Eli Brown

In 1819, kidnapped chef Owen Wedgwood transforms meager shipboard supplies into sumptuous meals at the behest of his kidnapper, pirate queen Mad Hannah Mabbot, while she pushes her exhausted crew to track down a deadly privateer.

A Novel

Cinnamon and Gunpowder

Brianna

Just want to say, 2 years later and still having only read this book once, I have such a vivid recollection of this story (very uncharacteristic for me). Definitely a unique hidden gem I wish more people have read.

Amy Grieve

When this was pitched to me as a strong female pirate kidnaps an accomplished chef so he can cook her gourmet food each week I was intrigued. Then I saw the cover and I was sold.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder was, best put, delightful. I really don’t think I have ever read a book quite like it and I don’t think it’ll happen again any time soon. At every turn this book surprised me from the narrative style being told in diary entries made by Owen, our kidnapped chef, to the way all of the side characters really felt like fully formed individuals and not two dimensional beings floating around the corners of the story. 

I’d like to put my hand up and say that Owen Wedgewood is sexy in my opinion. I don’t need some hunky pirate. I just want my Owen’s resourceful nature and unrelenting passion for cooking. A girl couldn’t ask for much more, but Eli Brown gave it to us when he gave Owen character development. We love to see it.

As for Hannah Mabbot, the pirate queen herself. Just amazing. A strong woman who really said I’ll do what I want, say what I want while also showing emotional depth beyond her badass persona. She just felt so full of life that she couldn’t really be contained on the page.

This is a fun, jaunty read which is filled with high seas antics, found family and overall worth a read.

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by a beautiful yet ruthless pirate. He will be spared, Mad Hannah Mabbot tells him, as long as he can conjure an exquisite meal every Sunday from the ship's meager supplies. While Wedgwood attempts to satisfy his captor with feats such as tea-smoked eel and pineapple-banana cider, he realizes that Mabbot herself is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. But there is a method to Mabbot's madness, and as the Flying Rose races across the ocean, Wedgwood learns to rely on the bizarre crew members he once feared: a formidable giant who loves to knit; a pair of stoic martial arts masters, sworn to defend their captain; and the ship's deaf cabin boy, who becomes the son he never had. An anarchic tale of love and appetite, Eli Brown's Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a wildly original feat of the imagination, deep and startling as the sea itself.

Amanda J 

Bittersweet. Wellwritten and enjoyed it all the way around. Not the sunny beach read I thought, but geat nontheless

Cinnamon and Gunpowder A Novel

Reviews