Every year, Annabelle spends a few months on the sea with her Godfather, a legendary pirate captain. When he is kidnapped, his crew comes to her for help. Annabelle sneaks away from her life in London society, breaks another pirate captain out of prison, and fights to save her kidnapped Godfather.

A Lady’s Guide to Love and Pirates was a cute idea, but the story was a miss for me. I think my main issue with the story was that that whole setup was unrealistic. I understand the author’s intent with writing a pirate story that wasn’t violent or despicable, but the sugar coated, happy story that this was didn’t work. I don’t understand why a pirate captain would demand partial custody of a random baby girl. And then, every summer when she comes to sea with him, he pretends they aren’t pirates… they pretend they’re a merchant ship…? I don’t see it.

Lady Annabelle was not my favorite character. She insisted on being a part of the rescue mission for her Godfather, but she brought absolutely no skills to the group effort. She was incredibly needy. She couldn’t protect herself, yet insisted on putting herself in dangerous situations. She was coddled every summer on the pirate ship. And she was coddled on the rescue mission. I would have enjoyed this story a lot more if Annabelle had some sort of skill set that contributed to the story.

The rescue mission was a good plot. The mystery of the island was predictable, but I liked the crew’s adventure as they went to rescue their captain. I liked the other characters in the story. I liked the camaraderie between the members of the crew. This story had a lot of potential. I think it’s possible to romanticize the life of a pirate and make the story believable. Like I said, this story was a miss for me, but I have read other books by this author and I’ve really enjoyed them.