles' sister. It looks like there are only 2 more books in the series, but I intend to read them. Note - there is a lot of nautical terminology, which I mostly don't understand, about the various sails and parts of the ship, but it doesn't bother me.