a Novel by Karen Bovenmyer
It easily earned five stars from me as a Discovered
Diamond.
Genres:
Multicultural & Interracial/Gay Romance
In the beginning, the title “Swift for the Sun”
conjured up everything from old sailing ships swiftly following the sun - to
other flights of fancy involving smugglers and privateers (which it does). At
the end of Bovenmyer’s novel, I realized that I was wrong in assuming it to be
a rollicking pirate fable or – as one of its genre is listed as gay romance - a
man loving another man; it was so much more (even though I, too, have loved men
– but then, I am a woman).
Benjamin Swift (as he introduces himself to us in
this first-person account) is young, impetuous and a bit of a bungler who
doesn’t listen too well to advice from his more experienced mates. This becomes
sadly evident when, as captain of the Sea
Swift, he puts his ship squarely on the rocks on cursed Dread Island.
Deeming himself the only survivor of the wreck, the
young seafarer is understandably spooked when he finds himself face to face
with a blond island savage who masters survival a lot better than our handsome
Benjamin. After initial life-threatening quarrels and mutual mistrust, the two
men (both being predisposed by nature or circumstance) fall deeply in love.
This is when the author’s mastery of human needs and
wants shines. Lust and love are aptly intertwined with Benjamin’s secret hope
to be rescued. A storm does bring a ship - and with it terrible trouble brews
for the two. Sun could easily “take care” by himself of unwanted intruders into
their isolated paradise; but during an ensuing fight, Benjamin feels he needs
to prove himself.
That’s when I shouted at my Kindle, “For heaven’s
sake, he told you to stay put!” I had become utterly involved in the two
protagonists’ fates and desperately wanted them to escape their seemingly
inexorable doom clamped on them by their “rescuers.”
Apart from the thrill of exotic seafaring adventure,
the novel left me with a much deeper question about loyalty, the bond between
two human beings, and the moral choice between killing for freedom or
submitting to Man’s laws. “What would any of us have done?”
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