Patricia Hickman's The Pirate Queen ~ Reviewed

The Pirate Queen
By Patricia Hickman
Published by WaterBrook
ISBN 978-1-4000-7200-2

Description

The envy of all her friends, wife and mother Saphora Warren is the model of southern gentility and accomplishment. She lives in a beautiful Lake Norman home, and has raised three capable adult children. Her husband is a successful plastic surgeon--and a philanderer. It is for that reason that, after hosting a garden party for Southern Living magazine, Saphora packs her bags to escape the trappings of the picturesque-but-vacant life.

Saphora’s departure is interrupted by her husband Bender’s early arrival home, and his words that change her life forever: I’m dying.

Against her desires, Saphora agrees to take care of Bender as he fights his illness. They relocate, at his insistence, to their coastal home in Oriental—the same house she had chosen for her private getaway. When her idyllic retreat is overrun by her grown children, grandchildren, townspeople, relatives, and a precocious neighbor child, Saphora’s escape to paradise is anything but the life she had imagined. As she gropes for evidence of God's presence amid the turmoil, can she discover that the richest treasures come in surprising packages?

Review

Exquisitely written, The Pirate Queen has taken a place in my top 10 for 2010. The story is complex and yet deceptively simple. Hickman's characters virtually stepped off the pages and into my life, as I experienced Saphora's cornucopia of emotions. If The Pirate Queen were a meal, I'd be completely full. As a novel, I'll call it rich and satisfying. Novel Journey and I give it our highest recommendation. A definite 5 star must read!

Reviewed by: Ane Mulligan
Editor, Novel Journey