Hunt on Dark Waters opens mid-action with our main protagonist, a witch (and a little kleptomaniac) named Evelyn, who escapes her semi-regular vampire hook-up with the help of a magical portal that lands her on a pirate ship captained by Bowen, a pirate hero if there ever was one. Bowen is part of the naval force that polices the seas and captures people who travel between portals without permission (and without thinking about why he has to do that in the first place). When Evelyn turns his whole world upside down, Bowen starts to question why he can’t remember a time before being the guardian of the Threshold, the sea between the portals, and as the tension between Evelyn and Bowen is amplified, danger threatens to tear them apart before they can truly be together. Can the both of them find common ground before they’ll have to pay the ultimate price?
Katee Robert’s worldbuilding skills never fail to astound me. Just as with the Gods of Olympus series, Robert here takes all the mythical creatures we know and love from stories and puts their own spin on it all, making for a vastly fascinating setting.
Likewise, the magic system and different abilities were really cool and definitely kept me on my toes. I also really loved the focus on diversity here—not just in characters but in mythical creatures and the importance of what society deems of the norm and what is immediately considered other and thus often monstrous. That discussion that came up a few times was definitely a highlight for me in Hunt on Dark Waters.
As always with Robert’s books, there’s a romance for the ages. Evelyn and Bowen have great chemistry and Evelyn’s snark pairs wonderfully with the more broody, tall, dark and handsome epitome that Bowen represents. Bowen and Evelyn both have a lot of growing to do individually which also made for a riveting read. I really liked how we got to see Bowen question his beliefs and basically everything he thought he knew about himself and his past (and his reasons for being the guardian of the Seas. And of course there are some extremely steamy scenes (with unexpected magical abilities) that will have you in desperate need of a cool sea breeze, if you catch my drift.
What I was struggling a bit with in this book was the pacing. Sure, we have insta-love which is okay for this sort of set-up, but throughout the novel, things often were incredibly rushed as we are thrown into one adventure after the next, and I found myself wishing for a bit of a breather in between to catch up with all the new information we learn alongside Bowen and Evelyn.
All that being said though, this fast pace definitely kept me flipping the pages and had me hooked, so it might just be that some things will be elaborated on in further installments and this was just meant to set up the world and keep readers guessing.
All in all, Hunt on Dark Waters is a mystical, magical beginning to what promises to be a rich, fun and enchanting new series!
Hunt on Dark Waters is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of November 7th.
Will you be picking up Hunt on Dark Waters? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A stern captain meets his witchy match in this captivating first fantasy romance novel in the Crimson Sails series from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok smash-hit Neon Gods.
Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their ship’s crew or die.
Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his band of pirates are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues 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.
But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, the danger at sea escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price….
