Scandalous by Minerva Spencer

Tracy’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: The Outcasts #3

Release Date: September 24, 2019

Martin Bouchard, Captain of the Golden Scythe, privateer for England has captured a Dutch ship that is most certainly a slaver. As a former slave, Martin lives to capture and punish slavers and in the process has become a very rich man. When he enters the room to parlay with the captain of the Blue Bird, he is shocked to see one of the people waiting is a woman. Sarah Fisher was taken along with all the people in her village during a slaver raid – she is the daughter of missionaries and is trying to convince Martin to forgo the prize and let everyone go. She even goes as far as to hold him at gunpoint and to offer herself in exchange.

Martin just wants to get rid of Sarah and the annoying captain Mies Graaf, but soon finds out that he will not be getting his prize and must transport Mies and Sarah back to England. Along the way he gets to know Sarah and she teaches him to read and write. She is falling hard for him – just like every woman with eyes does – but he keeps pushing her away.

As the story progresses the reader learns much more about Martin and his past, which explains a lot of his behavior, but failed to make me like him – he is just such a jerk – he is arrogant, vain and cruel. Why Sarah loved him is beyond me. I mean what’s not to love about a hero that is snide, rude, hurtful and runs off to brothels every chance he gets? Or one that sends a letter explaining everything and then leaves England without the heroine? I really tried to forgive him, but every time he had a chance to win me over, he blew it. I remember him being a bit cocky in the previous book, but not like this. Upside, we got to reunite with Hugh, Daphne, Mia, Adam and Jabril (Gabriel) from the previous books and that was wonderful. I struggled to rate this story, it was well written, flowed nicely, has steamy love scenes, interesting historical details about the slave trade, great secondary characters and a sweet epilogue. But Martin and Sarah were not my favorite couple and their “romance” just fell flat for me. This is the third book in the series, and I HIGHLY recommend the previous books, but neither are necessary to read to enjoy this book.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher.*