AMAZON UK £5.71 £13.99
AMAZON US
$7.59 $14.99
AMAZON CA $24.93
Nautical / Romance / LGBT
18th Century
In the beginning, the title “Swift for the Sun”
conjured up everything from old sailing ships swiftly following the sun - to
other flights of fancy involving smugglers and privateers (which it does). At
the end of Bovenmyer’s novel, I realized that I was further wrong in assuming
it to be a rollicking pirate fable or – as one of its genre is listed as gay
romance - a man loving another man; it was so much more (even though I, too,
have loved men – but then, I am a woman).
Benjamin Swift (as he introduces himself to us in this
first-person account) is young, impetuous and a bit of a bungler who doesn’t
listen too well to advice from his more experienced mates. This becomes sadly
evident when, as captain of the Sea Swift,
he puts his ship squarely on the rocks on cursed Dread Island. Deeming himself
the only survivor of the wreck, the young seafarer is understandably spooked
when he finds himself face to face with a blond island savage who masters
survival a lot better than our handsome Benjamin. After initial
life-threatening quarrels and mutual mistrust, the two men (both being
predisposed by nature or circumstance) fall deeply in love.
This is when the author’s mastery of human needs and
wants shines. Lust and love are aptly intertwined with Benjamin’s secret hope
to be rescued. A storm does bring a ship - and with it terrible trouble brews
for the two. Sun could easily “take care” by himself of unwanted intruders into
their isolated paradise; but during an ensuing fight, Benjamin feels he needs to
prove himself.
That’s when I shouted at my Kindle, “For heaven’s
sake, he told you to stay put!”
I had become utterly involved in the two protagonists’
fates and desperately wanted them to escape their seemingly inexorable doom
clamped on them by their “rescuers.”
Apart from the thrill of exotic seafaring adventure,
the novel left me with a much deeper question about loyalty, the bond between
two human beings, and the moral choice between killing for freedom or
submitting to Man’s laws. “What would any of us have done?”
One minor distraction, for me at least, were the
chapter titles. Some took away the faint hope that it might not be so - as for
Chapter 13, for instance.
Apart from that, this is an excellent fluid read that
easily earns applause as a Discovered Diamond.
© Inge H Borg
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