Goodreads Review: "Good Groom Hunting" by Shana Galen

Good Groom Hunting by Shana Galen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Good Groom Hunting" follows the fiery Josie Hale, a young woman who has sworn not to get married and to become a pirate. Her grandfather was a pirate, after all! Josie owns half of her grandfather's treasure map but, unfortunately, the other half is owned by Stephen Doubleday, Earl of Westman, whose family is sworn enemies of the Hales.

So, of course, as they work together to find the treasure - Josie so that she can be rich and independent and not married, Stephen because his family is destitute - they become irresistibly attracted to each other and have quite a bit of naughty, out-of-wedlock sex. Josie is thoroughly ruined and doesn't care, Stephen feels bad about it, they get into scrapes because other people want the treasure too. There is a lot of romance in this book, but there is also a lot of solid adventure.

I liked Josie throughout the book. I appreciate a woman who wants to be independent. (view spoiler)[Even though she ended up marrying Stephen at the end of the book, I like that she resisted it, and I liked that she made the decision because she loved him and not because she didn't want to be ruined. (hide spoiler)] I also like that Josie is a woman who is in touch with her sexuality, and genuinely desires to have sex with Stephen without feeling all embarrassed about it. A lot of times, especially in historical romance, the women are shocked that they actually like sex, but Josie has a healthy curiosity about it.

Stephen is a bit annoying at the beginning of the book - he's quite pompous and acts like a jerk to Josie - but I really soften on him as things go on, especially after it's revealed that (view spoiler)[he ruined a girl who later killed herself and he feels incredibly guilty about it. (hide spoiler)] However, I was a bit turned off at the end when (view spoiler)[he is described as wanting to "claim" Josie. Of course, if she didn't want to be claimed, she would have told him to go to hell, but it still didn't quite sound right to me. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, "Good Groom Hunting" was a good book that I'm glad I bought for 25 cents at the library. It's the second book in a series, but I didn't feel like I was really missing much (although Josie's cousin and her husband were obviously the people the first book was about). It was a good standalone book with a great amount of action and excitement and, of course, pirates! That, alone, made it worth the time!

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