Karen Hawkins - Her Master and Commander

Just ask Reeves!
Dying without legitimate issue, the late Earl of Rochester sent his butler extraordinaire, Reeves, to find his wild, illegitimate children and "civilize" them. Reeves must seek out the first of the earl's arrogant sons, Captain Tristan Llevanth, a one-time pirate, and teach him to be a gentleman.
A will of steel...
Tristan Llevanth gave up his free-wheeling life as a pirate to fight at Admiral Nelson's side. Wounded, Tristan will never again sail the seas he loves. Life has no more challenges. Or so he thinks, until Reeves brings a certain outspoken lady into the captain's uncultured household...
An iron-clad spirit...
Reeves believes Tristan needs a spark to relight the fires of his soul. And who better than lovely Prudence Thistlewaite, the bane of the captain's existence? Prudence wants nothing to do with her wickedly handsome, ill-tempered neighbor. Still, she cannot refuse the outlandish sum Reeves offers to smooth Tristan's rough edges.

Comment: I had this book in the shelf for years, it was given to me through a book exchange who knows when... it has been left behind but then I simply decided to grab it, thus why it's on the list now.

In this historical romance, we meet Tristan and Christian, two illegitimate brothers whose mother had been wrongly imprisoned for treason. As they attempt to run, Tristan is captured and Christian runs away, and their fates become very different: Tristan is taken to be part of the navy and he becomes a pirate and Christian becomes a highwayman and thief.

Now, as their father is dying without a heir, he finds a way to make them legitimate and sends his butler Reeves to turn them into gentlemen but the task proves to be quite the challenge. However, Tristan now lives in a propriety which is neighbor to another, where mrs Prudence Thistlewaite and her mother live. Reeves believes Prudence is exactly what Tristan needs, but will he see things the same way?

I really had no expectation of this book, for I had not read anything by the author before but I did hope this would be a sweet story. Nevertheless, I had this idea in my head due to the cover; it's true we should not judge books by the cover and sometimes they are very misleading, but seeing the cover immediately gave me the notion this would be one of those stories with a lot of seduction and sex scenes. Although it wasn't quite as strong in that regard as I supposed, the overall result wasn't balanced enough for me in all aspects.

Tristan, the hero, led a very adventurous life since he was a boy, first in a pirate ship, then much later by helping Lord Nelson and being seen as a hero, then becoming injured and now having to on land. He is also a good man and his old crew have showed up, one by one, to stay with him. This is something he cherishes but so many people cost money and that is the main reason he accepts his father's will and money, so he can help the others.

Prudence is a widow who lives with her mother and they want to start their own academy for young ladies but this has been more difficult to achieve than they imagined and the fact Tristan seems to be a careless neighbor infuriates her. Still, it's also convenient for them to help Tristan and Prudence does know enough of society and etiquette to help Tristan becoming the lord others will expect him to be, so that the title is validated to go to him.

The idea of this story is not really impressively done as it has been in so many other novels, but things progressed well enough. I think the goal here is for Reeves, the butler, to be seen as this effective and knowledgeable person who not only does what is necessary to help the brothers but he is also like a sort of fairy godmother of sorts, someone who is there to put the brothers in the right track. Still, I've found his character to be a little forgetful, and not as solid as I supposed he could have been.. even though he is a butler.

Thus, Tristan and Prudence are kind of led by the butler to a mutual interest in seeing Tristan succeed and, of course, they fall in love in the process. I confess I wasn't particularly captivated by their romance for two main reasons: the characters didn't have such a personality that everything else would always feel secondary and the writing style was not truly gripping. I liked them both and I liked they were going to be happy together but nothing about them really fulfilled any special interest I might have... it's, sadly, one of those things where I can easily forget these characters.

I cannot say that this book is really that bad, in fact if I had read it when it was published I probably would have liked it more, but now, after having read many other historicals which I liked more, it's certainly difficult not to compare. Still, it was entertaining and easy to read.

I have another book by the author somewhere in the pile, of a different, more contemporary series. I will have to check that one out and see how the change of time (and genres) improved the author and if I like that one other more.

Grade: 5/10