Reviewed by Elizabetta
TITLE: Blessed Isle
AUTHOR: Alex Beecroft
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 103 pages
BLURB:
For Captain Harry Thompson, the command of the prison transport ship HMS Banshee is his opportunity to prove his worth, working-class origins be damned. But his criminal attraction to his upper-crust First Lieutenant, Garnet Littleton, threatens to overturn all he’s ever worked for.
Lust quickly proves to be the least of his problems, however. The deadly combination of typhus, rioting convicts, and a monstrous storm destroys his prospects . . . and shipwrecks him and Garnet on their own private island. After months of solitary paradise, the journey back to civilization—surviving mutineers, exposure, and desertion—is the ultimate test of their feelings for each other.
These two very different men each record their story for an unfathomable future in which the tale of their love—a love punishable by death in their own time—can finally be told. Today, dear reader, it is at last safe for you to hear it all.
REVIEW:
Blessed Isle is written as journal entries that chronicle the adventures of two British navy men at the turn of the nineteenth century. Captain Harry Thompson and Lieutenant Garnet Littleton are in charge of transporting convicts to Australia. The two take turns telling their story: their backgrounds and how they met and fell in love…
“Such a physical thing. I could have fallen on my arse from the recoil, and bawled for fright…”
The recounting gives a bittersweet view of the impossibility of their relationship in a time when, if discovered, they would be hung for their ‘perversion’. But they aim to leave a record of their love for future, more sympathetic readers…
“To them I will be able to say there was fidelity here, and love, and long suffering sacrifice, and joy…I will be able to speak the truth.”
The author gives each man a different voice and their mutual affection and frustrations come through clearly. Harry is a self-made man from rough beginnings. Through hard work, guile, and tenacity he’s risen to Captain of a small fleet of ships. His voice is plainer and riddled with metaphor and simile. Garnet comes from a more refined background and we hear this in his more lyrical voice. In fact, Garnet adopts some of Harry’s expressions as they become closer.
Through a series of unfortunate events on the high seas — perilous ocean storms, a typhoid breakout, and mutiny — Harry and Garnet are shipwrecked, alone, on a tropic isle. Their finally finding a measure of freedom, away from censure, on that blessed isle is a relief…
“… this is the reality. Out there they make us pretend… force us into lies or hiding. Here I’ve been free to be myself for the first time in my life. You and I, it’s the first honest thing I’ve ever done… this place has given me the freedom to do it.”
… and yet, it’s wrenching. The refuge becomes a prison. Should they have to give up everything for their love? Shouldn’t they have the right to live a truthful, honest life out in the world?
The writing is wonderful. The action sequences and depiction of sea storms are thrilling. Harry’s stoicism and despair over this perilous love and Garnet’s charming joie de vivre are also well done. All delivered with economy and without melodrama.
This is another one for the literature shelf; a very fine love story.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: Riptide Publishing Amazon