Falling for the Pirate by Amber Lin (Men of Fortune #2)
Historical Romance
Released: July 21, 2014
Entangled

Reviewed by Mandi

Captain Nate Bowen has had a difficult life. His father survived sailing most of his life, only to die at the hands of a murderer. This thrust Nate into the streets, where he barely survived.  But Nate turned his life around. The captain of the Nightingale, he feels most at home on the sea. But he is also part owner of Fortune Investments, along with a few other men, most who more well off than Nate but all super ambitious. Nate never feels quite good enough or on the same level as the Duke of Sinclair that started Fortune Investments, or the other titled men, but he is proud of his accomplishments. He doesn’t do friendships, but Sinclair and the others are still a presence in his life. Nate also has another passion – keeping troubled boys off the street. He opens his ship to these boys and teaches them sailing skills so they have a chance at a successful future. His one goal in life though is to exact revenge on the man responsible for his father’s death. And that man’s daughter falls right into his lap.

Juliana Hargate is a well-bred lady, whose father abandons her when trouble falls on him. Penniless, Juliana decides to break into Hargate shipping company (recently acquired by Fortune Investments) to see if she can find any paperwork that clears her father’s name. She dresses as a chimney sweep, selling her last dress for a few coins. Nate happens to be relaxing on his ship when he sees a figure in the darkness entering his investment building. As he chases her, Juliana falls into the water. Nate drags her out and nurses her back to health – only to discover she has amnesia from the fall. Suspicious that Juliana has come on her father’s behalf to cause Nate harm, he doesn’t know what to do with her and thinks her amnesia is just an act.

I love a good pirate romance, and for the most part this story engaged me. Nate is a big, hulking pirate who carries around much anger with him. Sure he helps out troubled boys and is very good to his staff, but only those close to him see that side. Otherwise, he is surly and pushes everyone away. I enjoy this type of hero. The kind that doesn’t feel worthy of true love or feelings. But this also brings me to the one thing that bothered me in this story.

The amnesia plot doesn’t last too long as Juliana pretty quickly regains most memory. Nate knows she is the daughter of the man he has been trying to kill for the past ten years, but Juliana doesn’t know of Nate’s hatred for her family. She thinks Nate’s boss owns Fortune Investments, she has no idea that Nate is an actual owner. From the start, Juliana feels like she needs to repay Nate for his care of her after she fell in the water. He fed her, clothed her and housed her. Juliana feels like she has nothing else in her life to go back to, so she offers her body as payment. This is where things started to get tricky for me. It was hard for me to figure out when Juliana went from just offering her body, to actually falling in love with Nate. I felt a little weird each time they would start to have a physical romance because one: I wasn’t sure if Juliana was just doing it because she felt she owed Nate something, and two: Nate’s relationship with her father and keeping secrets from her rubbed me the wrong way. If he truly had feelings for her, he needed to come clean sooner.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, there was something that felt off with the way Juliana falls in love with Nate. Something was missing.

Otherwise, this one is fun and I hope we get more books set in this world.

Rating: C+

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