Review: The Bastard by Brenda Novak

The Bastard

By: Brenda Novak

Pub. Date: October 23, 2011

Source: Netgalley

To some men honor is just a word….

Jeannette Boucher, a young French beauty from a family left penniless by the revolution, must marry against her will to save them all from ruin. But almost immediately after the vows are spoken, she learns that her old English husband is impotent—and in his desire for an heir, he plans to compromise her in the worst way.

Determined to escape such a fate, she stows away on one of His Majesty’s frigates. But a woman alone is in constant danger.

To Lieutenant Treynor, honor means everything….

Born a bastard to a wayward marquise, Lieutenant Crawford Treynor was given to a poor farmer to raise and was maltreated until he ran away to join the Royal Navy. Treynor is determined to prove he’s as good as any other man and rise to captain his own frigate. But once he finds Jeannette aboard The Tempest he must decide whether to return her to the man he knows would abuse her—or risk everything, even his life, to keep her safe.

I tried this one out because the synopsis intrigued me, the cover was amazing and netgalley had it on "read it now".  But unfortunately, I was disappointed. I thought the story was interesting and I really liked Jeannette as the heroine but Crawford bothered the hell out of me! I had the impression he was really going to be a gentleman, and in some ways he was, but the majority of the times he was just an ass hole.

After 18 year old Jeannette Boucher marries Lord St Ives, she learns that on their wedding night he is going to have all of his friends have sex with her since he needs an heir and is impotent. Jeannette runs away immediately and finds herself on a Royal Navy ship, posing as a 13 year old boy.

Lieutenant Crawford Treynor was born a bastard to Lady Bedford. Knowing she would be scorned from society, she paid a farmer to raise him. He spent the first 14 years of his life being beaten and finally ran away and joined the Royal Navy.

Now, Jeannette is on Crawford's ship and if she is found out, she will be sent back to her cruel husband to be raped. When Crawford finds out who she is, he agrees to keep her secret safe for the time being and eventually the two fall in love.

As I said earlier, the story sounds so intriguing and in a lot of ways it was, but I think I had a completely different vision of who Crawford was, that when he turned out differently, I couldn't stand it. When he finds out Jeannette is actually a women, and not a young boy, he takes off all of her clothes and ties her arms to a piece of furniture so she can't escape. Really??

I have to say that I did enjoy the ending. I liked how nicely everything came together. I also enjoyed Crawford healing from his past and finally getting in touch with it and his feelings.