Gentle Pirate is vintage Jayne Ann Krentz (writing as Jayne
Castle). It's vintage in more ways than one.
Gentle Pirate reflects Jayne's earlier style of hero, who is
more aggressive than her more recent heroes. In this story,
however, since the heroine has had a bad experience with her
dead husband and spousal abuse, it is less style and more
about the impact of this situation on the heroine.
This story is also typical in that Jayne develops a
marvelous relationship between the hero, Simon Kendrick, and
the heroine, Kirsten Mallory.
This relationship begins with a tense scene between the two
main characters. Simon, as the newly hired hatchet man for
Silco, a company in Washington, is reviewing the impact of
each department on the company's bottom line. Kirsten,
the head of the reference library, is sure that Simon, like
most others, will have no idea what the function of the
reference library really is, and even with her analysis,
Kirsten expects to be out of a job.
Since she's not that tied to her job, this isn't not that
big a deal to Kirsten. Additionally, she has determined
that no one is going to be in the position of controlling
her again (as her dead husband tried to do - and no, she's
not the reason her husband is dead, in case you're
wondering. Do you want to know why he dies? - you'll have
to read the book!).
Well, Simon is an alpha male type of hero (what other kind
does Jayne have and don't we love 'em) and in the first
meeting, he tries to intimidate Kirsten by rudely making her
just sit in his office, waiting and watching him complete
what he's working on. It's clear that when the conversation
starts, it does so because Simon has decided it will, and
they share that low-key confrontive type of conversation
that really creates some wonderful tension between Simon and
Kirsten.
Well, not only does Kirsten keep her job, but she apparently
gets much more than she bargained for. Simon clearly
chooses Kirsten as his and through each of the subsequent
meetings, establishes his claim on her. Kirsten, however,
has just gotten out of a marriage with a husband who
violently tried to establish who was in charge, so she's not
interested in getting closer to yet another take-charge man.
Who do you think wins this one? Your alpha male, of course.
Does Kirsten roll over and give up? Of course not!!!!
It's fun to watch this relationship grow, rather in spite of
what Kirsten thinks she wants. It takes time for Simon to
establish his trustability with Kirsten, but he does it and
it's worth it.
The plot of the story involves drugs, Kirsten's dead marine
husband and his friend, kidnapping, burglary...well, you
kind of get the idea. Jayne has included some interesting
items to this book's plate: the hook that replaces Simon's
left hand (makes imagery for me - I try to figure what
changes that would make to a love scene or just plain
hugging, for instance), Simon's real job as a small winery
owner (and we know how Jayne likes wine), and spousal abuse,
which is not dealt with in depth but is more a part of what
motivates the heroine.
I enjoyed reading and rereading this book. I recommend it
to you.
Carole Coonrod
