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The Rogue Pirate's Bride

by Shana Galen

Shana Galen wraps up her “Sons of the Revolution” series with The Making of a Rogue and manages once again to take me on an amazing emotional journey. During the French Revolution, the Harcourt family was ruthlessly torn apart. The Duchesse escaped with her oldest son, Julian, but was unable to reach her youngest boys and believed them to be dead. In the first book, Julian discovers Armand in a French prison and manages to rescue him. In the second book, Armand gets mistaken for a pirate, Captain Cutlass. Armand remembers the days when his brothers and he played pirates as children, and his twin brother, Sebastien, always took the name Captain Cutlass. For the first time in his life, Armand has hope that his twin survived. In this third and final book, we find out what happened to Sebastien, or as he prefers to be called Bastien.

Once Bastien managed to escape the mobs, he found his way onto a Spanish ship. Proving himself a great seaman he climbed the ranks until one day his mentor gifted him with a ship they had won in battle. In a nod to his childhood he takes on the shroud of Captain Cutlass. He presents himself as a privateer for Spain, but his actions show him to be a pirate.

Raeven has spent the last 15 years aboard a British Naval ship, and it shows. She is smart, hard-working and hates to be considered a mere female. Her mother died when she was four and no one in the family was able to control her, so her father, a Navy Captain, brought her on board. Her fiancé was a Captain, also, who made the unfortunate choice of engaging Captain Cutlass in battle. Raeven's fiancé died in the skirmish and Raeven would like nothing more than to send Cutlass to the grave.

Bastien and Raeven's meeting is like the Clash of the Titans. Both have overwhelming personalities that sweep up everyone around them into their lives. Usually when two characters share such overwhelmingly passionate personalities, the female tends to be the one that falters in her beliefs and makes adjustments in her strength. I was pleased to find that Ms. Galen did not do that with Raeven. From beginning to end, she was a match for Bastien. In situations where one or the other had to come out being right, Ms. Galen made it so that the other wasn't necessarily wrong, just needed some more facts. Compromise was had on both sides, but that didn't make either of them weak.

As with most pirate adventures, this book had its share of quirky characters. The ships are full of all the fun-loving antics that are usually found in a seafaring book. Ms. Galen managed to make all the supporting characters full-bodied without being scene-stealers.

I'm actually quite sad that the series has come to an end. From the beginning to end these three books have been some of the best new books I have read in a long time. I have looked forward to each book with massive anticipation, and never once has Ms. Galen let me down. I highly, highly recommend these books. While they probably could be enjoyed by reading them out of order, the brothers are definitely richer characters for following them from the beginning.