Leeward, Katie Daysh (2023). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

You know that feeling when you discover a debut author and you wish they had a back catalogue of a dozen books to read? That’s Katie Daysh. I could take a whole series from her in a sitting.

Leeward is set mostly in 1800 (but brings in storylines from earlier years). HMS Ulysses mutinies off Trinidad and vanishes into the Caribbean. No one knows how many of the crew are left alive or what the mutineers plan to do with the vessel.

Captain Hiram Nightingale is a veteran of the wars which have raged throughout Europe and the Americas for the last decades. Plagued by wounds both physical and mental, he attempts to recover by accepting command of HMS Scylla. His task is to hunt down the mutineers and bring the ship and crew to justice.

However, it soon becomes clear that the Ulysses is just one danger in an immense web of intrigue. Nothing is as it seems.

This is a rollicking high seas adventure and the adventure sequences themselves are heart racing. You can taste the blood and the salt and smell the gunpowder. They’re fast paced and exciting and you feel like you’re part of the action.

But there’s plenty of heart here, too. Captain Nightingale is a gay man in the late 1700s - hiding his truth to save his life. And he’s dealing with the trauma of his past and what has happened to those he has loved. His relationship with his wife is exquisite.

I would have liked to have felt the attraction between Nightingale and his love interest aboard the Scylla a little more, and I stumbled over the use of “invite” as a noun (which is a huge pet peeve of mine in present day English), but other than that, I have no complaints.

Leeward is incredibly well researched. I don’t know anything about sailing ships or seafaring or warfare in the Napoleónic era (despite having read Hornblower 20 years ago), but Daysh seems to know every single part of a ship, the rules of the admiralty, the price of eggs, you name it. And it’s all peppered to create a richness of world building that enhances but in no way overwhelms. That’s SUCH a skill!

Bonus points for the inclusion of so many classical references (Ulysses, Scylla, Circe). That really hit the sweet spot for me! (If you’re not into your classics, don’t worry, everything is neatly and simply explained.)

As I said at the start of this review, I could take so much more of Daysh’s writing, so I’m beyond thrilled there are two more to follow in the series. I’d pre-order them now if I could!

Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for the ARC.

This wasn't what I expected going into this book but it was an enjoyable read. There is a lot of information in this novel but it's woven in well and the plot progresses quickly and in a way that makes sense.

The characters are well rounded and the plot was exciting. This was a very solid read and I look forward to reading more by this author and in this world.

This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

I enjoyed Leeward but it was not quite what I expected.

If you're in it for the romance, just note that this is an EXTREMELY slow burn (feelings are not confirmed until the 94% mark). While I enjoyed the tension and I think Courtney & Nightingale's relationship could work, Nightingale doesn't seem to realize he likes Courtney until they get together, so we didn't really get to see any pining, which I thought was a missed opportunity. All of the pining seems to be on Courtney's side and we never get to see his perspective. I would have liked it better if we either got some chapters from Courtney's perspective, or if Nightingale had been more in tune with his feelings.

One thing that I loved was the friendship between Nightingale and his wife, Louisa. They are not romantically or physically interested in each other at all, they are just best friends. I liked how nonjudgemental and kind Louisa was regarding Nightingale's sexuality. I also liked that they were not forced into having children just to keep up appearances.

One thing I was not crazy about is that Nightingale still hasn't gotten over the death of his former (almost) lover, Leroy. He compares Courtney and Leroy a LOT -- all of the things he likes about Courtney are coincidentally traits he has in common with Leroy. I also didn't think it made much sense for him to give Courtney his Nile medal just because he also gave Leroy one, other than to conflate the two men even further. In the next book, I hope that Nightingale gets closure for Leroy and differentiates between Leroy and Courtney more clearly.

Also, note that there are a few mentions of colonialism, abolitionism, and the revolts of Louverture -- but our protagonist never really takes a firm stance on any of this. He is seemingly anti-slavery but never admits as much because of his pro-slavery father. Slavery and colonialism are definitely painted in a negative light but the British govt not so much; I also wish that Nightingale had taken a firmer stance on it.

However -- I AM looking forward to the next two books in this series. I am curious to see what Nightingale does next and how his relationship with Courtney progresses. I am half hoping that he will go AWOL and become a pirate or join Louverture's cause or something. This book felt like it came very close to letting him go wild against the British govt and I wish it had gone the full mile.

Badly injured at the Battle of the Nile, Captain Hiram Nightingale has also realized too late that he was in love with his dear friend Leroy, who was killed in the same battle. (He's married, but fortunately for both him and his wife, she isn't interested in sex; instead she seems to have business enterprises going -- it's a little vague, but it struck me as odd for a married woman who belonged to the gentry in the early 19th century. This, by the way, is foreshadowing wrt a nontrivial difficulty with Leeward.)

Through a somewhat suspicious series of events, Captain Nightingale is given command of the Scylla, with orders to hunt down and capture the Ulysses, whose crew has mutinied. There are wheels within wheels, all is not what it seems, etc. Also, the Scylla's first lieutenant, Arthur Courtney, is smart, hotheaded, competent, and a hunk.

Daysh's evocation of life aboard a 19th-century Royal Navy vessel seems, as far as I can tell, to be solidly grounded in historical fact, and the same goes for the technical aspects of sailing. Most of the latter were beyond me, but either Daysh knows her onions or she's got remarkable faking-it skills. (I'm pretty sure she knows her stuff.) She gets considerable credit, too, for not sugarcoating the uglier aspects of naval life -- Hiram has a sailor flogged for theft, for example, and though he doesn't like doing it he doesn't question the system that authorizes such treatment. Daysh describes the flogging and the resulting injuries unsparingly.

Where she falls down, oddly enough, is in the social history. First names, for example -- these Royal Navy officers drop into using one another's first names at the drop of a hat, even across ranks, and every time it happened my brain came screeching to a halt, because no. This is a formal and hierarchical subculture within a formal and hierarchical society: women might address their husbands by title and surname, for heaven's sake. Men on terms of close friendship would address each other by surname; to use someone's "Christian" name was a mark of the greatest intimacy.

Likewise, although the few seeming anachronisms ("greenhorn"; "invite" as a noun) that I checked turned out not to be, still the tone of the dialogue often struck me as slightly off. I've been reading a lot of Austen lately, so my ear may be tuned too much toward country-house diction, but on the other hand I always believe in Naomi Novik's dialogue in the Temeraire books, which are set in the British military of the same era (albeit with dragons) and don't sound a bit like Austen.

The most significant problem for me, though, was that I simply didn't believe in the growing attraction between Nightingale and Courtney. I knew it was happening mainly because the ad copy made it clear that they would become lovers, but I didn't feel the desire between them.

So the tl;dr is that I think the readers who'll be happiest with Leeward are those most interested in the aspects that have to do with sailing, and in the suspense plot. 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for the ARC.