The Pirate Bride

This second installment of the Daughters of the Mayflower series from Y’Barbo (Blame it on Texas) provides an unpolished if rollicking tale of pirates, privateers, rolling seas, and intrigue. Maribel Cordoba, great-great-granddaughter of Mayflower traveler Mary Lytton, inherited her ancestor’s love of adventure, which serves her well when the ship she’s traveling on is commandeered by privateers and Captain Jean Beaumont. When her father is killed, Maribel is taken aboard Beaumont’s ship. But when that ship, too, is attacked, she is placed in an orphanage on a small Caribbean island for her safety. Years pass with no word of Beaumont or her family, until one day a mysterious stranger arrives to take a grown-up Maribel to her mother and grandfather—whom she thought were dead—in New Orleans. Hidden identities, missions, and agendas complicate matters, but in the end it is Beaumont and the once-lost girl who forge a real and honest relationship after years of fighting on the high seas. Although the chronology is convoluted, transitions are often abrupt, and faith aspects are thin, adventure buffs will enjoy the unrelenting action. (Apr.)