The Pirate's Booty

Reviewed by Michelle Puffer © 2006

Wild Child Publishing.com © 2006

Title: The Pirate's Booty
Author: Shelli Stevens
Publisher: Cobblestone Press
ISBN: 1-60088-021-5
Genre: Contemporary/Interracial
Rating: Wicked
Length: Novella
Release Date: July 2006
Author's Website: http://www.shellistevens.com

Renee crashes a very exclusive party in order to retrieve something belonging to her family. What she doesn't know is the party is a bit hotter than she expected. All she had to do was slip in and slip out with the item, and no one would be the wiser.

Devon Murray is the descendant of the pirate who allegedly stole Renee's family heirloom. He is also the man throwing the sexy little party and keeping an eye on the comings and goings, so to speak. Realizing that Renee shouldn't be there, he pegs her for a reporter and figures he'll take care of it on his own rather than letting his bouncers handle it. Something about this party crasher intrigues him, but he's not sure what.

This book definitely started out a la Eyes Wide Shut, which was quite interesting, and I wasn't sure how the author could take that and run in a way that wasn't just bad for the romance part of the book. However, I was very impressed. Shelli Stevens was able to take this very erotic tale and turn it into a romance that I wanted to see continue and was interested in. I found the characters to be fascinating and believable for the most part and I liked them.

Often in erotic romance, I find a lot of filler, added just to connect the sex scenes, but not really adding anything to the plot. This wasn't the case in The Pirate's Booty, which was a welcome change. Although you will find the steamy bits to be absolutely sizzling and daring, you will find the romance to be sweet. It goes back and forth, and, for this reviewer, I find that believable because if you think about who you are in bed and who you are in real life, you will generally find (although not always I'm sure) a bit of a split personality.

The only thing that I thought a bit unbelievable was how quickly they fell in love. While a good many romances have the couple falling in love in a short period of time, in this instance because of the extremes between the erotic and sweet, I would have liked to have seen the couple spending a bit more time getting to know each other outside of the bedroom. I think it's hard to see someone in the image of a sex-party and then as the love of your life three or four days later. The author did do a good job of setting this up as some kind of deja vu from their ancestors, so perhaps she intended that to help suspend disbelief.

All in all a surprisingly enjoyable read!

I give it 4 cats.

Rating: 4 cats

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To find out more about how to purchase The Pirate's Booty visit Shelli Steven's website.