Rob J. Hayes

I believe I've read my 10th SPFBO 2017 book, keep them coming!

Now that the race to see who wins the contest is coming to a close, I now decided to read this one which is currently in 1st place and will likely win the contest. All in sum, the book is totally worth reading and I would be very glad if it wins. The author clearly deserves the accolade for such a superb book.

This is a pirate story and not the watered down Pirates of the Caribbean version, these guys are thugs but each of the main characters of this book has a cause and in their own little way, a code of honor. While not magic heavy, there are subtle hints of magic in this world including the still unseen sorcery of heavily persecuted witches and a race of humanoid beasts called Drurr that seem to be detested by everyone. Now, I don't read pirate books that often, but every pirate book I have read has been worth my time.

The last pirate book with a heavy fantasy setting I read was Evonne and Vrawg: Bounty Hunters (if you enjoyed this book, you should seriously read that one as well). While both books are different, I loved how they each have at least 1 attractive but emotionally strong female character that decides to join a pirate crew knowing full-hand they would be classified as murderous thugs and having to prove themselves.

Where Loyalties Lie cleverly switches POV's not between specific characters, but between the crew of different pirate ships. I think it makes things a lot easier to understand because they introduce a lot of characters all at once. Most of the book follows the stories of two captains: Keelin Stillwater (the Pheonix ship) who is a more Robin-Hood esque pirate that prefers it when sailors give up over bloodshed and the pompous but charismatic Drake Morass (the Fortune ship).

Both of them don't seem to like each other, but when one of the pirate islands is ransacked by the navy and everyone killed, they are left with little choice but to team up and convince other pirate captains to join Drake's vision of uniting the community and follow him as their new king.

One of the problems is that pirates are usually self absorbed pathological liars and everyone knows that Drake is full of himself. Not that he cares, even bad publicity is good publicity in his opinion. He's so badass! I also can't help but chuckle because one of the side plots of Drake's quest is to find a badass beast that can kill the rat infestation of his ship. He doesn't want a cat BTW and nobody owns a sufficiently nasty spider to replace the old spider that died of old age. I won't spoil what animal ends up joining the crew, you'll just have to find out for yourselves.

Keelin as the most honorable of the book's pirate captains has an agenda of his own and as the story progresses, we get to see snippets of his past and the reason why he doesn't seem to like Drake's brand new female bodyguard Beck all that much.

Now, Drake knows the odds are against him, but thanks to Keelin's help, he's starting to recruit a few reliable captains for the uncoming onslaught. The second issue seems to be a thorn for everyone: they have to convince the ruthless Captain Tanner Black to join them. The book shows brief scenes of this villain and he's indeed a terrifying person. Even more so is his daughter Elaina who is a captain of her own vessel and she both loves and hates Keelin with a passion that may alter the course of the story.

There's a *lot* of swearing and this book is definitely not for the younger crowd. However, the characters are charming in their own thuggish sort of way, the world building great, the dialogue fresh and the spead of the story steady. I applaud the author's great efforts towards creating a very entertaining story and I'll definitely read the sequel sometime.… (mais)