New Release Review and Giveaway! LORD OF THE PRIVATEERS by Stephanie Laurens (The Adventurers Quartet #4)

A fitting wrap up to the quartet!

Books 1-3 ( The Lady’s Command , A Buccaneer at Heart , and The Daredevil Snared ) have been building up to this point, where the enslaved men, women, and children at the diamond mine would be saved (or not), the slavers stopped (or not) and the mysterious backers revealed and punished (or not). Oh, yes, and when the final and eldest Frobisher brother, Royd, would find his HEA…or not.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved seeing all the brothers and their significant others work together for a common goal–the chemistry between them all is fantastic. I’d been anxiously awaiting the rescue of the captives at the diamond mine camp for months–though I loved getting to know Royd and Isobel (and a surprise someone else), I was practically bouncing on the edge of my seat, just waiting for them to get to Africa already.

Finally they do, and the rescue is of course very exciting and action-packed. But the book’s not over yet–the backers need to be identified and brought to heel, and Royd and Isobel need to resolve their relationship issues, once and for all, a relationship that’s literally been years in the making. So there’s a whole lot going on in this book: so many threads of the series to tie up, as well as those of all of the relationships–Royd and Isobel but also all of his brothers’ as well–making this a pretty hefty book. At just over 500 pages, it did feel like it possibly could have been tightened up a bit–all of the Black Cobra and Cynster characters did start to feel a bit like name-dropping after a while–but really, with everything going on here you know it’s not going to be able to get done in a short book, so be prepared to settle in for a good, long read when you pick this one up.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend starting with this one–everything here builds on the books that have gone before, and though they do bring Isobel up to speed (she gets involved because Kate in book 3 is her cousin) it’s still a lot to take in all at once. Ms. Laurens does do a good job of catching characters up without belaboring the point for the rest of us, though, which is much appreciated.

We leave all of the Frobisher brothers here in a good spot–happy weddings and babies galore on the horizon!–and there’s a teaser thrown in at the end for a future book for Catrina (Kit) Frobisher as well that will have me keeping an interested eye out.

Rating: 4 stars / A-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.