of all, lets talk about this cover, It's gorgeous no The colour, the artwork, the smoking gun, and the badass female pirate with her chef, I love it. It sets a tone for the book,
Okay, this book was an imagery feast for me, Brown really created quite the visual adventure with the beautiful contrast of gritty and dark pirate life with the comforting feeling that could only be brought on by enjoying a deliciously cooked meal seriously, don't read this book on a hungry stomach.
He spares no expensive when it comes to the description of how these culinary delights are made and with equal fervor, the swashbuckling action and violence on the high seas.
As a lover of food and awesome action, I really appreciate the gorgeous details if this was a movie, the cinematography would probably have me swooning haha.
One of my favourite part of the book is watching Wedge try to create the Sunday gourmet meal with the mix and match of ingredients that he could muster up, be it trading things for whatever is found in the fishing nets, or defiantly snatching herbs from Mabbot.
The small sacrifice to this great descriptive story however was the flow of the plot which felt very stagnant at times, The adventure is told in the voice of Wedgwood, and for a while, I found him kind of whiny and prudish but the longer he stayed aboard the Flying Rose, the more I could see his perspective change.
A big redeeming point for me was Wedge's relationship with the deaf cabin boy, Joshua, I loved how much they were able to learn from each other, The love story of this tale, truth be told, isn't much of a grand love story, but a very subtle longtimecoming sorta romance, In this game of love Wedge had no chance against Captain Hannah Mabbot, in spite of, or rather maybe because of her strong, bold attitude, Mabbot was a wonderful character that wasn't just a onedimension pirate, but a true badass, flaws and all that makes her well fleshed out,
Overall, I really enjoyed the book, though I feel it might not be a book for everyone, It's a bit hard to pick up if slower, descriptive books isn't your style, But if you have the time, it's a wonderful, nittygritty no hold barred epic pirate adventure with the added fun of tantalizing cuisine that'll have you wishing you've kidnapped your own chef.
Thanks to the publisher amp Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review, Original review at sitelinkBookmunchies What happens when a cultured and devout British chef is captured by pirates and forced to live among the heathen brutes led a by fiery red haired freckled female captain Well you end up with nail biting adventure, desperate attempts at gastronomy, fantastic imagery and a bit of romance.
The novel sports eloquent and descriptive language, written in a tone and verbiage appropriate to the earlys, The author's knowledge of sailing and ships is amazing, The chef's evolution among the pirates is an interesting one and one begins to wonder who the real pirates are The pierced and tattooed motley crew and
their highly feared female captain or the commercial traders that share the same high seas trafficking opium and slaves under the guise of silk trade and doing away with any who dare to object.
Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys As the story progresses this is quite an interesting and thoughtful twist,
The telling of this story from the perspective of the proper and prim British chef written in diary format provides such an interesting and humorous contrast to the garish and lewd events that he describes.
We are talking about pirates here, This approach actually highlights the idea that the differences among people are minimal, In fact, it turns out that those who are heartless and souless may be those who appear the opposite on the surface and the "pirates" are in many ways soulful, caring and loyal and dedicated friends.
How clever of the author to turn things upside down for us like this to make a point, There are many tender and heartfelt believable moments, The farther I read along the more I realized how complex and creative this work was,
Some quotes about food:
"We set to it, The scents that had so inspired my cooking, just hours before, deferred temporarily to the textures of the meal, The croquettes tsked and whispered when bitten into inside, the delicate fingers of crabmeat parted reluctantly, like lovers holding hands, The squabs were indecent in their steamy terrine, The mole slid off the meat and sent dark rivulets under the tongue, "
"What can be said about that pie Some foods are so comforting, so nourishing of the body and soul, that to eat them is to be home again after a long journey.
To eat such a meal is to remember that, though the world is full of knives and storms, the body is built for kindness, The angels, who know no hunger, have never been as satisfied, "
About grief:
"I've had this pain, To tell you it will go away would be a lie, It will never go away, But, if you live long enough, it will cease to torture and will instead flavor you, As we rely on the bitterness of strong tea to wake us, this too will become something you can use, "
About love:
"She laughed too and we laughed together, and I felt something important slip from me, Once gone, I could not exactly say what it had been, only that I had been holding on to it ever since this horrible story began, as a man hanging form a cliff clings to a stalk of nettle that bitter weed had kept me alive.
Now that I had let go, I was falling and would not be the same, "
Best of historical adventure fiction with a nod to the foodies among us with a touch of romance and humor, Very unique and enjoyable. Just a note quite a bit of violence and tragedy for those who may be squeamish like me somewhat offset by the humor, A purely escapist read featuring a trained personal chef kidnapped by a ruthless pirate, A fantasy read in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean, but with a badass lady pirate,full for the stellar food and cooking descriptions, My treat for finishing Hamlet was thisswashbuckler by Eli Brown, my introduction to the Southern California author's work, Brown's second novel earned a spot on myreading docket by boasting the best title, logline and cover design I've laid eyes on in a while, These were the equivalent of meeting a woman with a warm laugh, a love for books and an appetite, I apologize for turning this review into an eHarmony ad,
Title: Cinnamon and Gunpowder, You have my curiosity, sir,
Logline: "The year is, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot, He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail, " Now you have my attention,
Cover design: Mark Stutzman, The illustrator also designed the iconicElvis Presley stamp for the U, S. Postal Service. A book cover with a full background can be found sitelinkat his website gallery,
The novel is the diary of Owen Wedgewood, chef to Lord Ramsey, a major shareholder in the Pendelton Trading Company, Wedgewood, a widower whose wife Elizabeth and newborn son passed away recently, throws himself into his work, which on August,, takes him with his employer to the seaside town of Eastbourne.
No sooner than basilbeef broth is served than Ramsey's dinner party is raided, Entering the story is a hulk named Mr, Apples, two short Chinese twins named Feng and Bai, and their leader, One of Brown's gifts are his fanciful descriptions, which can be delicious:
Then entered a pillar of menace, a woman in an olive longcoat.
Her red hair hung loose over her shoulders, She sauntered to the middle of the room, her coat opening to reveal jadehandled pistols, Using a chair as a stepping stool, she walked upon the dining table to Lord Ramsey's plate and stood there looking down, as if she had just conquered Kilimanjaro.
No one dared tell her, apparently, that tall women confuse the eye,
Even I, who know only what I read in the dailies, recognized her at once, There, not twenty feet from me, was the Shark of the Indian Ocean, Mad Hannah Mabbot, BackfromtheDead Red, who had been seen by a dozen credible witnesses to perish by gunshot and drowning, and yet had continued to haunt the Pendelton Trading Company routes, leaving the waters bloody in her wake,
Wedgewood is bound in hemp and rowed to Mabbot's ship, the Flying Rose, anchored a mile off the coast of England while the British Royal Navy is busy searching the Indian Ocean for her.
Wedgewood is held for two days before receiving a letter from the captain, Mabbot proposes that he prepare her a fine supper each Sunday, If the cook refuses, he'll find himself swimming home, whole or in pieces, depending on Mabbot's mood,
Brown makes a number of key decisions at the top that I did like, Wedgewood is the furthest from Errol Flynn or a shirtless heman as he could be, Sorry, ladies. He reminded me of Louis C, K. on occasion, or if you took five years to finish high school, maybe Seth MacFarlane, He's no sea faring man but a land lubber completely out his element,
While the crew are served by a prattling, scabcovered cook named Conrad, Wedgewood is assisted in his gourmet assignment by a mute cabin boy named Joshua.
Brown fills the novel with top notch research, be it the operation of ath century mutineer's sailing vessel or the meals the captain's personal chef is able to improvise, some of them, to mouth watering effect.
Then I set myself to the main meal, I mashed a cooked potato to a paste and dried it on the hot bricks of the hearth, Meanwhile I prepared the rice, Around my neck I wear a leather cord and a pewter locket filled with saffron, the favorite spice of my lost Elizabeth, rest her soul, When the potato was dry, I powdered it further with my fist and used it to bread the filleted cod, adding black pepper and salt, I sauteed onions in lard, then fried the fish quickly, until the potato crumbs were golden, finally seasoning with a squeeze of lime juice,
In contrast to her traveling circus of a crew, Mabbot keeps herself clean and carries herself with nobility, Wedgewood considers her to be a tyrant and criminal and plots his escape, but accepts the captain's invitation to dinner and conversation, He learns that Mabbot has spent two years chasing the Brass Fox, the King of Thieves, who the crew believes knows the location of a great treasure.
They're hunted by a corsair ship, La Colette, captained by Alexandre Laroche, a naval engineer whose ship is loaded with innovative weapons and who holds a personal grudge against Mabbot.
Brown flavors the novel with fanciful chapter titles and subtitles, a rare treat in fiction which I always enjoy, especially when they're as well written as the ones here.
. Dining with the Devil. In which I earn a pillow, . Dead Man's Stove. In which we lick our wounds and Joshua tells his story, . The Culinary Uses of a Cannonball, In which trust is betrayed,
There was a moment that made me laugh out loud during Wedgewood's first dinner with Mabbot in which the captain's pet rabbit, Kerfuffle, unnerves the cook by staring at him while his equilibrium is still trying to adjust to the rolling of a ship.
Through seven chapters, Cinnamon and Gunpowder is good humored and fun without devolving into pirate jokes or silliness,
Unfortunately, the novel takes a turn in Chapterthat it never recovers from, It concerns the reveal of the villain, the Brass Fox, In the first of several surprises thrust on the reader, the King of Thieves turns out to be .
Brown has real difficulty painting the Brass Fox, Lord Ramsey or even Frenchmen as bad guys, pursuing characterizations that are more complex, if you like that in your adventure romances, or obscure if you don't.
Weak villains weak plot, Mabbot's objective is revealed to be .
Granted, that's a quest that might be a first in a swashbuckler, but it seriously calls into question Mabbot's capability as a captain, Worse, it's boring. I'd hoped Wedgewood's culinary adventure would somehow intersect with Mabbot's, and for the pair to generate a lot more sparks than the author commits to,
At the risk of divulging spoilers, half way through the novel, a major character is grievously injured in a manner more appropriate to a horror novel or dark thriller.
The tone of the piece starts rocking and rolling like a yacht with a broken mast in the North Sea,
The descriptions remain vivid and enticing throughout, but after seven chapters, the novel turns into a mush,
Brown seems more comfortable handling Wedgewood as the central character in the piece, Mabbot becomes a supporting one, a low down dirty shame considering how much more exciting she is,
The author's take is too romantic to work as pulpy adventure, too stoic to work as a smutfilled sexcapade,
The ending, which Brown makes the very best of with his facility as a writer, is very anticlimactic,
Two and a half knocked back to two, I paid.for the Kindle version. Buyer beware: This is way too much money, in my opinion, for a novel that needed work to become something great, .
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