Review: Captain Merric by Rebecca Cohen

Captain Merric by Rebecca Cohen
Amazon, Goodreads
Novel: 200pgs

3 Pants Off

Blurb: A tale of pirates, lost love, and the fight for a happy ending.

After he’s set adrift and left to die by his mutinous crew, the last person Royal Navy officer Daniel Horton expects to come to his rescue is Captain Merric. An infamous pirate, Merric is known as much for stealing his victims’ hearts as their jewels. Daniel’s world is about to be turned upside down when he recognises Captain Merric as none other than Edward Merriston, someone he thought he'd never see again. Edward can’t believe Daniel Horton is aboard his ship. While Edward is willing to do anything he can to get a second chance at their happy ending, Daniel isn’t interested in digging up the past. But Daniel is one priceless treasure Captain Merric isn’t about to let go of without a fight.


Captain Merric first appeared as short story in a pirate-themed anthology. Now completely rewritten and extended he is ready to set sail again.

Review

CAPTAIN NOT A PIRATE

When I saw that this book was a pirate love story, best believe I was on it like white on rice or brown on rice 🤔. Let’s just say I was hella excited and your hope is that when you’re super excited about a book it doesn’t go and let you down. While Captain Merric wasn’t a letdown per se it really wasn’t a hard hit and it crumpled all the amp I was feeling for it. 

Daniel Horton. Captain in the Queens Navy spending most of his life at see battling against the French. His life is being on the open waters and love and family falls behind his duty. When his scheming ass crew commits mutiny and leaves him at sea to die. Daniel surely expects to waste away on the open sea without food and water but fate has other plans. Those plans includes a pirate, his ship, and a long lost love. 

Captain Merric pirate extraordinaire. He enjoys life on the open sea and has more money than he knows what do with. Life on the sea is harsh and Merric longs for a quiet life farming and just living. When they spot a person on the open sea close to death, Merric never expected it to be his long lost love Daniel. As boys they were so in love with each other but circumstances separated them where Merric thought Daniel had forsaken their love, and Daniel thought Merric his real name Edward dead.  

Now Daniel is aboard a pirate ship faced with his love of old and feelings he thought long gone. While Edward is not the man he remembers he is still the man he loved deeply. They are now two men changed by death and the sea, and while Daniel lived a life of celibacy Edward got his dick wet a lot and it had nothing to do with the sea. Edward wants to pick up where they left off but Daniel is afraid he won’t be enough for him since he moved on so quickly without him. Also he has a mutinous crew for him to see hanged. 

This is a story of love lost and gained again. I can’t on good authority call this a pirate tale because I’m still waiting for the pirate stuff. There was a lot of telling and no showing and I didn’t get the pirate feels at all. Edward and Daniel (well mostly Daniel) did a lot of push and pull and angst over unnecessary things. He wanted then he didn’t want, he was upset but then he wasn’t upset, he couldn’t make up his mind on his feelings.  

I think my biggest problem was that it was just too sweet and it lacked excitement. While the writing is pretty good, I always find myself having a hard time connecting to Rebecca Cohen’s writing. It’s like the story is always on the precipice of being great but it never quite crosses the line to greatness. Captain Merric felt safe and I really just wanted more. If Daniel and Edward had no former connection I would have enjoyed it more. 

Overall, it was an alright story. I wanted to like it a lot more cus pirate and that cover but it didn’t quite impress me. I found Daniel whiny and Edward (Captain Merric) so not very pirate like. As I said a lot of telling no showing and so the pirate life on the open see didn’t quite come across.