Another stunning cosy fantasy from Rose Black, thank you for my ARC, I adored Til Death Fo Us Bard, and I fell in love with this even harder, I enjoyed the slightly darker elements/themes to the story, Lucky was self deprecating but in such a relatable way, the found family trope was so sweet, I enjoyed the small amount of world building and the fact leviathans weren't these creatures to be feared, but rather respected, honestly I just couldn't recommend Rose Black and her stories enough to fans of cosy fantasy and fantasy in general, I'm always left with a huge smile on my face and a feeling of content

The premise of this so appealed to me. I adore cozy queer fantasy and this sounded just my thing.
The concept is so wonderful and I’m sad I didn’t love this more.
It’s purely personal preference, but I really struggled with the writing style which made it very difficult for me to lose myself in the book. It feels quite a simplistic style with a lot of short sentences. Plus there’s a lot of Lucky did this, Lucky did that. I’m sure for a lot of people this will make it easy to read, accessible and enjoyable. For me, I found it too distracting and jarring.
A real shame because it’s a cool story and I’m here for queer fantasy!

This book feels heavy. Much heavier than till Death do us Bard, though also hopeful in the end. Lucky has been in prison for the past ten years for killing his mother, something he does not remember doing. When he is freed from prison during a leviathan attack, Lucky escapes onto a ship of Leviathan hunters, but while he is physically free, mentally he's not. He's scared of the sky and feels safest in a room that reminds him of his cell. He begins to bond with Gabriel, someone he thinks he remembers from his past.

I can't give too much away of the plot because it definitely goes places I didn't expect, but in the end it is about the mold society expects us to fit into and how to break out of that.

I liked reading Lucky's POV, though it does feel heavy, and I like how the author approached this. Both Lucky and Gabriel struggle with severe trauma, and together they feel they can share this and grow. It is ultimately a hopeful story, but one that requires lots of healing to get there.

The world building is not super complex, but it had a couple of interesting aspects. The leviathans were pretty cool, and I loved the concept of ships hunting them not to harm or kill them, but to harvest certain materials and keep them away from other ships so they don't sink anyone. The book portrays leviathans as just animals, and when they sink ships it's because they feel threatened, they're not evil or anything and Gabriel actually deeply cares for the leviathans. I loved to see this, so different from the typical monster hunter stories.
I also thought the concept of the church was interesting. Their purpose is to get everyone to conform, and an important aspect of what they believe in is fate, and that people must follow what fate tells them to. This ties in nicely with the theme of breaking out of that mold and choosing your own fate.

The romance in it was sweet and also quite angsty, I was rooting for the couple the entire time and during events that seperated them couldn't wait until they met again.

Would recommend to fans of Shoestring Theory, the Sins on their Bones, and generally people who enjoy reading fantasy about traumatized but healing queer people

Lucky is super traumatized from his past. Gabriel is sweet, kind, and soft with him. Later that switches. Their relationship is very sweet.

I was hoping for a comfort cozy read and though there are some elements of that, overall I didn’t love it. It was interesting to have these darker themes to the story, I didn’t expect that from this but it did become a bit repetitive. Lucky is a bit too self deprecating that I found it annoying after a while and then that changes pretty suddenly and no real development for dealing with that trauma.

I felt that I liked elements of the story, but I wanted more information about the world. I found the plot convoluted and felt like parts were just randomly added in as the writing went along with no real direction in advance. The writing was fine, definitely a character driven dialogue heavy book. It just didn’t grab me and hold on to me like some other “cozy” reads have.

Not a bad book though, the found family trope was sweet, overall it just didn’t work for me.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

This rollercoaster of a book was such an easy and engaging read. I read this in two sittings, and was fully pulled in by the main character; Lucky.

Lucky has been a prisoner all his life, and he doesn’t really remember anything before that. That is, until a Leviathan attacks the castle he is being held in, and he manages to escape.
We follow Lucky as he gets picked up by a ship of found-family Leviathan trackers, as he gets tracked down by the Church over and over again, and he tries to unravel the mystery of his mother’s murder.

The story was a little fragmented at times, but I absolutely loved the characters. I think the characters and their relationships were the heart and backbone of this story, and I definitely am going to pick up the other books by this author!

Thank you Netgalley, and thank you to the author for letting me read this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book, I was captivated by the premise, and it was all around just a really fun read! I was never not interested once I started.

A huge thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for letting me read this incredible book!

I was a fan of Rose Black’s work before reading this book and it has only solidified my love for her work. This story was wholesome, hopeful, tender, beautiful, addictive, and so validating to those of us struggling with mental health and trauma.

Lucky’s journey to find himself was a long, brutal journey—not so unlike a lot of us—and seeing him chase and capture his own fate has been a breathtaking ride. His love for Gabriel has transcended time and in the end brought him to his path to freedom and happiness.

All of the characters are lovely and likable. Lucky and Gabriel are both incredibly easy to relate with and watching their tale unfold has been both heartwarming and heartbreaking. The crew of the Dreamer are the found family that anyone could ever hope for! The amount of unconditional love and support in this book is staggering and one can only hope to surround themselves in such bliss.

If you’re a fan of fantasy, found family, sailors/pirates, MM romance, queer and mental health representation then I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the arc!

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 ⭐️

Pub Date: 19 Nov 2024

This book just dint work for me. I gave some time and picked it again, but no. I would like to start by acknowledging the book's obvious strengths. It is very well written, the author have great vocabulary. They all look so nice and sparkly, like charms on a necklace. But I felt like it was overused and it made it too chunky for convenience. At least the charms were pretty.

I love the idea and concept and story line of the book. But plot and characters did not sit well with me as the story was riddled with major plot holes. There wasn't a single character who I connected with, which meant I wasn't invested in their journeys one bit. I'm not sure if it's because I find it more difficult to relate to the characters, or if the characters are just becoming more bland. The premise of the story was interesting but it’s just not for me. I would say it got an unnecessary complications mask for an extremely good story-line. This would be an absolute hit for some readers but not me.

I really, really wanted to love this. It has so much Promise (pun slightly intended) and some really fantastic themes and ideas. I was so on board from the opening chapters: Lucky was an interesting protagonist dealing with the effects of incarceration on his mental wellbeing. By twists of fate he ends up escaping, being forced to face is agoraphobia and given the chance to find the truth about his mother's death, alongside a man to whom he is curiously but inextricably linked. Sounds great!

The problem lies with the pace of this story. Things happen far too quickly. Events are tangled and convoluted and presented in a barrage of information with near-immediate resolution, there are enough Events here for a duology or trilogy jammed into one book. Characters 'develop' with a snap change rather than something we get to experience on the page. It's too much, too fast.

This already has some fab early reviews on Goodreads, so as with everything this is a case of personal reading preference. I so wanted to love Lucky and his story so for the right reader this could be an absolute hit.

I have a hard time really falling for an insta-love story, and while I was initially charmed by the tone and atmosphere being created in this book, the relationship was a hard sell for me. I ended up enjoying it, but I wasn't as enraptured as I would have liked to be. I think my biggest challenge was taking a "cozy pirate story" and centring it around so much trauma and internal character conflict, because those subjects just can't be explored to the depths I need to really believe them if we're keeping things cozy and comfy. Trauma is messy, and while I love to see a character learn to find love and joy despite their pain, it feels very surface level and unsatisfying when the character doesn't get to properly handle these issues.

All of that being said, I don't think this is a bad read at all. I really loved the overall vibe, there was fun humour and quick wit throughout, which made this very easy to consume. I may have had some high expectations when starting out the book, but if I had expected something a little simpler, perhaps I would have loved it more.

This one was difficult. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the beginning sucked me in and through the first part I was enjoying the book a lot. Unfortunately, the second part came and it all fell apart. I'm not too fond of the drastic steps characters make to protect others for the sake of their safety and while it made sense here, it went on for far too long. I usually care most about characters and their relationships in books and here that wasn't satisfying. While Lucky was a good character, the rest of them kinda fell flat, especially Gabe who had very little going on and seemed to be there just to play certain roles. Their relationship was insta-lovey and I overall hate the soulmates kinda trope.

The plot and worldbuilding. While worldbuilding had a lot of potential, it wasn't explored enough. We only find out most of the important stuff 70% into the book, before that it's just throwing around terms with not much backstory behind them. I loved the idea of an evil church and having to make a promise to obtain magic but we barely get any background for that.

When it comes to the plot, it was all over the place. The first part was fine and I was having a good time but then it goes more ambitious fantasy book way and it becomes really convoluted and slightly repetitive. About 80% in I had this thought that I have never checked if this isn't a part of a series and that really bummed me out but no, it's a standalone and it ends right after we finally get this expansion in the worldbuilding that changes the perspective on the story. The last 10% was also really messy and didn't explain much. I liked the idea but I wish it played a bigger part.

I don't know if it's the issue of the arc or my kindle but I also had an issue with how it was edited. Some sentences would break in the middle of the line and start from the new one, there were paragraph breaks but only in some places, some words were stuck together. It took me out of reading sometimes.

All in all, while there are things I liked about the book, there were a lot of convoluted plot points and not enough background. That being said, it's not a bad book and I can already see a ton of people loving it so it may just be an "it's not for me" case. I hope it finds its audience and people who love it.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC for an unbiased review!

This book is more beautiful than I have words for. Vulnerable and extremely raw. The dialog was engaging and the world exciting. From moment one I was attached to Lucky more than I can bare. It's not often that I genuinely get emotional over a character right off the bat but that was the case for him. Highly recommended if you want an emotional roller coaster and a traumatized main character who deserves the world but the world does not deserve him. I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Thanks Netgallley, the publisher, and the author for the arc!

I was incredibly drawn in by the premise, the cover, and the opening chapters. This book starts hard. I clicked on it for a peek and blinked and suddenly I was chapters deep and it was way past my bedtime.

It continued on into a precious, sweet, fun story! I love sea books, and this setting was excellent. Both Lucky and Gabriel were great characters to follow. Much of this book is about working through trauma, and I loved how gentle and sweet the characters were with each other, how they gave each other time and space to figure things out, how supportive and cosy everything felt. A lot of excellent found family in this one!

I enjoyed reading it a lot!

Lucky has been in his seaside prison for so long that he's forgotten who he is. That is until fate has other plans and bring a leviathan knocking down his prison and Gabriel into his life. Lucky feels a closeness to "golden boy" Gabriel right away, almost like they know each other....

Fated Winds and Promising Seas is a page-turner. We get to see Lucky grow and come out of his shell and deal with his mental health in honest and real ways.

Lucky is brought aboard the Dreamer, a ship full of other "misfits" like himself. The ship is full of wonderful characters who are the best kind of found family. Some of those aboard the Dreamer are "dancers" who can manipulate water, but for a price.

At one point about 40% in the story did begin to drag a little, but once it picked back up I couldn't put it down. The story kept me on my toes and had so many surprises. I love Lucky and was rooting for them, even when they made mistakes. There are so many twist and turns to this story it was a joy to read! The romance between Gabe and Lucky was so sweet you can't help but root for them.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All of the components in this book were pretty strong, and at the end of the day, any book about pirates is probably going to be pretty good. (I have yet to be proven wrong.) I enjoyed this and looked forward to reading it after I had to set it down. It was fast paced, plot driven, and had cool characters. This book wasn't meant to be historically accurate or hard-hitting, and once I abandoned those expectations, it became very enjoyable. It was just a cozy pirate story, and it was very good at what it was.

"When are you going to start living as Lucky?"

I really enjoyed the premise and the characters of this story. I loved the contrast of having the characters facing challenges in relation to the hardships and traumas of past and present, with the connections that are available to form from the comfort and safety that spins alongside it between the two leads and the interactions from other characters. I enjoyed having the complex emotions, behaviours and motivations present in the story.

The only thing that holds me back, personally, from further enjoying the story is the disjointed feeling I get as the story progresses. I appreciated that this story doesn't have 'quick fixes' to the challenges faced. However, I felt that in parts this attempt to show the characters needing to constantly battle against evils becomes a switching back and forth without a smooth flow between all the plot points. I wanted it to be a bit smoother through sections rather than the feeling of jumping from action point to the next action point.

Overall, a magical adventure showcasing a queer cast of characters and highlighting a story of found family.

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton for this eARC, I am voluntarily leaving a review.

As always, please check trigger warnings before reading!

I was so excited to read this one. I love cozy fantasy so much. This was cute and I loved the hea, but it often felt slow and dragged at points.

Look at me, trying once again for a cozy fantasy story with great romance and nautical themes that I can finally fall in love with!
Spoiler alert: I did not fall in love with it. And I so so wanted to. I've read Black's previous novel and did enjoy some aspects of it, so I held hope for the author to blow me away next time. Sadly, <i>Fated Winds and Promising Seas</i> does get the exact same rating of two stars.

Once again, there is so much potential here. A deeply traumatised protagonist with a mysterious tragic past who's been held in a prison for the last ten or so years because he might have killed his own mother? I'm listening, I'm intrigued. Our protagonist, Lucky, escaping the prison because a giant leviathan attacks it and inadvertendly forces him to deal with his agoraphobia all while he's getting picked up by a crew of seafarers that include a very pretty guy and his two moms, one of them the captain of the ship? GO ON, I'm seated! Multiple mysteries surrounding aggressive leviathans, a religious cult, a murder and the maybe fated relationship between Lucky and said pretty guy? ALRIGHT! All the good stuff is here, but the execution is just so very lacking.

The writing is alright, though Black relies very heavily on dialogue and tends to get repetitive with it. The plot is honestly a bit convoluted and fragmented, and that isn't helped by the very barebones world building. What is there, the idea of fate and promises and a religion based on interpreting threads to know the future, is interesting. It just wasn't coherently told in a way that engaged me, and I was honestly left a little confused here and there as to how certain things in this world are supposed to work.
But my main issue are, once again, the characters. I'm a character driven reader, but also a novel like this that is heavy on the romance and the found family trope just doesn't work if the charactersdon't work. For me, they don't. Lucky starts out incredibly interesting, but then Black decides to throw these interesting bits to the wayside. The way he deals with his trauma and his mental illness is incredibly superficial, and his personality changes rather abruptly in the second part of the novel after there's been a small time jump. The other characters do react to that so it's clearly an active choice, but it took away a lot from his development. His love interest, Gabe, goes from protector to protected very quickly too. I did feel for Gabe and his trauma but once again didn't feel like it was explored deeply enough. Their whole dynamic changes and it doesn't feel organic, earned. I actually like the idea in theory but I didn't think it was well executed here.
Their romance was pretty instalovey and I admit I'm not the biggest fan of the fated lovers trope, but my main gripe is simply that I didn't feel the chemistry. I might have preferred them as friends, even. I enjoyed the rest of the crew, but didn't really feel the Found Family vibes at all. At some point Lucky talks about how he's finally found a home with these people and once again, this was told to us instead of showing us how this relationship develops.

I'm clearly in the minority here so take my review with a grain of salt. Maybe it's just a case of a book not fitting this particular reader. For me, it was just a meh reading experience but it absolutely does have great ideas.

I was instantly drawn by the premise (and promised tropes) and luckily I was not disappointed by the execution!

Found family? Check.
Troubled main characters who support each other? Check.
Fierce and funny rival? Check.

Also, for what reads as a cozy fantasy, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well-developed, interesting magic system and great world-building! And also, despite just calling it cozy, this book deals with some dark themes, but I thought they were handled with care and hope, which I loved.

I do hope some scenes could have been condensed and others expanded, as there were some moments where I felt it was getting just a bit repetitive, and other moments could have benefited from some more in-depth exploring to pack a more emotional punch. I appreciate the journey both Lucky and Gabe go through and their character development.

All in all, a really enjoyable read, that kept me intrigued til the very satisfying end. 4.5 stars rounded down.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Found family, amnesia trope, swashbuckling adventure, and two loveable MCs. What more could you ask for? OH! And sapphic pirate captains