Summary:

Trust is the rarest of commodities.

From the moment she stepped onboard Liberty’s Pleasure, Rebecca St. Martins knew something was off. Before she could sound the alarm, she was kidnapped and pulled into a conspiracy that made her question every single relationship she’d made.

Even as Rebecca questioned, she looked around at her co-captives and decided it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t let anyone harm these people for one minute longer than necessary. They had no hero coming to rescue them. Just her.

Rebecca will have to put aside a lifetime of fear and be the hero these people need. Anyone wanting to hurt them would have to go through her first.

Goodreads

Thoughts:

The adventure with the ragtag group of rebels continues to be interesting in this third book in the series! And yes, there’s just as much ‘cock’ in this one as the first two. 🙂

Let me first start by saying that the characters are always this author’s strong suit, but this book also has a fair bit of intrigue in it which I thought was really well done. I hate to say that I love back stabbing and betrayal but it can make for good storytelling and it works here. It’s not necessarily it’s hidden well or for long, but that the characters find themselves separated, unable to communicate, and backed into a corner after the captain of the ship betrays their trust. I loved the idea that they thought they were walking into a safe space and it turned out to be just another obstacle, one that almost cost them very dearly. But also, solving this problem helped pull them together even more as a united team. We’ve come a long way since the first two books when trust was at zero to now where the characters can have some sort of faith in each other. The captain’s plan backfired in that respect, hoping to play off their insecurities and instead it made them exam their trust in one another and they all passed that test with flying colors.

Now, for the characters. Rebecca is the main character and she’s shown a ton of character growth here. She still has mental health problems and probably always will but she’s recognizing certain things about herself and trying to make changes. Instead of automatically thinking everyone hates her and thinking they abandoned her, when that instinct kicks and those thoughts appear she takes a minute to reflect if that’s just her anxiety or if it’s really what happened. Would her friends abandon her? Are they her friends? Also, instead of just giving in and thinking ‘this is my life now’ she actively goes about coming up with a plan to get out of the situation. This proactive ‘I want to live’ Rebecca is a far cry from the self-destructive, giving up on life Rebecca we met back in book one.

And it’s not just Rebecca who has experienced growth. Tobi and Katherine have also gone through some changes in thinking. You see Tobi really opening up to Rebecca and counting her as a friend. And Katherine is examining her own past with Rebecca and questioning her own actions in their relationship and finding that maybe she wasn’t always right and maybe she bears some responsibility there. I think, especially with Katherine, this is a huge step forward for her to be able to move on from the past and let some of her anger with Rebecca go.

This continues to be a bit of a grim tale with so many of the characters dealing with physical and mental trauma but it does have its light-hearted moments that made me chuckle. Love the continued running joke with Rebecca’s translator that seems to translate every adjective that may be a curse word into ‘cock’ because it makes for hilarious reading. There are also lots of little slice of life or moments of mundanity, things like Rebecca going through how much supplies are going to cost her and ordering new bedsheets or clothes. I think these little details are interesting and bring a sense of realism to the story that, otherwise, may not be very grounded.

Overall, I really enjoyed this third book! I need to find out if there’s going to be a fourth because I thought this was supposed to be the end but it sort of left it open for another book at the end of this one. 4/5 stars.