Loved this book. So beautifully written and well done. Loved the characters and enjoyed how well it all came to an end.

This was a good follow up, although I felt as though it did spend far too much time slowing down the start by going into the specifics of what Ragna had gone through prior to meeting Ersel. Additionally, although this book was toted as being inspired by Peter Pan, apart from the hook that Ragna wore after the loss of her hand (in a way that wasn't even related to a crocodile!) I didn't really feel that inspiration was fully realised.

Once again, I think my favourite parts of this novel were the parts after Ersel had to go back to the ocean because, despite Loki's magics, she is still a mermaid and can't be too far from it. I absolutely adored the relationship changes that went on between Ragna and the crew she had at first hated and despised, but kept for necessity. If their coming around to respecting her as their captain seemed a little bit easily won, at least Ragna's genuine regret for her past actions felt like forgiveness was worth it.

Getting to know the various backstories of the crew, the budding alliance between Ragna and Jarl Honor, even the fight sequences leading up to Ragna taking back her home town, all of these were arresting and rewarding.

For all that I loved the world building, however, I feel as though the romance between Ragna and Ersel was really what let this book down.

The Navigator's Touch is the sequel to The Seafarer's Kiss and frankly, it's a weird book to rate and to review. The problem being that it's... mediocre. It's neither very good nor very bad. It's not boring, but it's not exactly super interesting either. More than that, one has to wonder if this sequel, or companion novel, or whatever else we want to call it, was even necessary in the first place? Does it actually contribute to the story as a whole? Because it mostly doesn't feel like that.

In a word, it's disappointing.

I adored The Seafarer's Kiss (book 1 in the duology) and was so excited to read book 2. With shield-maidens, an f/f romance, and all sorts of mythological sea creatures, this is one of the most unique spins on The Little Mermaid I've read. Book 2 also extends into a little bit of Peter Pan retelling as well.

The Navigator's Touch resumes where book 1 left off but with Ragna as the central character this time. She is out to get revenge on the people who killed her family, and Ersel is there to help. We meet several new characters as Ragna tries to form a crew to help her in her mission. What I enjoyed most was Ragna's drive and dedication. It's a bit of a double edged sword (something Ersel especially learns) but her motivation is clear. She holds so much grief and anger in her, and it will take a lot for her to feel any peace.

Julia Ember is so skilled at crafting queer, fantastical stories, and this duology is the perfect example of that.

This is a fantasy with an LGBTQ MC with inspiration from Old Norse legends.

Ragna's family has been murdered and her town on a hidden island ransacked by invaders, and she's sworn vengeance. As a teen girl, even one imbued with a gift from the gods, she needs help from many quarters, and she must pledge her fealty to secure the allies who could deliver her island from occupation. Ragna is a Shield-Maiden, a valiant fighter, battle-tested and trained but struggling with the loss of her hand, and the need to see her tormentor and former boss, Haakon, dead.

The Old Norse legends are constantly reinforced in the use of language and terms that harken directly from the Old Norse. Ragna is a compelling heroine, negotiating with her intellect and her magical gifts, and striking bargains with Loki and a female chief of the area, to gather the supplies and troops who could help her to free those few survivors of the attack. Ragna grieves the loss of her young brother, her mother and father, but hopes against hope that her cousin may have survived--among a fraction of others.

Ragna has a female companion, Ersel, a shapeshifting mermaid who's been cursed by Loki. Striking a bargain with the wily god is an affront to Ersel, but it's one of only few paths that Ragna has to vengeance. It's a tough experiences, scheming and struggling to save her land and not allow Loki to wreak further harm on Ersel. I loved Ragna's fierce heart and determination. Her mission to get back her land is worth sacrificing everything, including her own freedom, so to speak, turning herself into a mercenary to a degree. It's a companion story to The Seafarer's Kiss, but focusing on Ragna's story and how she recovers her peace of heart after Haakon destroyed her world. It's not a lovestory, though there is a bit of love expressed between Ragna and Ersel. I expect we might see some more of Ragna, especially, as she scours the globe for what Loki has required as a condition of their cooperation.

Plenty of LGBTQ characters here, with little fanfare; these persons are just ordinary people of this world, which was good to see and especially affirming. I think if you are a fan of stories that celebrate and re-consider mythology, as well as strong females, will likely enjoy this one. Make no mistake that this story contains dangerous adventures, murder and killing: the bad guys get their just desserts.

I think I'm done trying to read Julia Ember's books. There's nothing wrong with them. I've just come to the realization they don't work for me.

I was so excited to dive into this one after finishing The Seafarer's Kiss, which was an awesome fresh take on mermaid mythos. The Navigator's Touch functions are more of a companion book instead of a sequel as I first anticipated and focuses on Ragna, a shield maiden who previously rescued Ersel in the first book. I absolutely loved this take on Norse mythology and Ragna was a really badass, vengeful, ruthless heroine who I loved reading about through all of her pirate-y adventures. There was quite a lot of violence so I would definitely recommend this one for older YA readers, but would absolutely recommend it nonetheless.

This was just an okay read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, I just didn't feel strongly enough, overall, about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

I missed the warnings for this book and sadly once I reached animal death I couldn't read on therefore I did not finish this book.

I did not love the first book, so I was apprehensive to read this book. It starts out right where we left off in the aforementioned book. The characters were still pretty bland and did not alight the fire that I hoped for in a book about badass female pirates.

This is the sequel to The Seafarer’s Kiss, although you could definitely get away with reading it on its own. I definitely enjoyed this follow up quite a lot – the Norse inspiration really speaks to me, and there is so much good gender and sexuality rep (at least from a CIS woman’s point of view, please seek out own voices reviews to double check!), and there were also imperfect characters getting themselves checked and learning and growing as individuals, and that was refreshing. If you’re interested in some queer Norse shenanigans, check both of these books out. 3.5 stars

I loved this book so much. It was a fantastic continuation of the series and I really enjoyed the characters and the setting.

Norse mythology with strong, badass women? Yes please! This is the companion to The Seafarers Kiss. She takes the Umberland approach and each book is a "retelling" of a different story. The last one being The Little Mermaid inspired.

“Come with me,” he said, breathless, and extended his hand to her. “I will make you a queen among gods.”

…

“I have a duty to my people.!

The god bowed his head. Fate had directed his hjarta, and he was as powerless against the Norns as any mortal.

“Then my duty will be to you.”

Immediately following the events of The Seafarer’s Kiss, The Navigator’s Touch follows Ragna, book one’s shipwrecked captive. A descendent of the union between Heimdallr and a human woman named Sigrid, Ragna bears the shifting, magical maps on her skin marking her as other, as desirable – because many men would kill to have a map that would take them safely wherever they wanted to go. We first met Ragna when her captors’ ship was wrecked in the ice of the trap, and her life was saved by a mermaid’s curiosity. Now we follow Ragna as she recalls the events that took her from her home and left her family dead, and see the lengths she is willing to go to for revenge.

Fear and promise, in equal balance, that was the only way I was going to survive. To lead this crew, I had to promise them the world and dangle their nightmares from the tip of my silver hook.

Leading a crew of mercenaries who had once worked for the man who destroyed her home and accompanied by a mermaid whose gifts are god-given and bought with blood, Ragna is forced to change if she wants to succeed. The children of her village, her cousin, all are kept prisoner in the hopes that maps will appear on their bodies and to save them she will do anything at all. Ember has done a wonderful job of differentiating the narrative voices in this series. Ersel and Ragna are two very, very different women. Drawn together by the events that made them allies, and then lovers, they still do not fully understand one another. Where Ersel was motivated by desperation to save herself from an unwanted fate, Ragna is altogether a more viscerally angry person. The violence ramps up in this installation, and there’s a pretty brutal scene towards the end where Ragna encounters the man who murdered her young brother. She is motivated to the extent where it often blinkers her to what is going on around her. There are moments she seems to see Ersel more as a weapon to be used than as a young girl, a person in her own right in a world she doesn’t yet understand, and she views her stolen crew with nothing less than paranoid contemp, and yet she is still a character for whom I felt a great amount of sympathy. Her home was burned down, her family murdered, she almost starved to death on a glacier, she’s been left with one hand and a hook and in order to save her young cousin she must do the impossible. She’s a young girl wanting to take on an army, and for that she needs to be stronger than she has ever been.

I couldn’t decide what I hoped. To see her again? To stop being too selfish to love her? Or that the god would take her far away, and she would never come back, so I would never have the chance to betray her again.

We see more other creatures of Norse Mythology as Ragna and Ersel journey on, Fenrir lurking in the mountains, Sleipnir with blood dripping from his teeth as he eats a man alive. These stories are given new life, and despite Ersel’s warnings against deals with Loki, Ragna finds herself inextricably tied to the trickster god. To get what they want, a bargain must be struck.

The character development in this book is wonderful. Ragna is not the world’s most likable character but I kind of love that. She’s angry and bitter and trusts literally nobody and she can be rude and selfish but let’s be honest, that’s kind of understandable for someone who has been through hell. She’s also ferociously loving, passionate and determined, and she’s a stone cold badass. If you were faced up against an angry lady covered in moving tattoos with a hook for a hand, you’d run away. Ersel learns to stand on her own two feet – or eight tentacles – in both a literal and figurative sense in the background while Ragna’s rage takes the forefront of the novel, and while there’s this promise of perhaps one day, both women have their own goals and dreams independent of one another.

For me, this book build upon the first one extremely well. The pacing, where it had been slightly slow in areas of the first one, was brilliantly fast in this one. The cast of characters were diverse and individual and I love them so much. The ending of the book was perfectly set up for more, so I hope it’s coming! This is definitely an author on my list of ones to watch and I can’t wait for more writing!

Overall rating: 🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️ 5 mermaids out of 5

A Copy of The Navigator’s Touch was kindly provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I was really disappointed in this one. I didn’t like Ragna at all, really. Her indecisiveness annoyed me to no end and she was utterly selfish the entire book. There was little to no romance and I was shipping them hard from the first book. It was a really short book page wise, but I felt like it would never end. The ending was extremely unsatisfactory.

Stick with the first one.

The Navigator's Touch is a companion novel to The Seafarer's Kiss rather than a direct sequel, those who have already read the first book will be familiar with some of the characters but you could start with this book without getting lost. Ragna was the shield-maiden who rescued Ersel in the first book but this instalment is really her story, it starts before The Seafarer's Kiss then there is a small amount of crossover before it continues on past events we've already read about. We get to find out more about her childhood, what happened when her village was attacked, how she lost her hand and see if she manages to get revenge on the people who wronged her.

I love the way Julia Ember has used Norse Mythology for the base of this series, then the first book is her take on The Little Mermaid story while this one is more of an origin story for Captain Hook from Peter Pan, with a female Hook which just makes it even better! Ragna is a brilliant character, all her life she dreamed of becoming a warrior so it's something she trained hard for but when her village is attacked and she is captured by her enemy she has to use those skills to make her escape. She is absolutely consumed by her need for revenge which makes her come across as quite a hard character in the beginning, she is utterly ruthless and even when she manages to get her own ship she doesn't trust her men because they are all mercenaries.

What I really enjoyed was seeing how much Ragna changed and grew throughout the story as she slowly learned how to be a better leader, one who inspired loyalty through her actions rather than by fear. Ragna does treat Ersel quite badly in the beginning but she comes to realise how she affects the people around her and she does try to make amends for her bad behaviour.

Once again this story has a diverse cast of characters, there is an FF relationship and gender neutral characters who are just normal members of the group and not treated like they're there as part of a box ticking exercise. We are introduced to all kinds of creatures from Norse legends too which I really enjoyed.

The Navigator's Touch was everything I had hoped it would be and a wonderful companion to The Seafarer's Kiss, I already mentioned that you can read these books in any order and I'm very happy to recommend both to fans of mythology and retellings.

The start of the book was a bit of a slog to get through but once it got going I really enjoyed this! I am really hoping for a second book as the characters budding relationships and the upcoming quest sound just as interesting as the first book.

If you're looking for a book with queer relationships that doesn't explicitly focus on relationships then this is also a good book to grab!

I have been DYING for this book since I finished and adored The Seafarer’s Kiss. If you’ve read my review for that one you know that I loved Ragna’s character and was intrigued by her, ESPECIALLY after I learned that her story would be a captain hook retelling, especially after I was told that it would be a companion and not a direct sequel. And although I really really enjoyed it, to me, it didn’t live up to The Seafarer’s Kiss and didn’t quite meet my expectations.

When I first started reading The Navigator’s touch, it completely slipped my mind just how much I freaking love Julia’s writing style, it caught me by surprise AGAIN, even though I raved all about it in my review for The Seafarer’s Kiss (Goldfish memory, don’t mind me), everything I said in that review about the writing stands here as well. The author’s prose is absolutely exquisit, it’s so fairytale like that it gives the story the perfect vibe.

The book is written from Ragna’s POV, she’s the love interest in The Seafarer’s Kiss and a very intriguing one at that. The first book raises many questions about her and this one doesn’t fail to answer them. The Navigator’s Touch falls somewhere in between companion and sequel as it takes place right after the events of the first book but it also has flashbacks that give us Ragna’s full backstory, her family, how she came to leave her town, how she lost her hand, got her hook, her crew until she meets Ersel and everything that happens after. This one is also a lot richer with Norse mythology and the mythology hoe that I am was thriving.

The main issue I had with this book is how slow it was at first, and how long it took to get started. It wasn’t just slow, which I don’t mind usually (again, see my review for The Seafarer’s Kiss), it’s that it felt like the plot drags for the first half of the book. Besides the flashbacks that were great, it felt to me like the story took a little too long to get to the a point that could have been reached in fewer chapters. That being said, once the pace picked up, I forgot all about that. I read the first half in five days and the second in two, that’s how much I was hooked to the events by that point.

The Navigator’s touch only reinforced my love for Ragna. She’s not a good character, she’s extremely flawed, makes questionable decisions, is driven by revenge and a lot of her actions are based on fear, mistrust or lack of self-confidence but she’s also strong, resilient and hot headed and the character development she goes through as the story moves along as well as realisation she makes about herself and people around her were great to read.

Another thing that I wasn’t a big fan of and that is just a matter of personal preference is the relationship between Ersel and Ragna. I know this is from Ragna’s POV but I still expected to see a lot more of Ersel than we actually got and I also expected their relationship to progress one way or another but it… didn’t for 70% of the book, it was stagnant, Ersel herself barely got any characterisation and the romance was barely there if there at all. I just wanted MORE from it. But the way it was handled at the end was actually something I was able to get behind, how the girls followed their dreams and/or duties above all and not romantic love, Because those stories are very frequent but are rarely told. And I think they’re as important as HEA and HFN.

One last thing before I finish this review, I really liked the open ending. It gives way for so many possibilities and so many more stories can be told after the end of The Navigator’s touch, it makes me hope for more companion books haha, eventhough I know none are planned. A girl can dream.

The covers of Julia Ember's books in this series are amazing. I can't really say the same about the insides. I didn't dislike the two books in the series and if there is a third I would probably read it. That said I had some issues. Ragna just isn't likeable and I doubt that she is supposed to be, but you don't get, from the first book in the series, that she's supposed to be in over her head and inexperienced and selfish. Ok maybe the selfish you should see coming. But from Seafarer's Kiss I would have assumed that she was older than she was (older teenager) and that she had had combat experience. Instead she's naive and selfish and constantly acting out of low self-esteem and it just got so old. I wanted to shake her and tell her to grow up already. I probably wouldn't have felt so strongly about it if I hadn't come into Navigator's Touch with preconceived notions about her character from the first book.

I enjoyed this story well enough. It's full of myth and magic, with a healthy dose of bloody politics to go along with it. The romance is bitter sweet, and it just irks me that it is more open ended at the end.

I enjoyed Ragna's learning to be a leader. It helps that we do get to see some of those leadership qualities that magically appear when needed for most protagonists are a struggle for Ragna to master. She's too paranoid, too rash, and in so many cases, too cruel to those she wants to lead. Ragna showed potential through the first half of the book, yet her youth and inexperience often caused her to alienate her from those she cared about the most.

And that brings me to the romance of the book. It isn't really the central relationship in the book as Ragna is often looking towards the Jarl for guidance. I know we're to believe that Ersel can act as Ragna's moral compass - Ersel is mature when Ragna isn't, kind when necessary, and often is the one to ground her. The problem is that Ragna increasingly forgets about Ersel's personhood - and sees her as a tool to be used. Which makes for such a frustrating dynamic and Ragna unlikable at times.

The pacing was excellent, and allowed the tension to build up so very well. There was that one inexplicable flash back that told the story of Ragna' and Ersel meeting from Ragna's point of view. It didn't make much sense to me, other than to introduce some of the key players later in the book. It just felt too sudden.

This is a pretty solid series, and I love a good fantasy, especially ones that revolve around Norse myths. I just couldn't get past Ragna as a lead character for this book. Usually, I love those characters that fall in those gray areas, but Ragna just simply angered me more often than not. I'd still give it a recommend because I know this just isn't in my wheelhouse in terms of the characters.

I also have to add that the cover art for both books of the series is amazing, and just adds that little extra magic to a decent fantasy series.