The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin

Better than I expected!

Sometimes with lesbian books, you get the same formulaic process. Girl meets girl, there's an attraction, a Lillith-Fair style sex, and everyone lives happily ever after. I felt that this book was different for several reasons:
1) It was funny. I laughed out loud several times, and snickered through the rest.
2) It was sexy. I thought there would be a lot of "oh, but I mustn't, what will people say!" type chest-clutching, but both characters seemed to be pretty resolute in what they wanted and how they wanted it, which was very refreshing.
3) It wasn't boring. There was lots of action and while it wasn't necessarily realistic or believable, hey it's a pirate story we're reading here, not true crime.

I can honestly say that I very much enjoyed this book, will certainly read it again, and can't wait for this author's next release.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A great debut

Colette Moody's Original Sin is a riveting and rollicking adventure novel that seamlessly blends humor and romance. The novel has the spirit of the old movie serials with heroines that are dashing and as skilled with their jabs and banter as they are with a cutlass. While lesbian pirates may not be an easy group of characters to treat with dignity, much less a unique voice, Moody succeeds in both, and her protagonists are the type of bawdy, daring dames that make you want to cheer when reading their exploits.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Lesbian fiction is fun!

I'm in love with this emerging genre, fun, historical romps, that tell the slightly rediculous side of falling in love. Far from our heroines mind are depressing, angst ridden thoughts of being abandoned by friends and family as a result of their sexuality. Front and center is the story of following your heart, and trusting that doing what is right is reason enough to press on.
ORIGINAL SIN fed my hunger for a story that didn't beat me over the head with its "gayness," but instead gave me heroes and characters that spoke my language and bantered with some of my favorite "in" jokes. I can't wait to read Moody's other books.

Above Average Lesbian Romance

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for pirates and lesbians. Put these two things together and chances are I will love it. That being said, I think this novel was better written than a lot of the lesbian fiction out there. I can say I would not hesitate to buy a book from this author, again.

Fun and adventure in a pirate story

If you like rollicking, funny pirate stories, The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin is your book. The quirky title announces that this book is about more than swashbuckling.

Gayle Malvern finds herself thrust into the position of captain of the pirate ship Original Sin when her father "Madman" Malvern is wounded in a battle. When she sends members of her crew ashore to find a doctor, the coward hides while his fiancée Celia Pierce, the town seamstress, is kidnapped instead. For superstitious pirates who aren't used to having one woman aboard, the idea of two is really dangerous for both women. Celia is assured by Gayle that as soon as possible she'll be put off in a safe port and returned to her family, so she decides to make the best of the situation and treat is as a lark. She's drawn into a world of adventure, slave-traders, rival pirates, unscrupulous sea captains and frightening battles. She loves it. Celia never expected to have so many experiences in her life and she finds it quite exciting. She also begins to find Gayle quite exciting and comes to understand why she was never really interested in her boring future husband. As she and Gayle become closer, Celia begins to think of herself less as a captive and more as a member of the crew. Gayle comes to realize that spending the rest of her life at sea isn't very appealing, but having a life with Celia is, if she can find a way to get them out of the pirate life without anyone hunting for them. Not easy to do when you command one of the most infamous ships in the Caribbean Sea.

Collette Moody injects a lot of humor into this book and intersperses it with terrific adventure scenes. Her characters are interesting, even the ones the reader won't particularly like. These are scoundrels with hearts more than just scoundrels. The reader will feel the tightrope that Gayle has to walk in order to keep her male crew happy and protect herself and yet not become as ruthless as pirate captains are usually portrayed. Celia is the prize in the story though. She's an unusual mixture of wisdom, naivete and earthiness. Her character grows the most and is the most entertaining as she goes from the meek daughter accepting a marriage she doesn't want to a woman willing to knock another one out cold to shut her up and keep her away from Gayle. It's almost too bad the women abandon the sea and settle down. There is a real feeling that there was a lot more fun and adventure in them.

This is a quick, entertaining and fun story to read and well worth setting aside a couple of hours to enjoy it.

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