A review by catburglar_
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

frenchman’s PEAK more like. 

what a cute romance! honestly it’s rare for me to ever care or ship (haha get it) people but i loved these 2. i like how different it is as dona, our heroine is already married with 2 kids and is unsatisfied with her monotonous daily routine and of life overall as she craves freedom whereas the male love interest, a pirate, has all the freedom one can have. 

this book is fast paced, surprisingly but incredibly funny, great escapism, very adventurous, lovely writing and overall an amazing romance! the characters are good too especially william and even rockingham and godolphin who are so dislikable that you kind of like them. i loved dona as a character so much. she’s incredibly fast thinking and a complete joy to read about. 

spoiler:

i’m indifferent to the ending. i understand that she feels that her duty lies with her children (more specifically james as she seems to give 0 fucks about henrietta) so she decides to stay and imagines herself telling her grandkids the story of the pirate she fell in love with. i get it, and it feels realistic in that sense but it just made me feel very sad. there’s a lot of sexism of women not being able to do things that men can and dona gets the most joy whenever she’s dressed as the cabin-boy persona so i kind of wished that it stayed that way and she felt that kind of freedom and that instead, the pirate could settle down at some point with her. i don’t know how to describe exactly what’s bothering me. i think it just makes the whole adventure and the risks they took kind of not worth it if dona will live like how she did at the start. i was silently hoping she’d just..take james? and raise him on the ship somehow? or leave him with william someplace in france?