Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Pirate and the Naiad
SERIES: A Naiad Romance
AUTHOR: Gigi Rivers
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 240 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 2, 2022
BLURB:
A pirate captain. A naiad who despises him. A sweet and sensual MM fantasy romance with an HEA.
Raiya despises humans. They abducted him from his home, kept him in captivity, and forced him to fight other nymphs. But when a pirate ship crewed by both naiads and humans rescues him, he is confused at seeing them working and living together. What’s more baffling is his attraction to the ship’s captain, with his calm confidence, broad shoulders, and steely grey eyes. Even so, Raiya will never give in to his desire for a human.
Silas is the pirate captain of the Naiad’s Revenge. His mission is to lead the crew in their fight against the Order. But when Raiya comes aboard, Silas can’t deny his attraction to the scowling naiad stalking around his ship. However, Raiya clearly loathes Silas, so there is no point wishing for something more.
As they fight alongside each other, Raiya realises that Silas is different from the humans he’s dealt with before. Still, after everything humans have done to Raiya, could he ever love one?
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The Pirate and the Naiad is the third novel of the A Naiad Romance series. Each book contains a HEA with no cliffhangers and can be read as a stand alone.
Content notes: sexual content, swearing, captivity and abuse of nymphs, and violence in battle.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the third book in this series. As such it does contain spoilers for the first two books. It’s not necessary to have read the those books before this one, but it does set up the family dynamic for some of the human characters.
Raiya has been abused by humans for too many years to count. He was captured from him home and forced to fight other nymphs as a blood sport for humans. He hates it and his life. His only hope is to escape and return to his some in the lake he was born to and find his family. When he is sold after a fight, his dream slips further away. That is until the ship he is on is captured by pirates. The Naiad’s Revenge, captained by a human named Silas frees him. He’s been poisoned and is fight mode against any humans. When he finally comes to and settles down he has disgust for the Naiads that are part of the crew of the ship since they are working with and friendly with the humans. He does not trust when Silas says he is free and will help him find his family and home.
Silas can’t really understand his attraction to Raiya. He’s surly and hostile and moody. He discovers over time that Raiya has been trained as a pit fighter and so he hasn’t had any comfort or understanding or compassion shown to him in years. He will do whatever he needs to in order to help Raiya find his home and family. Sadly when he finds out where Raiya is from, he knows that there is nothing left. The humans have taken over and no Naiads or Dryads still live there. Raiya is devastated. But Silas does offer to take him to Naiad Island to see if anyone there might know anything about his family.
When they arrive at Naiad Island Raiya begins his search for anyone who can tell him about what happened to his home. He’s shocked to discover his younger brother Shai. But he’s even more shocked when he discovers Shai with ah human. Misunderstanding the situation, he hurts his brother and stalks off. He’s devastated again. But he finally seeks solace with Silas who obviously has been pining for him 😉 But then he’s embarrassed about what happens and they go back to tiptoeing around each other.
As Silas and the crew continue to search for the Order and the nymphs who are being held captive, Raiya begins to trust Silas. And they fit together perfectly 😉 He trains to fight to help the crew pursue the Order ships and sorcerers. He feels connected to Silas and wants to protect him. A nasty surprise awaits Silas and Raiya as they try to pursue the leads they have on the order. Silas and Raiya escape and they the battle is on. But Raiya discovers something that angers him and makes him distrust Silas again. Both of their hearts are broken. It will take some real reflection and work to bring them back together.
So this was a total rollercoaster ride from start to finish. The writer does such a great job of portraying Raiya’s anger and hostility and pain. Silas’s loneliness are also so well written. I just wanted them to figure out their issues and recognize how much better off they would be together. There are starts and stops and Raiya has so many trust issues. Silas and the crew do their best to help Raiya, but he still is skeptical. I believed all his feelings and reactions though because of the abuse he had been through. I loved seeing Shai and Tam and Alke and Gabriel again from the first two books. I loved the way the Naiads and the humans worked for a common goal. This one was sooooo emotional and I was there for it. I’m really looking forward to the next one. I mean really what’s not to love about Pirates and Naiads? Recommended!
RATING: 
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