Review: The Blue Diamond – P. S. Bartlett

When four spirited young women find themselves orphaned and alone in an unforgiving world, they are forced to defend not only their honor but their very lives.

Ivory Shepard, has made a name for herself as the notorious pirate “Ivory Razor,” while she and her handy cousins; Cass, Keara and Miranda are building a life in Port Royal, Jamaica. When she takes a merchant ship and finds a bag full of rare diamonds, including one very large blue one, she never imagined she’d end up captured and held prisoner by a rival pirate.

Maddox Carbonale aka “Blacksnake” intends to collect a fifty thousand pound bounty on her head and earn a pardon in the process, until a fiery attraction ignites between them. Regardless of their first passionate night together, by the time the sun rises the next morning, Ivory is reminded why she trusts no one and she’s left wondering if her fate is sealed due to Blacksnake’s greed or Maddox’s wounded ego.

Ultimately unable to deny his feelings for her, Maddox offers his loyalty and his guns. but no one can take anything from Ivory Shepard that she doesn’t want to give; certainly not her freedom, and most of all, her heart.

Will she prove she can have it all on her own terms; the man, the blue diamond and her freedom?

Series: The Razor’s Edge #1
Release Date: October 3rd 2014
Publisher: Libertine Press/Ravenswood Publishing
Source: Manic Readers
Reviewer: Michelle
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

3.5 Cocktails

Four female cousins (Miranda, Ivory, Cassandra, and Keara) are determined to maintain their independence.  The four become pirates and when one of their own is lost the girls won’t stop until they are reunited.  The captain of their group, Ivory, has been captured by Captain Maddox Carbonale.  When the two of them meet a test of wills ensues.  Ivory aka “the razor” won’t back down from a fight with anyone, but she is surprised when she has to fight the feelings she has for Captain Maddox aka “blacksnake”.

I liked all of the girls.  Miranda was my favorite.  Miranda wasn’t afraid to be a woman and a pirate.  She fought as hard as any of the others, but she definitely had her share of adventure and fun.  Ivory was the main female character, but I felt like she was just too emotional.  One minute she was fighting “Blacksnake” and the next minute she was in his bed.  Then she cried and broke down when the girls went back to their home where it all began.

The male characters weren’t the least bit interesting.  Captain Carbonale was a cat (Lasher) carrying alcoholic.  He had a lot of emotional baggage.  He was stubborn to a fault and foolish.  I just didn’t see any redeeming qualities in him nor did I see any reason that a woman would feel attracted to him.  The dialogue for Master Green (Captain Carbonale’s friend and shipmaster) was terrible.  I couldn’t count how many times the author had him pleading with Captain Carbonale to change his mind about how he was treating Ivory.  Maybe I didn’t care for his dialogue because I just didn’t care for the union between Ivory and Captain Carbonale, and I felt like Master Green was begging Captain Carbonale to save Ivory.

I don’t think the author did enough to develop the relationship between Ivory and Captain Carbonale.  It was just awkward from beginning to end.  I also think that throwing in romances with the other three cousins made the book more difficult to follow.  I felt like my loyalty was being split.  I liked Miranda so much I really wanted to read more about her and her romance instead of Ivory.  I wish the author would have done a series and let each girl’s relationship develop over time instead of trying to squeeze 4 relationships into one book with a side of suspense.