Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollinsAustralia for the ARC!

This was such a great book! If you’re looking for Cinderella and the little mermaid you’ve come to the right place. It’s a perfect mixture. This book kept me so entertained and had me running back to my kindle for more.

Kell Woods also knows how to write a FMC so well! I feel like a lot of times lately people have been writing ditzy and not flushed out FMCs but it’s done wonderfully in this book!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollinsAustralia for the ARC!

I never knew that I needed a Little Mermaid and Cinderella combined retelling until I read this book. I loved Luce and her relationship with her stepsisters and her father – being the beloved and favoured child is bound to make the other siblings or stepsiblings jealous, even if the favourite child and the jealous siblings do not want to be, and this complicated relationship I like to see to authors acknowledge when retelling Cinderella. I loved the nautical atmosphere of the book, something which is carried through into the dress transformation scene. A dress literally made from the sea and embellished with pearls and shells? Slippers made of seawater? Arriving at the ball in a beautiful black ship that was actually a shipwreck raised from the depths? Incredible. The Little Mermaid elements were also handled really well, I think, with Luce rescuing a ‘prince’ from a shipwreck early on, to other parts that I can’t mention here because of spoilers. But suffice it to say, if you’ve read the original fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson, you should suspect some twists out early on. The romance and love triangle as well, between Luce, Samuel, her handsome smuggler friend, and the charming ‘prince’ I thought was really well done, with me not knowing which love interest Luce would choose until some startling revelations about two-thirds through the book.

I learnt about some Breton/French folkloric creatures, such as lutines (or lutins), hobgoblins who assist in the running of households and groac’h, a water-fairy who serves as Luce’s fairy godmother when she needs to go to a ball. I also appreciated how the author incorporated a great deal of mermaid (or seamaid as they’re called in the book) lore. For example, a mermaid’s kiss saving a sailor from drowning, how they can bring good luck as well as misfortune, their mesmerising singing voices, and how they can control the wind and tide through their voice or brushing out their hair. I love it when historical fantasy authors incorporate actual folklore and superstitions from the period in which the story is set. It makes the fantastical elements of the story feel more believable, because these are things that some people actively believed during the time. Learning more about the history of a place that I wasn’t very familiar with, Brittany, was also fascinating, and I definitely want to check more stories set in this region.

I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy historical fantasy set in not often portrayed settings, oceanic folklore and magic, and fairytales retold and combined to create an utterly spellbinding original tale that stands well on its own.

People who love historical fiction and fairytale retellings will love this book!! You get multiple in this one, Cinderella and the Little Mermaid. The uniqueness of smushing them together was something I really enjoyed from this book. For the historical fiction lovers, you will be transported to 1700's Brittany, France, at the height of it's history with piracy and privateers.
Unfortunately it was a bit hard for me to get into. The first half of the book in my opinion lacked any intrigue, partly because I felt there was no 'fantasy'. It was very heavy on the historical aspects to begin with, and I needed some magic to make me want to keep going. In the second half however, I finally got what I was looking for and I began to feel the magic, the FMC's power, and the plot also got much more intriguing.
Another complaint is that I feel the book got very brutal very suddenly, which came as quite a shock. I can't decide whether this is a good thing or not. I appreciate a surprise, but it just felt so out of nowhere that I felt a bit uncomfortable.
The final parts and the very ending pulled on my heartstrings severely. I was so terrified that the book would end without us finding out if the characters made it back to each other, so I was very very grateful for the epilogue.

A beautifully lyrical fairy tale retelling, with chiseled language, historical French setting, and a refreshed dusted look at the old tales.
This is for people who enjoy AG Slater's beautiful prose, the hypnotic feel of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, the heart of Deerskin by Robin McKinley and generally literary fantasy.
I was attracted by the amazing cover - it's just gorgeous, had to read as soon as I learn it was a reinterpretation of the Little Mermaid (such a fertile, bitter sweet soil) and was not disappointed.
The integration of magic in the world in realistic touches is very well done and I loved that the main character struggled with her feet, but pushed in her determined way, so very strong from the get-go.

Well technically, I haven't finished it yet, but I've hit the near end of it. I'm already in love! This story has such a lyrical quality that you can't help but get pulled into the story. Reading it I imagined I was walking the shore getting sand between my toes, pulling the seaweed from my hair after a swim in the ocean in my nightgown.

Not a word is wasted. All the characters have depth and are so relateable that you could know them or meet them in real life...well maybe not a ocean witch or sea maiden.

I enjoyed the historical setting of the Napoleonic war and the blend of mythical folklore and the stories of the Little Mermaid and Cinderella.

Publishers, may I humbly request you release a hardback with some glorious stenciled edges. This story deserves such treatment. Otherwise, I'll be buying my own and attempting to paint it myself! It seems I'll be nagging my friends to read this one as well!

Thank you to HarperCollins Australia and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a great romantic fantasy/fairy tale re-telling. One of my many gripes with current romantasy is absolutely insufferable FMCs, and Kell Woods succeeded in crafting a FMC who was her own person with challenges outside of the romance plot. Also points for not following the shadow daddy formula.

Absolutely loved the historical French element, it gave this book more of a magical realism feel.