Sweeping is a word I often use to describe the last few Brenda Joyce romances I have read. As the storyline of A Lady at Last sweeps from one country to another (with some pirate adventure thrown in along the way), the one thing that remained utmost in my mind as the plot swerved here and dipped there, was the fact that I fervently wished the heroine had a few more years on her while I wondered what the sophisticated hero saw in such a – well, outlandish child.

Amanda Carre is a wild child seen as quite the oddity growing up on the West Indies island she calls home. A spunky girl with not a bit of proper training, she has never enjoyed the influence of a woman in her life. Her father is a pirate (and it is important to note for the sake of this storyline that he is one of the good pirates) whose luck has run out because the governor has decided it’s time to give a warning to all pirates, good or bad, and hang him for his piratical deeds. Amanda is determined to save her father and offers her 17-year-old body to the governor in exchange for her father’s life. Amanda doesn’t have a clue about life in general and truly believes she can win her father’s freedom in such a manner and is willing to swallow the humiliation.

Cliff de Warenne is known as the greatest gentleman privateer of his era and is the third son of the Earl of Adare. Both a nobleman and legitimate merchantman, many also refer to him as rogue or rover and he relishes being an eccentric, an outsider, and a totally self made man. Although raised as a gentleman, Cliff is more comfortable in his West Indies home than in London and makes no secret of it. Besides his numerous profitable endeavors, he is a commissioned hunter of the most vicious of men plaguing the seas and he definitely knows how to bring in his man. I can’t go further without stating that Cliff is a mere 28-years-old, which makes his fame and vast success all that much greater especially when you consider the fact that he has already “had” hundreds of women. Now let me think about that – he’s picky about the women he beds, spends months at a time on the sea, and resides happily (when he is not at sea or abroad) at his island home with his two illegitimate children where he spends quality time with them as he provides a healthy home environment. My mind kept trying to do the math…hundreds of women?

Cliff always admired the spirited young girl who could ride the waves like a porpoise or stand boldly in the bow of her canoe. When he realizes that not only is her father sentenced to hang, but that Amanda will probably end up in an asylum for the orphaned, he can’t stand the thought of a child so full of life being imprisoned in that manner. When he discovers Amanda offering her body to the governor, he can do nothing but save her from her own wiles and takes Amanda to his home in hopes of providing her with some sort of guiding hand.

Amanda is immediately taken with Cliff and wants to stay with him no matter the cost. As she scrambles to figure how she may be of value to him, she reasons that maybe he will like her if she is good to his children or even that he might keep her around if she gives him her body. Shocked, Cliff adamantly refuses Amanda’s advances, while chiding himself that despite his honorable actions, his body yearns to have her. During this portion of the book Cliff’s actions scream decency, although the reader is frequently reminded what a rogue he is. I was relieved when Cliff finally decided to return Amanda to England and the mother she has never known.

Since all Amanda wants is freedom and to be a part of the wind and sea, she has no desire to return to England. She realizes her choices are few, but rebels against the idea of becoming a lady and she suspects that is exactly what her society mother will want in addition to marrying her off. The thought of making Amanda enough of a lady to be accepted by the ton is a task that, in my mind, would take a whole series of books rather than one. Not only is Amanda an extremely undisciplined and uninhibited girl, she hits, uses her dagger (even on those she cares for) and is extremely immature and hardened to boot.

Knowing he must shield Amanda from danger and heartbreak, Cliff is both understanding and forgiving as he continues to fight his insane attraction for her. His intense desire for her is yet another one of those implausible details that the reader is told about again and again yet I thought there was little or no chemistry between the two.

There were times that I found myself enjoying a few pages here or there of this unbelievable romance between Amanda and Cliff only to find myself jerked out of that moment as the story swerved yet again and delivered me into another unexpected (but not realistic) twist. Turning a street urchin into a lady is a fun premise at times but those wanting a romance with some Pygmalion overtones had best look elsewhere.