Struggling to find your next novel set on the high seas? Don't worry, we have you covered! Just don't let your TBR see you adding these to your basket. 👀
If you like the sound of any of these book, make sure you don't miss out on ordering our February box, Against the Tide, which features a stunning YA debut that will have you wanting to set sail and take on the high seas. 🌊
Aboard the ship Scylla, there is no future or past. Jaq, her fickle lover Lily, and their all-female crew exist in an endless present. It’s better this way. At least it keeps Lily by Jaq’s side, where she belongs. But the meddling gods care little for Jaq’s longing, and despite her protective rituals, their punishment arrives all the same. A man, adrift on the open ocean. Delivered to snatch Lily from Jaq’s arms forever.
Tropes:
🌊 Aquatic Sapphic SFF
💅Supporting Women's Wrongs
📚Slavic folklore inspired
2. Hunt on Dark Waters by Katee Robert
"If you run, you will force us to hunt you. You will force me to hunt you."
Synopsis:
Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers. She is given a choice: join the group or die.
When Bowen rescued Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.
Tropes:
✨Arguments that end in kissing
🐕Golden retriever MMC
🧙♀️Chaotic Bisexual Witch FMC
3. To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
‘Lies aren't answers.’
“But they sound so much better than the truth.”
Synopsis:
Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most — a human.
Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.
Tropes:
🌹Feminist fairytale retelling
🧜♀️Monster/Slayer Romance
👸Princess Protagonist
4. The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
'She was not a creature of courage, but she was one of spite.'
Synopsis:
A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.
Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa. Flora doesn’t expect to be taken under Evelyn’s wing, and Evelyn doesn’t expect to find such a deep bond with the pirate.
Tropes:
✨Magic and Mayhem
👀Surprisingly dark
❤Sapphic, genderfluid romance
5. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Are not all mothers capable of being monsters when it comes to their children?
Synopsis:
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, and motherhood.
But when she’s tracked down by the wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew and do right by an old friend.
Tropes:
📚All Myths are True
🏴☠️Experienced Protagonist
💔It's All My Fault
6. The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman
“Better not start apologizing now my prince," she says. "you'll run out of time to cover it all.”
Synopsis:
When Selly's father leaves her in the port of Kirkpool, she has no intention of staying on land while he sails to adventure. But any plans to follow are dashed when a handsome stranger with tell-tale magician's marks on his arm boards her ship, presenting her and the crew with a dangerous mission: to cross the Crescent Sea without detection so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles of the Gods. What starts as a leisure cruise leads to acts of treason and sheer terror on the high seas.
Tropes:
💕Enemies to Lovers
✨Unique Magic System
👥Multi POV
Make sure to order our February box, Against the Tide, before 3rd February 2024 so you don't miss out on adding a seventh book to your list of swashbuckling book recs. 🏴☠️