Thank you to NetGalley for this arc. I rate this book 5 stars and 4 chili peppers for spice. I freaking ate this book up! The pirate/sailing lingo felt so realistic. The writing made me feel like I was dropped onto a ship from Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but make it a gay love triangle. I loved the secrets and backstories. All the side characters were awesome too. I could have kept reading about these three characters because their dynamic and history was so interesting. Can’t wait to read more from this author.

Amazing. An absolutely wonderful story.
Poly pirates was enough to sell me, and then the story itself knocked it out of the park. I was hooked immediately by the wonderful cast of characters (Vitaliy especially), and then the story itself exceeded all of my expectations. Piracy, politics, stupid idiots in love, what more could I ask for? The balance between the story and the romance was done incredibly well, focusing on our three lovers without ignoring the world building around them. Everyone felt like a person with their own motivations, which can often get overlooked in romance as a genre. I devoured the whole thing in two days and can't wait to read it again. Wonderful. Stupendous. I'm so glad I picked this up.

this was actually such a fun read! i honestly couldn't put it down sometimes.

☀️mmm romance
☀️the good kind of angst
☀️marriage of convivence
☀️pirates
☀️spice 3/5

honestly i think this book could have been an easy five star for me if it hadn't been so hard to read sometimes. the period typical language, writing style, and dialogue just did NOT flow smoothly in my head. there was a lot of slang too. i'd also say the plot was pretty secondary to the characters, but i was SAT for all three of them so i honestly didn't care.

I loved reading this love story about second chanses and new loves. It's not easy to write GOOD poly romance, but E.M. Caro really surprised me with their unique writing style. I loved how the connection between the men deepend and was explored. It was wonderful, and I wanted more. This author is one I will be looking out for.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me give my honest feedback.

4.5 stars rounded up. Thank you for the digital ARC.

The moment I saw this cover, I knew this book would be for me. The Age of Sail, polyamory, and pirates? Yes please!

Everard Anderson de Anglada is a great character to follow, especially given his Catalan background, which allows the author to explore issues of racial discrimination. I do feel like D'Arcy wasn't quite fleshed out as well as he could have been, and he vanishes from the story for a good portion, even if Everard is thinking about him often, it feels like their prior relationship is told rather than shown to readers.

Everard is a warm, kind, and intensely loyal man (which is how he got himself into this mess). He has a tendency to overthink, especially trying to align himself with Vitaliy's crew, which ends in some extremely funny moments with Vitaliy's second-in-command.

I also felt that after the initial excitement and action of Everard deserting the Navy to rescue Vitaliy, we spent an awful lot of time in the great cabin. I didn't mind spending that time with Everard, it was good character development for him to grapple with being ex-Navy and the things he was asked to do in the service, but it did slow things down. There were a couple of instances where we skipped over some action that would have been tasty and better explained the political action happening in the background.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the one big fight scene we had taking another warship, and the Vitaliy's ingenuity when it came to fighting. The spice is also definitely there, I will not spoil things, but they get creative with certain machinery.

If this becomes a series (and I really hope that it does), I would love to read about René and her ship of lady pirates. The author has clearly done a lot of research, and I want to see more of the historical details and daily ship life. Overall, I had a great time with this book, and would gladly read more from E.M. Caro in the future. I flew through the story, loved the characters and setting, and adored the cover.

I went into this book with high expectations because gay poly pirates? Sign me the f*ck up! And I was not disappointed. 

I will not claim to have extensive knowledge of the historical time period, but I’ve read enough books over rather years to have understood it enough. And I do enjoy historical fiction, something in particular that kept my attention was the writing style in which it was written with the use of historical language and dialogue patterns and words. This was for me quite enjoyable as it put me deeper in to the story and deeper into the early 1800s which it was set. 

Within the first 40 pages I was ready to riot if ANYTHING happened to any of the main characters. This is also included few other characters, Thom being one. The characters, especially the main three Everard, D’Arcy and Vitaliy/Vitya I found were rather well written both individually and in their interactions with each other. I found their different dynamics with each other refreshing, especially towards the end as things developed and new aspects were revealed.

The pacing was done extremely well, with the intimacy between the characters developing alongside the plot. While the sexual tensions between Everard and both other men was there from very early on, it still took time for anything to actually occur. This felt realistic considering the circumstances being they have to undergo daily task of pirate business and the like. And when they did get down to it was executed well, with heavy emphasis being made on consent. I also found that the development of their relationship, especially the sexual side of it was done well. This was because it didn't immediately include all three of them but rather Everard with both men separately before it progressed to be all three of them.

Don't get me started on the plot twists. I like to think I am good at picking plot twists out, and some of them I saw coming but others completely caught me off guard and I found myself absolutely flabbergasted in the best way possible. Without spoiling anything, these moments of reveal added even more depth to the story and some individual characters as well as their relationships with others because of it.

Overall, I loved this book in every part of it. Additionally, the inclusion of content warnings in the first few pages is much appreciated and worth checking before reading.

For starters, I love the title of this - it is so cheeky and fun. I also am in love with the cover art, the design is so eye catching. I love a gay pirate story!!! And this one was so wonderfully well-written.

While the blurb likens this to Black Sails meets Hamilton, I would substitute Hamilton with the Aubrey and Maturin series. Read: there is a lot more nautical terms than political debate. Either a lot of research was done for this book or the author is extremely good at faking it (I honestly couldn't tell, not having done the research myself), and it really worked for me. It made me feel like I was there, like it was real.

I'm so glad that I have given this book a try. You have to work for it, I won't deny it. Nothing is handed to you on a platter. Nautical terms abound, and nothing is made transparently clear whether in terms of the (geo)political situation or the motivations of the characters, but if you read between the lines, everything is there, and it frankly becomes extremely fun and rewarding to figure it out. I understand this might not be for everyone, but honestly this felt like reading Aubrey-Maturin, except lightly anti-colonial (aka a great deal more anti colonial than Aubrey-Maturin) and a whole lot queerer (both in terms of sexual orientation and politics).

Also, as a big lover of pirate stories, I can't believe I didn't know about matelotage until now.

Thanks for the ARC!

4.5 stars rounded up

I had a great time with this book! The homage to other maritime fiction was clear (I see you, half-Catalan protagonist serving under the English navy) but it was probably the most accessible-yet-reasonably-accurate novel on a ship I've ever read (yes, this is me side-eyeing the other reviews talking about how confusing it was. It wasn't confusing at all, the sailing terms are clear if you just pay attention to the context. And it would make no sense for the narrator, a life-long sailor, to be explaining them in the text. Anyway.) The sex was actually sexy. The romance focuses on the Everard/Vitya pairing within the throuple, and I would have liked to see a little more development of their separate relationships with D'Arcy happen on page, but that's really my only quibble.