Title: Home Is the Sailor, 2nd edition
Sequel to Winds of Change/Eye of the Storm
Series: Royal Navy , #3
Author: Lee Rowan
Genre: Historical/Military/Murder-Mystery
Length: Novel (204 Pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (January 5th, 2015)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts
Blurb: The Royal Navy meets the Stately English Manor Murder Mystery, and if it were only a matter of Colonel Mustard in the library, things would be so much easier.
After an ambush by the French while on a routine surveillance mission, Will Marshall and David Archer are advised to retreat to the English countryside to avoid Bonaparte’s animosity for a time. Upon their arrival, they discover that David’s eldest brother has died after a mysterious accident and this puts his other, very unsuitable brother in line for the title.
David’s suspicions—that the new heir had a hand in his brother’s death—seem so unreasonable that even Will finds it difficult to believe his fears are valid. If Davy thought his lover was hard to convince, his autocratic father, who still sees him as the inept youngest son, won’t even listen to him. Davy and Will are thrust into the role of sleuths, trying to determine the truth behind the mystery.
All the while Will has concerns of his own: his fear of losing Davy is still stronger than his desire to keep Davy beside him on the quarterdeck… but he knows no other life than the Navy.
First Edition published by Cheyenne Publishing/Bristlecone Pine Press, 2010
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5911
ISBN-13: 9781607220220
Reviewer: GiGi
Review: The author throws us right into the battle from the first page and the action is invigorating! I quickly realized why Davy and Will are going to have to make some hard choices. But fate quickly makes a few changes for them, sending them both ashore.
Sent home to go off the radar for a while, Davy gets to introduce his Commander, Will to his family. Highly dysfunctional family, if you consider that he quickly finds out the 1st born is dead, and the death is highly suspicious.
As Will and Davy settle in to landed life, Davy’s evil nasty brother Ronald, second to the heir, comes home to anticipate his father’s death and wreak havoc on all that reside at Grenbrook.
There are dead brothers, dead wives, and even more murder attempts, but Ronald conveniently either has an alibi, or remains tight-lipped about each event.
What transpires is a daring, risky investigation into the murders, even though Will tries to give the benefit of the doubt, and Davy is set on proving his brother Ronald guilty.
For the lusty bits, Davy and Will have a hard time finding privacy amongst family and servants….until Davy brings Will to his childhood hideout!
There seemed to be a bit of ebb and flow in the action, at first fast paced and nail-biting, then slow, then again at the end the action picks up. There seem to be two paces in this book, at sea there seems to be more drama, more action, and a more developed world. Davy and Will’s relationship and the pace of the story seem very different on land, as I’m sure they were intended to be.
The proposed solution to Davy and Will’s relationship woes at the end of the story, is one I’ve always played with in my mind when it comes to historicals…it’s fun to imagine it working out, but there are so many land mines there….we can only wait and see how it all works out in the next part to this sexy adventuresome story.