October Read: The Reckless

A few years ago, I read Marylu Tyndall’s The Redemption, The Restitution, and The Reliance, Christian pirate books. I’d never read any pirate stories before due to content in them, but these were refreshingly clean and Christian to boot! And then I saw there were more in the series. For some reason I decided to skip ahead to the sixth book in the series focusing on the children of the main characters in the first three, The Reckless.

The Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads)

Captain Reena Charlisse Hyde always gets what she wants. She wanted to be the best female pirate on the Caribbean and she is. She wants to find the mythical Fountain of Youth and she knows the location of the map. And now after searching across the Caribbean for the man she intends to marry, she has found him. There are only two problems. He doesn’t want to be found, and he’s on board a Royal Navy frigate—the last place a pirate should venture. 

Frederick Carlton thought he was finally safe from the woman who held his heart. But her attempt to rescue him labels him a deserter from the Royal Navy. He’s turned his life over to God and plans on being a preacher, but every moment he spends with Reena drives him deeper into a past he longs to forget. 

Mutinies, deserted islands, treasure maps, battles, traitors, and villains send the couple sailing on a tsunami of adventure throughout the Caribbean in search of the Fountain of Youth. Frederick longs to escape the lure of the woman he loves. Reena longs for Frederick to love her again. But in the end, they will both have to choose between eternal youth or the lives of everyone they love.

My Review:

Captain Reena Hyde is a pirate who chases–and usually gets–everything she wants. And the two things she has her eyes set on now–eternal youth and the love of her life, Frederick Carlton–seem right within her grasp. Except they aren’t. Frederick, an ex-pirate turned Christian, has no desire to return to piracy and thus be with Reena, and the map leading to the mythical Fountain of Youth–or a piece of it, at least–is within the grasp of a notorious enemy pirate, who will do anything to find it himself.

Of course, coming into this I was excited to read about Reena and Frederick, especially the latter since he featured in my favorite of Mrs. Tyndall’s books, The Reliance. And the beginning was quite entertaining, with Reena “rescuing” an unwilling Frederick from his place as chaplain aboard a navy frigate.

This instantly colorful cast of main characters endeared me to them. Both were distinct, with strong suits and weaknesses, and neither of them ever acted out of character. Reena was spunky, a commander, and was the opposite of a damsel in distress in most cases–but she was also vulnerable, weak, and needed rescuing herself on occasion. Frederick was a Christian, but still struggled with his old ways and mindset, and thus was a very believable young Christian. Most importantly though, he leaned on God to help him resist his temptations, most of the time.

I really enjoyed the side cast of characters. Abraham, an ex-slave who Reena rescued, was adorable in how much he cared for her and wanted her to make Godly choices. In fact, he was probably the wisest character in the book, save for perhaps another, spoiler otherworldly character. The little boy, Michael was super endearing as well, and those two easily were my favorites. Brodie and Jo, two others on Reena’s crew, were extremely cute, and I’m so glad they got together in the end.

The dialogue was quite distinct as well. Frederick and Reena, as the two point of view characters, both had different voices, and distinct turns of phrases. There was also a lot of dialect differences involved in the book which made it slightly hard to read at times and is what I’ve heard to avoid in my own writing. But in terms of voice, it did work to make Brodie, a Scotsman, sound different from Abraham, an African, and both of them different from Frederick and Reena, who were more educated. The villain, a Frenchman, also had his own French phrases scattered throughout, helping his voice stand out too.

As much as I enjoyed the characters, how the plot wrapped up was–well, to say the least, it felt a bit sudden and contrived. In order to avoid spoilers, let’s just say a major character gets saved and suddenly makes a decision that essentially nullifies a huge portion of the story. There were also a couple other small things which gave me pause–such as Reena’s attempt at “rescuing” Frederick on the navy frigate. She jumps overboard, pretending she can’t swim, and he jumps in to save her–yet everyone aboard thinks he’s deserting? They literally saw a woman fall overboard and he jumped after her, and yet that constitutes desertion? And Reena coming to Christ did seem a bit sudden to me still, even though there was some build up to it.

The other elements of the story were well grounded, however. The pirates and their behavior, the different towns they visited, the sword battles and injuries sustained, and the romance between Reena and Frederick were executed well and realistically. And I loved seeing the cast of characters from the previous books getting some scene time too!

Probably my biggest surprise with this book was how different it was from the prior three. It wasn’t shockingly different–it’s still a pirate story, after all–but there were a lot more fantastical elements to The Reckless than in the previous books I read. Angels and demons, visions and seer dreams–I do not recall these elements in the first three books, and I was a little surprised to find them here. And while they went with the story, in my opinion, they just didn’t mesh well with an adventurous pirate story.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for adding in Christian elements of angels and demons and spiritual warfare–but in a fantasy book. Or maybe very occasionally in other genres. I mean, in the Bible itself, most people didn’t ever see angels, and those who did maybe saw one once or twice in their lives. They didn’t have continual visions of the future and demons and chains around people and so on. Again, not that I dislike this concept, but in my opinion, it belongs in more of a fantasy or speculative genre, not an adventure/historical one. I felt like this book is more of a fantasy pirate story in that case, as compared to its predecessors which were much less heavy on the fantastical elements while still having great Christian content.

But the surprising fantastical elements aside, the story went smoothly. Lots of action interspersed with character interaction and growth made the story fun and easy to read, even if I felt the plot wrapped up a bit too conveniently.

In all, though this is my least favorite of the four Marylu Tyndall novels I’ve read, I’d definitely still recommend this book to readers who enjoy clean pirate stories with fantastical elements and a strong Christian message. If you’re looking for a more traditional clean Christian pirate adventure story though, be sure to check out the first three novels in this series, as those are great and I don’t recall as much (if any) fantastical elements in them.

Rating: 3.75/5 Stars

Content Note: There are a couple references to black men called “negros” for historical context, but the main- and Christian characters are staunchly anti-racist and anti-slavery. There are also references to past “lovemaking” between an unmarried couple and a character being born out of violence and lust.

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Thank you for reading my review. Have you read this book, or do you plan to? What did you think of it, if you have? Do you enjoy pirate stories, or fantasy stories dealing with angels and demons? Let me know in the comments below. God bless! ~ Kay Adelin