Book Title: Intrepid by
Nicole Stuart
ISBN 9781301018703
Part of Series: No
Author: Nicole Stuart
Available at: Smashwords, Barnes and Noble , Kobo, Apple, Diesel, Baker-Taylor, Sony
Price: $1.99
Number of words (approximately): 59 397
Star Rating (of five): 4
Summary: A lone sailor
is persuaded to take a couple of passengers on a voyage from the Bahamas to Gibraltar .
The voyage reveals the true characters
of his passengers, a woman and her half-brother, and turns into a contest
between good and bad.
Extract:
- The night passed, and they stood together to witness
the traces of dawn. The sky was too
heavily covered to permit any star or sun sight, and Celine realized clearly
how dangerous it must have been, before the advent of modern navigation aids,
to sail about in the vicinity of islands in these conditions. They could still see the faint loom of the
light they had passed, as well as one on Faial ,
that became visible shortly before dawn.
Celine practiced her rapidly developing navigation skills by using a combination
of the direction of the two lights and dead reckoning from her last fix to work
out their position. She was delighted
when she confirmed from the GPS that her estimate was less than a mile off! Shortly after dawn, the rain stopped briefly
and the clouds lightened, sufficiently for them to see the island of Faial
It was a sight to treasure in life’s memories! The island consisted of high cliffs topped by
green fields with white houses dotted around, a fairytale picture. The combination of green and white was so
intense against the grey of the shy that it was almost painful to look at. Jon and Celine stood at the side of the
cockpit, hand in hand, soaking up the sight of the beautiful island after so
long without the sight of land. They did
that for fifteen minutes as Intrepid crawled slowly alongside the island, until
the rain closed in again, all but obliterating the sight. Celine turned to Jon, her heart overflowing
with joy, and hugged him. Her happiness
was complete!
It took several hours for them to round the south end
of Faial , then they sailed slowly up the coast
to the north, entering the huge bay and sailing up to the concrete jetty. Only one other boat, a rusty tramp steamer,
was tied up. Jon brought them up to the
jetty expertly, bucking the swirls of wind that intruded on the bay. Celine jumped ashore with the midships line
and fastened it on the bollard there, then took the bow line from Jon, while he
jumped ashore to tie the stern line.
They had arrived! -
Structure: The book is
well-structured and easy to read, without hindrance.
Content: The book tells
of the travails of a voyage across the Atlantic ,
with storms, calms and threats, obviously with a real-life fund of experience. It is a good sailing tale, and has a
fascinating content of modern-day piracy.
Reviewer’s Comments: The book is
exciting and real. It meets one of my
tests well: do I care about the
characters? I did! And I loved the book!
Karin B
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