Sea of Ruin

A scorching hot and trigger-filled dark romance written like a wild fanfiction variant of Pirates of Caribbean—for those of us who looked at Elizabeth, Will, and Jack and thought…why choose?Starting off strong here with a disclaimer: I do not recommend this to general audience and general romance readers. This is one of those “I liked the book, I am NOT condoning the content” type of reads. There is a trigger list at the bottom of this review, I encourage readers to review the triggers before picking this book up.Alright, now that I've sank myself into the muck right away by mentioning how messed up and dark this book is, let's talk about why I'm such a fan. (Again, let's separate story contents from real-person tastes and moral codes.)Sea of Ruin follows the story of Bennett Sharp, the daughter of a notorious pirate and a fallen noblewoman. Bennett grew up in the new colonies, in Charleston, as the bane of her mother's existence and the secret pride of her father.Bennett doesn't want to grow up to be a married noblewoman—she wants to travel the high seas and embrace her pirate ancestry.Narrowly escaping Charleston, South Carolina, and the chains of marriage bondage that await her as a 1700s lady, Bennett finds herself plunged into her dream at age 14. And then the record skips—the plot jumps forward—and Bennett's in her early 20s. Life is a whole lot more complicated.Bennett's secret husband, the feral pirate lord Priest Farrell, is on her trail. He's pissed, he's dangerous, and he wants Bennett back in his bed. As husband and wife duos go, theirs isn't exactly the healthiest. They're obsessively attracted to each other. Bennett knows if she lets Priest catch up to her, it's a done deal that they'll fall back into old patterns—and Bennett can't let that happen, because Priest, the love of her life, cheated on her.Just as Priest's dangerous and sexy claws close in on Bennett and her stalwart pirate crew, another problem pops up on the literal horizon: a European warship with a pirate-hunting captain catches up to them. He wants Bennett for the English gallows, and he'll sink her crew to get to her.Bennett's always been the "leap first, deal with it later" type of gal... so you can imagine where that leads.With a devious MFM polyamorous mess, a truly gritty and (sadly) realistic 1700s pirate plot, and a whole lot of beautiful writing, Sea of Ruin is a read that grabs onto you and refuses to let you go.As referenced in the first bit of my review, this was a ton of fun for me, personally, given my love of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a very small leap to use Pam Goodwin's character descriptions to see Jack Sparrow, a sexier version of Will Turner, and pirate queen Elizabeth Swan in these pages. I was a huge fan of that.I was NOT a fan of the trigger warnings... However.This took place in the 1700s, in the lawless pirate zone with a lot of "might is right" colonizing military and the resulting dangers for marginalized groups that accompanied this space. In an uncomfortable yet period-appropriate move, Goodwin's decision to have truly dark consequences for our female main character throughout this story were unfortunately all too believable. This is no rosy-colored view of the time period, like my beloved Pirates of the Caribbean is in its PG-13 rating. This is a dark, gritty, and all-too-real look at what a free-ranging woman would have encountered in the wrong hands. And she falls into the wrong hands more than once.Overall, I think Sea of Ruin's strong plot, complex main characters, and peel-the-paint-off-the-walls sexual tension overrode my discomforts on the darker elements of this novel and I fell in love with it. I don't think I'd pick up a book like this again, but I will definitely revisit this one for its angsty trio and their exploits.Trigger Warnings:On-page depicted rape (evil character on main character), on-page attempted rape (evil character on main character), non-con (occurs to main character), dub-con (between main character and one love interest), cheating (off-page, pre-novel contents, and dubious gray area during plot itself), racism, slavery, homophobia, murder, torture, violence

I really enjoyed this book and would rate it 4.5 stars. I've read very few pirate historical romances so this story was refreshing with quite a few surprises along the way. Just a quick note before I get into my review - this book does have a prequel in the Australia anthology written to raise money for the Australian bushfires and while it's a fantastic read and was the reason I'd pre-purchased Sea of Ruin, it's not a necessity to read before getting your teeth into this one as its main focus is how two of the main characters meet and fall for each other and a compass left to Bennett by her father - more on this in a moment. In this book, their relationship is already established (and on the rocks!).Set in the 1700s, Bennett, a female pirate who is the daughter of one of the most notorious pirates that ever lived, leaves her husband, Priest, after finding proof of infidelity. Not one to be cast aside so easily, he's spent the last five years tracking her down, still desperately in love with her and wanting her back. He steals her father's compass, a treasured possession of Bennett's not only because her deceased, infamous pirate father gave it to her but because it holds a map to the location of the treasure he amassed over his lengthy career pillaging on the high seas. One small problem though - no one is able to open it, therefore it's necessary that Bennett holds onto it to break the puzzle. After finally catching up to her, Bennett is torn from Priest and her crew after being caught by one of His Majesty's finest naval officers, Lord Ashley Cutler. While decidedly cruel to her to start with, they are feverishly attracted to each other and here continues the drama.The story starts with Bennett as a young lady being raised by a mother who is cold and detached. She meets her father in secret once or twice a year when he visits secretly and without revealing too much, Bennett's life comes tumbling down around her in tragic circumstances with everyone she loves gone before picking back up with her as an established pirate running her own crew on her father's former ship that he left to her. As mentioned above, she's on the run from her estranged ex-husband who won't take no for an answer. From there, she's becomes a prisoner of the King of England and is on her way to be put on trial for piracy. Chuck in a whole lot of drama on the high seas and you're in for a great, rollicking ride.This book had a bit of everything and while I don't want to spoil anything in my review, I'll share some of the cliff notes in case anything is a trigger or a no-no for readers. There's infidelity. It's not an ongoing thing and the reasons ended up being completely unexpected for me, but it's there. There's death of loved ones. Bennett is tortured, beaten and treated cruelly at several points in the book, including by one of the love interests. She's also humiliated. There's a few instances of brutal sexual assault against Bennett. There's a love triangle as well as male on male love. It also had a bit of instalove. It was a longer book and it fit quite a lot in.The book has protective, jealous and possessive male leads in spades with Priest and Ashley keeping that mantle flying for most of the book. There were a few great steamy scenes and I enjoyed the relationships throughout the story. I generally hate infidelity in my romances, but the author put her own spin on this and I was actually okay with it by the end as there were a few twists that I didn't see coming. The writing was great, particularly the vocabulary and dialogue that supported the historical pirate themes in the book. There was good use of suspense throughout the story with great build up to key scenes. I liked the characters. Bennett was resilient and I loved that she was a female pirate captain. For someone as tough as she was, I did find she bent a little in the emotions department and was a bit too forgiving. Priest and Ashley were both great leads that were committed to Bennett and while both were from different worlds, they each lit up the pages.I had a few small issues with the story. One, Bennett was nicknamed Goldilocks by one of the characters. I'm pretty sure Goldilocks came about a bit farther in the history books. Same goes for the hot water cistern that made up a running bath. There were a couple of fights at sea, one of which had forty-odd malnourished prisoners defeating a well-trained crew that vastly outnumbered them. This just didn't make sense to me. The other thing that niggled at me was the amount of bad luck Bennett had. It made for an interesting story with the amount of twists and turns the plot took, but honestly, how much bad luck can one character have? She was always falling from one pit of bad luck into the next to the extent that it started to make me occasionally detach a bit from the story. There was a bit of predictability with one key part of the story, but luckily it didn't disrupt the flow.While the ending had a good twist, it ended on a bit of ridiculous (although feel good) note. I'm sure some readers will find it a bit over the top and maybe even a bit cheesy or coincidental, but I still really enjoyed it and will probably reread it again the future.

I was obsessed with Sea of Ruin from start to finish.This story drags you in and you don't want to leave.🏴‍☠️ Bennett is definitely one of my favorite heroines ever. She is a strong and fierce pirate captain. She goes through so much in this story, sad and horrible things, but she prevails because holy crap this woman is amazing.Then we have the men.Woah 🥵 Priest and Ashley. I just love them both.This book is steamy and loving but more than that it's just an epic story.I was worried at first that I couldn't get into a regency pirate romance, but thankfully I was very wrong.✨ I can't recommend Sea Of Ruin enough!

This book was unlike any others I've read. All the raw emotions I could feel as I read. I love the "no judgement" of situations that would be so easily judged. The passion that these men held for Bennett.. ugh so good! I love how Bennett is so strong minded and unforgiving but so soft and loving at the same time. How intense Priest is with his rugged raw love. And Ashley, fighting with himself for what he should do and what he wants. Ugh, just magical! 100% recommended!

This is such a great book, it deserves more hype, for real. If there is any doubt, this is your sign BUY IT!!!!!!!

Seriously, I could not stop reading . . . This book reminded me of the torturous historical romances I used to read back in the 80s - usually a pirate romance or some alpha male dominating a heroine. Thing is, this heroine truly gives as good as she gets - she is put through pure hell but I'd imagine that is kinda what women went through in the golden age of piracy! I did not expect to fall so in love with the pirate hunter, but their dark romance, their captor/captive love affair was seriously HOT! Whilst I enjoy MFM romance I am not too interested in MMF - this ended up being a bit in the middle (no pun intended) - so that part of it was okay but not great and the end got a bit sloppy. I think the words soul-crushing or heartwrenching come to mind when I think of this book. Not sure but there is a darkness to the love captured here and it makes you ache! I'm going to try the audiobook now since the Sea of Rui just won't leave me be.

This book...my god. I can’t put into words how much this book decimated my world in the best of ways. It’s the first book I’ve read by this author and the book hangover I’m currently nursing is like none other. It’s devastated me in the best of ways. This book is exactly why I trawl through hundreds of books a year in search of a diamond in the rough. From the very start I was hooked. With every chapter I fell deeper and deeper into the story and didn’t come up for breath until I was finished, at 6:41am. The twist, that I hadn’t seen coming, was perfect, and perfectly executed. And the result of it lent way to an ending that could never have been anything else or any other way.This book will forever burn fiercely and brightly in my memory of books that cement my love affair with the written word. Priceless.Note: this book contains graphic descriptions of violence and non-con. Read at your own risk.

Sea of Ruin is a dark historical pirate romance unlike anything I have read before and I loved every minute of it. It is a fast paced and emotional read that had my heart racing with all of the angst and suspense.This is a story full of strong characters, epic adventures and steamy romance. There is a bit of a love triangle happening between Bennett, Priest and Ashley which I wasn't sure of to start with but it was done so well and I was eager to find out how it would all play out.

I should have heeded the warnings from other reviewers about non-con. There was one instance of attempted rape and I thought, "huh, that must be it". Boy was I wrong. The book was violent in which it was against a woman, the non-con was plentiful, and the pain-pleasure thing had me sweating bullets but not in a good way. Good if you're into that sort of kink, but for me it hust made me want to puke. Don't get me wrong, the writing was fanatastic. It was so good that I felt like I lived through it in every gorey, nightmarish detail. That's probably why I felt sick to my stomach by the end, wishing I had never read this book.