Title: The Captain and the Theatrical
Series: Captivating Captains: Book Three
Authors: Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Length: 214 Pages
Category: Historical Romance
At a Glance: While I can’t say The Captain and the Theatrical ticked all the boxes I love and look for in a book, I did appreciate some of the pomp and circumstance and the assorted drama and whimsy that eventually led to the resolution.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: When Captain Pendleton needs an emergency fiancée, who better to turn to than his male best friend? After all, for Amadeo Orsini, life’s one long, happy drag!
Captain Ambrose “Pen” Pendleton might have distinguished himself on the battlefield at Waterloo but since he’s come home to civvy street, he’s struggled to make his mark.
Pen dreams of becoming a playwright but his ambitious father has other ideas, including a trophy wife and a new job in America. If he’s to stand a hope of staying in England and pursuing his dream, Pen needs to find a fiancée fast.
Amadeo Orsini never made it as a leading man, but as a leading lady he’s the toast of the continental stage. Now Cosima is about to face her most challenging role yet, that of Captain Pendleton’s secret amour.
With the help of a talking theatrical parrot who never forgets his lines, Orsini throws on his best frock, slaps on the rouge and sets out to save Pen from the clutches of Miss Harriet Tarbottom and her scheming parents.
As friendship turns into love, will the captain be able to write a happy ending for himself and Orsini before the curtain falls?
Review: The Captain and the Theatrical is a novel whose mileage will vary from reader to reader, as is always the case with any book. For those who enjoy a twee historical romance, there will be much to enjoy here. The characters perform with all the theatricality I believe the authors intended, given the book’s title, and the dialogue is often as melodramatic as one would expect for the setting and the setup of the storyline. This book reads like a spirited stage romp (minus the erotic scenes, of course) with all the players on their marks, emoting for the back row and chewing up the scenery for their audience, which they succeed at in spades.
The friends-to-lovers and fake relationship tropes are tried and true in the romance genre, and Curzon and Harkstead appear to have had fun toying with it here. The friendship between Ambrose Pendleton and Amadeo Orsini began during an idyllic Italian summer before Ambrose marched off to war. Pen knew then, under no uncertain terms, that he was in love with Orsini, but, pragmatically speaking, he also knew he could never act on that emotion. He also understands, now, that he has a familial duty to carry out his father’s wish for his son to marry a wealthy American heiress and join their families in matrimony as well as enterprise…but Ambrose would do anything to avoid that fate, especially if it means he is able to follow his dream of becoming a famous playwright and spending the rest of his days in the company of his beloved Orsini.
When Ambrose has the occasion to be reunited with his dearest friend—this time Orsini presenting as a woman who is as famed for her stage presence as she is for attracting the desires of rich and powerful men—Ambrose and Amadeo/Cosima’s plan is set in motion to perform an elaborate ruse. Pen and Cosima will appear as a pair of star-crossed lovers reunited, and thereby hope to thwart the senior Pendleton’s plans to barter his son out as a profitable asset. This sets up the play’s-the-thing scenario that invites the entire cast into a script which includes not only an elaborate subterfuge but an improper proposition, a little dangerous liaisoning, and a rousing little crime caper to boot.
Amadeo’s gender fluidity and his ability to present as either male or female, whatever the situation called for, was entirely credible, and I was swept up in the idea that relationships and indeed marriages like Pen and Amadeo’s must have existed not only at the time this novel is set but throughout all of history. He and Ambrose get their happily ever after as man and wife/husband, solidifying their swooning declarations of adoration along the way into something long-lasting.
The setup and pacing of the story, specifically at the beginning, was charming enough to draw me in but did give in to fits and starts of repetition and scenes that didn’t seem to advance or impact the overall story arc. The dialogue was also a bit too affected for my tastes, leaning into excesses of exclamations, so while I can’t say The Captain and the Theatrical ticked all the boxes I love and look for in a book, I did appreciate some of the pomp and circumstance and the assorted drama and whimsy that eventually led to the resolution of the overarching dilemma that served Pen and Amodeo their dream of a life together.
You can buy The Captain and the Theatrical here:
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