Recent reading

[luzula]

I'm behind on booklogging...here's one of them, at least.

Men of War by Lou Faulkner (2019)
This is an Age of Sail m/m romance between an English captain and a French naval officer who is also an astronomer and navigator, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the characters easy to care about, which I think is because they are so grounded in the setting and both have previous lives and pursuits unconnected to the other, including previous lovers. It's a very slow burn romance, which I like, with no love/lust at first sight, and quite satisfying in the end. The writing style is lovely, and you can tell that the author has done her research--not that I am in a position to actually judge, but the descriptions of life at sea are detailed and feel very well done. The main characters are men, but there are a fair number of women in the book as well. Recommended, if this sounds like the sort of thing you would enjoy!

Maybe I should say that I know the author, but my review would have been as positive regardless.

Since the book contains, among other things, pirates in the Indian Ocean, let me also share a hilarious (otherwise unconnected) fact which I learned recently: in the early 18th century, Sweden was so short of money after all that warfare that they contemplated making a deal with pirates in Madagascar. *boggles* The pirates would give Sweden money in exchange for using a Swedish flag of convenience, so that they could claim to be privateers and not be immediately hanged when captured.

Comments

I'm boggling right along with you.

[jesse_the_k]

Following similar logic, the state of Delaware (which is tiny) created an industry for itself by enacting the loosest possible regulations on corporations. More than half of all U.S. corps are registered there.

Re: I'm boggling right along with you.

[luzula]

Yeah, I guess the principle is sadly not unusual in any time!

[chestnut_pod]

Huh. Why Madagascar specifically?

[luzula]

I have no idea! I guess because there were pirates there? But the pirates actually seem to have been mostly Europeans.

[seascribble]

GAY MEN ON BOATS, my jam.

[luzula]

Heh. Enjoy, then! : )

[regshoe]

18th century history is such fun :D

[luzula]

And occasionally boggling...

[dhampyresa]

Does Men of War by Lou Faulkner give good enemies-to-lovers?

[luzula]

It depends on what you mean by the trope. To my mind, there's really two kinds: the first is where they are personal enemies and actually dislike each other, and there can be hatesex (not that I know this trope well, because I almost never read it). The second is two people who happen to be on opposite sides of some conflict, but who respect each other, and in that case it's more about the plot throwing obstacles in their way, and them needing to balance their attraction to the other person against the duty to their own side (this trope I like a lot). And Men of War gives good enemies-to-lovers of the second kind.

[dhampyresa]

Excellent! Thank you for answering.

[hyarrowen]

I love the idea of Swedish Madagascan letters-of-marque! So much more classy than simple pirating. Obviously.

[luzula]

Hee. I doubt they cared about being classy, so much as not being hanged...and the reason I know about this at all is because one of the pirates was an ex-Royal Navy with Jacobite ties, and it was mentioned in one of Bruce Lenman's books.