Dead Man’s Kiss by Jennifer Bray-Weber

I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Forced to make a bargain... One drunken night in Cuba lands Captain Valeryn Barone in a life or death situation. To escape the gallows, Valeryn must agree to a bargain only a fool would make: Escort the tempting and tenacious niece of his captor across the Caribbean or lose his ship, his crew and his life! The caveat? The beautiful Spanish woman must remain untouched for the entire voyage.

Determined to get what she wants... Catalina Montoya will stop at nothing to get what she wants-even when trouble is certain. Sent to live with her uncle after a scandalous affair, Catalina intends to concentrate on her dream to become a renowned naturalist. She never expected her uncle would send her with a notorious pirate to further her studies. Worse, she never expected to want the devilishly handsome pirate more than anything else.

It's a battle of wills... Now Catalina only has 8 weeks to seduce Valeryn and collect her specimens before he returns her to her uncle. And Valeryn has 8 weeks to secure his redemption. Except neither would be that lucky. Not when ruthless enemies threaten to destroy them at every turn. Can Valeryn save those that foolishly depend on him? Can he resist Catalina's heart? Does a dead man walking even have a chance?

I have to say, I enjoyed this book. I’m not a big “romance” fan anymore. Most of the books just seem to be far too boring or have little-to-no story beyond the sexual tension between the hero and heroine of the novel. I’ll be honest, there is plenty of sexual tension between Catalina and Valeryn, but there was also a story line being carried out beyond the sexual tension.

Pirates have long been a favorite thing of mine to read about when reading romance novels but it seems that not too many authors delve into the realm of pirates anymore. Or maybe I’m just not looking in the right places. In any case, it is nice to know that it isn’t all military-based books or books that should technically be considered erotica instead of romance. This book has some sexual scenes but not nearly as much as one would expect from a romance novel being written and published today.

Being that this book is self-published, I am highly impressed with the quality of the writing, because let’s face it, a lot of self-published novels aren’t very good. Many of them are poorly written or poorly edited and most times the poor writing style or shoddy editing detracts from an otherwise good story idea. Thankfully neither is the case here. I look forward to reading other novels from the Romancing the Pirate series.