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Upon a Starlit Tide
A dark and enchanting fairy tale-inspired historical fantasy combining elements of "The Little Mermaid" and "Cinderella" into a wholly original tale of love, power, and betrayal.
Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758.
For Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of Saint-Malo's wealthiest ship-owners, the high walls of the city are more hindrance than haven. While her sisters are interested in securing advantageous marriages, Luce dreams of escaping her elegant but stifling home and joining a ship's crew. Only Samuel—Luce's best friend and an English smuggler—understands her longing for the sea, secretly teaching her to sail whenever she can sneak away. For Luce, the stolen time on the water with Samuel is precious.
One stormy morning, Luce's plans are blown off course when she rescues Morgan de Chatelaine, the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea. Immediately drawn to his charm and sense of adventure, she longs to attend the glittering ball held in honor of his safe return and begins to contemplate a different kind of future for herself.
But it is not only Luce's hopes at stake—the local fae are leaving Brittany and taking their magic with them, while the long-standing war with the English means Saint-Malo is always at risk of attack. As Luce is plunged into a world of magic, brutality, and seduction, secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface. The truth of her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.
Or the scales of a sea-maid's tail.
Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758.
For Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of Saint-Malo's wealthiest ship-owners, the high walls of the city are more hindrance than haven. While her sisters are interested in securing advantageous marriages, Luce dreams of escaping her elegant but stifling home and joining a ship's crew. Only Samuel—Luce's best friend and an English smuggler—understands her longing for the sea, secretly teaching her to sail whenever she can sneak away. For Luce, the stolen time on the water with Samuel is precious.
One stormy morning, Luce's plans are blown off course when she rescues Morgan de Chatelaine, the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea. Immediately drawn to his charm and sense of adventure, she longs to attend the glittering ball held in honor of his safe return and begins to contemplate a different kind of future for herself.
But it is not only Luce's hopes at stake—the local fae are leaving Brittany and taking their magic with them, while the long-standing war with the English means Saint-Malo is always at risk of attack. As Luce is plunged into a world of magic, brutality, and seduction, secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface. The truth of her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.
Or the scales of a sea-maid's tail.
418 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2025
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February 25, 2025
Every author and their dog (or cat) seems to be writing a mythological, folklore or fairytale retelling these days. Which, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE that for us. Stories are meant to evolve, to be reimagined through different lenses, to find new ways to enchant us. But the best retellings don’t just lean on nostalgia, they reinvent, surprise and pioneer. My favourites off the top of my head are Leigh Bardugo’s The Language of Thorns, Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver or Elizabeth Lim’s Six Crimson Cranes.
And that’s exactly what Kell Woods has done with Upon a Starlit Tide. I didn’t know I needed a Cinderella and The Little Mermaid historical fantasy hybrid but here we are and it was genius.
She doesn’t just remix those two iconic tales. She unravelled them, threw in a pinch of Bluebeard and a good helping of Breton folklore and stitched them back together in a historical fantasy with something far darker, stranger, emotional and haunting. Plus, when I thought I knew where she was going in the story, she subverted cliches and surprised me, many different times.
Moreover, I have to hand it to Woods for walking that fine line between historical fiction authenticity, immersive fantasy and romance (there is a love triangle and that is all I can say without getting into spoiler territory). She walks that genre blend tightrope effortlessly, never overcompensating in one area or letting another fall flat.
From La Manche (The English Channel) to the malouinière descriptions as well as Saint-Malo itself, the setting feels like it’s less of a backdrop and more of a lead character. Add in Breton superstition and folklore and magic and you’ve got a world that feels real, yet imbued with the eldritch. I also thought the romance was sweet and swoony, but not in a cloying, saccharine way.
While I won’t go into plot or story, trust me—go into this one blindfolded—what I particularly appreciated was the richness to the family dynamics in the characters, particularly in Ariel-coded FMC’s Luce’s relationship with her sisters. I almost caught a whiff of the dreaded ✨not like other girls✨ trope, but Woods sidesteps it beautifully by layering the female relationships with nuance.
For example, her sisters, at first glance, slot neatly into the “wicked stepsister” mold, but Woods does something far more interesting: she makes them human, shaped by their father’s blatant favouritism, by the rigid social order that measures a woman’s worth in marriage prospects and made them complex, layered individuals who genuinely love and care for Luce and vice versa.
Finally, I have to shout out Woods’ growth as an author. Having read After the Forest, I’m blown away by her evolution and this book proves that she’s not just a one-hit wonder. She’s here to stay, and I can’t wait to see where she takes us next. Highly recommend this one for anyone who ever loved The Little Mermaid and Cinderella, and loves a dark retelling... I was awestruck!
My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers Australia for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Full list of trigger warnings and other FAQs here.
♦️♦️♦️
It's The Little Mermaid meets Cinderella in a dark historical fantasy and obviously, I need this.
Thrilled to receive the ARC!
And that’s exactly what Kell Woods has done with Upon a Starlit Tide. I didn’t know I needed a Cinderella and The Little Mermaid historical fantasy hybrid but here we are and it was genius.
She doesn’t just remix those two iconic tales. She unravelled them, threw in a pinch of Bluebeard and a good helping of Breton folklore and stitched them back together in a historical fantasy with something far darker, stranger, emotional and haunting. Plus, when I thought I knew where she was going in the story, she subverted cliches and surprised me, many different times.
Moreover, I have to hand it to Woods for walking that fine line between historical fiction authenticity, immersive fantasy and romance (there is a love triangle and that is all I can say without getting into spoiler territory). She walks that genre blend tightrope effortlessly, never overcompensating in one area or letting another fall flat.
From La Manche (The English Channel) to the malouinière descriptions as well as Saint-Malo itself, the setting feels like it’s less of a backdrop and more of a lead character. Add in Breton superstition and folklore and magic and you’ve got a world that feels real, yet imbued with the eldritch. I also thought the romance was sweet and swoony, but not in a cloying, saccharine way.
While I won’t go into plot or story, trust me—go into this one blindfolded—what I particularly appreciated was the richness to the family dynamics in the characters, particularly in Ariel-coded FMC’s Luce’s relationship with her sisters. I almost caught a whiff of the dreaded ✨not like other girls✨ trope, but Woods sidesteps it beautifully by layering the female relationships with nuance.
For example, her sisters, at first glance, slot neatly into the “wicked stepsister” mold, but Woods does something far more interesting: she makes them human, shaped by their father’s blatant favouritism, by the rigid social order that measures a woman’s worth in marriage prospects and made them complex, layered individuals who genuinely love and care for Luce and vice versa.
Finally, I have to shout out Woods’ growth as an author. Having read After the Forest, I’m blown away by her evolution and this book proves that she’s not just a one-hit wonder. She’s here to stay, and I can’t wait to see where she takes us next. Highly recommend this one for anyone who ever loved The Little Mermaid and Cinderella, and loves a dark retelling... I was awestruck!
My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Publishers Australia for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Full list of trigger warnings and other FAQs here.
♦️♦️♦️
It's The Little Mermaid meets Cinderella in a dark historical fantasy and obviously, I need this.
Thrilled to receive the ARC!
June 14, 2025
Tears and salt. Sorrow and sea. There is magic in such meetings.
Stories are rarely simple, including 'once upon a time' fairy tales that can evolve with every retelling. And even stories that might seem like a retelling of the Little Mermaid because of the oceanic elements can include themes from other stories like Cinderella on a closer inspection. This is the story of Lucinde, a young woman who can leave her adopted parents' mansion only with difficulty but still hears the call of the sea and dreams of exploring shores far away. But what made Upon A Starlit Tide truly delightful to read was Kell Woods' added modulation to the age old themes from the fairy tales.
Luce's relationships with her two adopted sisters has overtones of Cinderella's relationships with her stepsisters, but it is refreshing to see them grow and be more mature as the book progresses. There are also no simple one-dimensional wicked sea witches and fairy godmothers in this story, the good and the bad are nuanced and Lucinde has to learn whom to trust. The world-building is wonderful, with layers of historical fantasy, war efforts and mystic fae magic developed with each other, and Woods' writing lends itself well to each aspect drawing the reader in slowly. I was invested in the book as a whole until the end, where the protagonists seemed off in what they tried to do before it ended as I expected anyway. But I'd recommend the book to everyone nostalgic about fairy tales and like more depth to them.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Tor Publishers for an ARC of this book, the review is entirely honest.
🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters; One star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the writing; One star for the story and themes - 4 1/2 stars in total, rounded up to 5 stars.]
Stories are rarely simple, including 'once upon a time' fairy tales that can evolve with every retelling. And even stories that might seem like a retelling of the Little Mermaid because of the oceanic elements can include themes from other stories like Cinderella on a closer inspection. This is the story of Lucinde, a young woman who can leave her adopted parents' mansion only with difficulty but still hears the call of the sea and dreams of exploring shores far away. But what made Upon A Starlit Tide truly delightful to read was Kell Woods' added modulation to the age old themes from the fairy tales.
Luce's relationships with her two adopted sisters has overtones of Cinderella's relationships with her stepsisters, but it is refreshing to see them grow and be more mature as the book progresses. There are also no simple one-dimensional wicked sea witches and fairy godmothers in this story, the good and the bad are nuanced and Lucinde has to learn whom to trust. The world-building is wonderful, with layers of historical fantasy, war efforts and mystic fae magic developed with each other, and Woods' writing lends itself well to each aspect drawing the reader in slowly. I was invested in the book as a whole until the end, where the protagonists seemed off in what they tried to do before it ended as I expected anyway. But I'd recommend the book to everyone nostalgic about fairy tales and like more depth to them.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Tor Publishers for an ARC of this book, the review is entirely honest.
🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters; One star for the world-building; 3/4 star for the writing; One star for the story and themes - 4 1/2 stars in total, rounded up to 5 stars.]
August 1, 2025
In a Nutshell: A historical fantasy taking inspiration from Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. The content is distinctly adult, but the writing style leans towards contemporary YA/NA, leading to flat characters, half-baked fantastical elements, and a romance/attraction-dominated plot. The ending saved my rating to some extent. Might be better for those who like YA/NA Romance because the fantasy was disappointing. This is an outlier opinion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
Bookish Yays:
🧜🏻♀️ The description of the setting of Saint-Malo and its various locations, whether occupied by humans or fantastical creatures – quite immersive.
🧜🏻♀️ The ending, with some pretty good reveals. It is somewhat anticlimactic, but that probably helped me. Not sure about how other readers would feel about this, though.
🧜🏻♀️ Quite a few good themes that are incorporated without the book feeling overloaded - class discrimination, colonialism, war mongering and profiteering are the ones best handled. There are shades of feminism also, but this could have been better.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🚢 The idea of merging Cinderella and The Little Mermaid into a single story and making a convincing combo is brilliant. The implementation, though, is quite compartmentalised, with the Cinderella part being more dominant in the first half and the mermaid content coming more prominently in the second half. That said, the overall plot isn’t just a merger of the two stories but an independent plot with just some loose inspiration from the fairy tales. The Little Mermaid elements are still okay, but the Cinderella content is bland. Ensuring that a wealthy girl gets to a ball in a fabulous new dress because she lost her fabulous original dress isn't Cinderella – the struggle and the emotional pain is missing.
🚢 Luce as a character is fairly interesting, except for the scenes where she is romantically muddled. (More on this in the Nays.) However, her depiction is mostly one-noted, with her attraction being thumped into our face multiple times, and with no flaws shown in her personality. It gets annoying after a bit. Plus she seems to be dominated by her heart than her head, which might make sense for her age (whatever age it was – somewhere in her late teens, I guess. I don’t recollect any mention of the characters’ ages) but results in some naïve decisions.
🚢 The historical feel is somewhat mixed. There is excellent research of the time period, creating an alternate history where actual historical events have been combined with fantastical causes. However, the dialogues rarely feel historical. There is a lot of casualness to the conversations, even when it is between men and women or people of different classes. The interactions thus don’t seem believable.
🚢 Luce’s family dynamics had great potential to be memorable: a wealthy father who is openly biased towards his youngest, a mother who is determined to get her daughters titled husbands to continue her own noble legacy, and two elder sisters who are fond of Luce but also jealous of her. Unfortunately, most of the character development is so flat that any behavioural changes feel abrupt.
🚢 Some interesting kinds of fae folk in the plot, but not much backstory. The fantastical content is mostly surface-level.
🚢 The pacing is terribly off. There is hardly anything happening at the start, with the initial one-third just providing a background to the main plot. Even when things are happening, it feels like the proceedings are dragged. Only the ending gets a proper tempo.
Bookish Nays:
👠 Thanks to the book cover and the mention of the Little Mermaid and some other details in the blurb, we readers get to know an important character’s fishy [pun intended] secret much before everyone else (including the character herself) does. Moreover, the mermaid content is not as extensive as I would have imagined from the cover.
👠 The book seems confused about its target audience. Most of the writing style seems very YA (to be specific, poorly written mainstream YA), with the shallow character development and the simplistic and predictable plotting. However, there are a couple of gruesome scenes in the final quarter that won't be suitable to younger readers at all. The spice level is also more NA/Adult, and none of the steamy scenes were crucial to the plot. There is one make-out scene right at the start (literally within the first five minutes of the audiobook) that comes out of nowhere and doesn’t make any sense given the characters involved. Can’t forget the abundant cuss words, some of which are blasphemous. Historical works cannot get away with anachronous foul language.
👠 The part that makes the book seem most YA-Romance in style is the abundant sprinkling of thoughts of desire and attraction and anatomical attributes even in between tense scenes. This is always the easiest way to pull me out of a narrative.
👠 The unexpected love triangle, and even worse, the lack of conflict or tension in the triangle. It is very clear from the start which ‘candidate’ Luce would swerve towards, which makes a triangle boring. Moreover, neither of the two men were appealing, both being stereotypical in their own ways. As it is, I hate the triangle trope, but when it involves such characters, it’s even more exasperating. Luce’s constant mental swerving between the two males is also an irritant.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 14 hours 8 min, is narrated by Esther Wane. I am sorry to say that I absolutely did not like the narration. In my five years of listening to audiobooks, I have never allowed my opinion of the narrator to affect my judgement of the plot. But this is the first time when I am unsure if I disliked the book even more because of the narrator. I was not at all a fan of her character voices. The girls sounded shrill and somewhat kiddish, thereby very grating on the ears. But the male voices were even worse. Every single man sounded like a senior citizen! It took me a long while to accept that the two men in the love triangle who sounded so gruff were actually young characters. In all honesty, I cannot recommend the audiobook.
Overall, I did like the concept of this dual fairytale retelling, but the insipid character development, the boring love triangle, and the hyper-focus on physical appeal & attraction killed my enjoyment. The audio narration was a further dampener. I *might* have liked the book a tad better if I had read it, but I am pretty sure it would not have ended up as a favourite even then.
Mine is very much an outlier opinion, so please read through other reviews and take a more informed call on this novel. If I have to recommend it, it would be to NA readers who enjoy romantic triangles and fairytale-based plots.
2.5 stars, rounding down for the audio version.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio and Bolinda Audio for providing the ALC of “The Starlit Tide” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work better for me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Threads || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plot Preview:
1758. Brittany, France. Lucinda Leon aka Luce, the youngest daughter of a wealthy ship owner in the port city of Saint-Malo, dreams of joining a ship’s crew and navigating the oceans, unlike her two older sisters whose obsessions are more typical: fancy clothing and a suitable marriage. The only one who knows about Luce’s desire is her best friend, a fugitive English smuggler named Samuel, who is secretly teaching her to sail.
One morning, Luce ends up rescuing the scion of the richest shipping family from the sea. This creates many changes in her immediate plans as she hopes to attend the ball his family has thrown in honour of his safe return. Around the same time as these events, the local fae are disappearing from Saint-Malo, the English threaten attack, and Luce’s past finally catches up with her.
The story comes to us in Luce’s third-person perspective.
Bookish Yays:
🧜🏻♀️ The description of the setting of Saint-Malo and its various locations, whether occupied by humans or fantastical creatures – quite immersive.
🧜🏻♀️ The ending, with some pretty good reveals. It is somewhat anticlimactic, but that probably helped me. Not sure about how other readers would feel about this, though.
🧜🏻♀️ Quite a few good themes that are incorporated without the book feeling overloaded - class discrimination, colonialism, war mongering and profiteering are the ones best handled. There are shades of feminism also, but this could have been better.
Bookish Mixed Bags:
🚢 The idea of merging Cinderella and The Little Mermaid into a single story and making a convincing combo is brilliant. The implementation, though, is quite compartmentalised, with the Cinderella part being more dominant in the first half and the mermaid content coming more prominently in the second half. That said, the overall plot isn’t just a merger of the two stories but an independent plot with just some loose inspiration from the fairy tales. The Little Mermaid elements are still okay, but the Cinderella content is bland. Ensuring that a wealthy girl gets to a ball in a fabulous new dress because she lost her fabulous original dress isn't Cinderella – the struggle and the emotional pain is missing.
🚢 Luce as a character is fairly interesting, except for the scenes where she is romantically muddled. (More on this in the Nays.) However, her depiction is mostly one-noted, with her attraction being thumped into our face multiple times, and with no flaws shown in her personality. It gets annoying after a bit. Plus she seems to be dominated by her heart than her head, which might make sense for her age (whatever age it was – somewhere in her late teens, I guess. I don’t recollect any mention of the characters’ ages) but results in some naïve decisions.
🚢 The historical feel is somewhat mixed. There is excellent research of the time period, creating an alternate history where actual historical events have been combined with fantastical causes. However, the dialogues rarely feel historical. There is a lot of casualness to the conversations, even when it is between men and women or people of different classes. The interactions thus don’t seem believable.
🚢 Luce’s family dynamics had great potential to be memorable: a wealthy father who is openly biased towards his youngest, a mother who is determined to get her daughters titled husbands to continue her own noble legacy, and two elder sisters who are fond of Luce but also jealous of her. Unfortunately, most of the character development is so flat that any behavioural changes feel abrupt.
🚢 Some interesting kinds of fae folk in the plot, but not much backstory. The fantastical content is mostly surface-level.
🚢 The pacing is terribly off. There is hardly anything happening at the start, with the initial one-third just providing a background to the main plot. Even when things are happening, it feels like the proceedings are dragged. Only the ending gets a proper tempo.
Bookish Nays:
👠 Thanks to the book cover and the mention of the Little Mermaid and some other details in the blurb, we readers get to know an important character’s fishy [pun intended] secret much before everyone else (including the character herself) does. Moreover, the mermaid content is not as extensive as I would have imagined from the cover.
👠 The book seems confused about its target audience. Most of the writing style seems very YA (to be specific, poorly written mainstream YA), with the shallow character development and the simplistic and predictable plotting. However, there are a couple of gruesome scenes in the final quarter that won't be suitable to younger readers at all. The spice level is also more NA/Adult, and none of the steamy scenes were crucial to the plot. There is one make-out scene right at the start (literally within the first five minutes of the audiobook) that comes out of nowhere and doesn’t make any sense given the characters involved. Can’t forget the abundant cuss words, some of which are blasphemous. Historical works cannot get away with anachronous foul language.
👠 The part that makes the book seem most YA-Romance in style is the abundant sprinkling of thoughts of desire and attraction and anatomical attributes even in between tense scenes. This is always the easiest way to pull me out of a narrative.
👠 The unexpected love triangle, and even worse, the lack of conflict or tension in the triangle. It is very clear from the start which ‘candidate’ Luce would swerve towards, which makes a triangle boring. Moreover, neither of the two men were appealing, both being stereotypical in their own ways. As it is, I hate the triangle trope, but when it involves such characters, it’s even more exasperating. Luce’s constant mental swerving between the two males is also an irritant.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 14 hours 8 min, is narrated by Esther Wane. I am sorry to say that I absolutely did not like the narration. In my five years of listening to audiobooks, I have never allowed my opinion of the narrator to affect my judgement of the plot. But this is the first time when I am unsure if I disliked the book even more because of the narrator. I was not at all a fan of her character voices. The girls sounded shrill and somewhat kiddish, thereby very grating on the ears. But the male voices were even worse. Every single man sounded like a senior citizen! It took me a long while to accept that the two men in the love triangle who sounded so gruff were actually young characters. In all honesty, I cannot recommend the audiobook.
Overall, I did like the concept of this dual fairytale retelling, but the insipid character development, the boring love triangle, and the hyper-focus on physical appeal & attraction killed my enjoyment. The audio narration was a further dampener. I *might* have liked the book a tad better if I had read it, but I am pretty sure it would not have ended up as a favourite even then.
Mine is very much an outlier opinion, so please read through other reviews and take a more informed call on this novel. If I have to recommend it, it would be to NA readers who enjoy romantic triangles and fairytale-based plots.
2.5 stars, rounding down for the audio version.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio and Bolinda Audio for providing the ALC of “The Starlit Tide” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work better for me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Threads || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
June 2, 2025
THE ENDING IS SO BEAUTIFUL IT BROKE ME! 😭
Upon a Starlit Tide is a low stakes, slow burn romance that's sumptuously written and has the most glorious ending. If you enjoy dark, feminist retellings of fairy tales, this book will give you more than your money's worth. Definitely recommend!
Finally dove into this DARK FAIRY TALE retelling.🧜♀️ These were my reactions while reading:
CHAPTER 01
Jumping jellyfish! The writing is gorgeous. I especially love when Kell Woods uses imagery that draws from the sea:
Fae creature(s) spotted: jetins wearing feathers, bones, and seashells in their beards. 🐚
Oooh, there's a little nod to Anderson's original story of The Little Mermaid. I won't say what it is because I prefer to avoid spoilers (okay, if you must know it's ). I'm curious to see if this will play a larger role in the story or if it's just something that gets mentioned in passing.
CHAPTER 02
It's been a while since I read Anderson's The Little Mermaid, but so far I think I've seen more nods to the Disney movie than the original story. I'm okay with that because the movie was one of my favorites as a little girl. 🥰
Fae creature(s) spotted: a lutine dressed in green and sporting a jaunty red hat. Fions at the beach. There's also mention of korrigans in the kitchens and water sprites in the well. (Love the alliteration!)
I'm starting to get a clearer picture of the "storm-stone" that exists in this world. It's used to build homes and walls or is carried in the pockets of sailors. It offers protection and peace because it's infused with magic imparted by the Fae Folk. (Interesting. How will this play into the story?)
We've spotted the handsome sailor who secretly taught Lucinde ("Luce") to sail. Is their relationship platonic, or do I spy a love triangle in the making?❓
CHAPTER 03
I am loving the sumptuous world Luce lives in. It's all luxury and light, furniture carved with flowers and shells, and silk waistcoats and ivory gowns. ✨
Luce's surname is Léon ("lion"), and Woods often plays up the lion symbolism with Luce's father, saying his eyes gleamed with "catlike speculation" or he has "the lion's share" of the family's luck. 🦁 Here's another beautiful example:
CHAPTER 04
Well, this just took a little turn that I did not see coming. Curious to see where this is going. . .
CHAPTER 05
Fae creature(s) spotted: a tide crone (she was actually mentioned earlier, but I didn't realize until now that she's a groac'h, otherwise known as a kind of Breton water-fairy). 🌊
I'm really enjoying the chapter names. So far it's been (1) Wrecked, (2) Rough Water, Dark Moon, (3) Wolf Cub, (4) Prickling, (5) Storm-Diving. And I've already sneak peeked Chp 6: All Wild and Beautiful.
CHAPTER 06
I don't think I trust this Morgan character. Seems sus. 🤨
CHAPTER 07
Fae creature(s) spotted: a spring sprite who's prone to mistrust and no larger than a newt.
CHAPTER 08
Fae creature(s) spotted: mention of night screamers and brous, the Night Washerwomen, and the Bugul Noz. (It's nice to know these creatures exist in this world, but it would be a lot more fun if we could actually see them.)
Wait, now we've got . . . undead? 🧟
CHAPTER 10
This book has me so invested in the clothes. 😍
CHAPTER 11
COOLEST SHOES EVER! 👠
CHAPTER 14
I'm starting to think this book is following the same plot as Frozen. . .
Fae creature(s) spotted: mention of houle fairies, cave wights, and mari-morgens. (Again, I wish these creatures were actually part of the story.)
"Perhaps we should visit one of these magical quarries," he mused. "See the fairies for ourselves." YAS! Let's GO! I want to see the FAIRIES! 🧚♀️
"We can't," Luce said. [...] "Because most of the Fae have left Bretagne." DANG IT! 😖
CHAPTER 16
I have a theory about what's going on...
CHAPTER 17
Fae creature(s) spotted: a sea-maid.
CHAPTER 20
Excuse me, why has Kell Woods been hiding Samuel's family all this time? They're absolutely adorable and I could spend an entire book with them. 🥰
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 25
Oh no! 😢 Oh, this is worse than I thought. 😭
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
Yes! YES! YAAAAAAAS! GO, LUCE!
CHAPTER 28
Wait, WHAT?! ⁉️NO!!!!‼️
CHAPTER 29 + EPILOUGE
Oh my stars, THAT ENDING! Just a gorgeous, GORGEOUS ending! 😭😭😭
—
👉 Afterthought: Was my theory right?
Upon a Starlit Tide is a low stakes, slow burn romance that's sumptuously written and has the most glorious ending. If you enjoy dark, feminist retellings of fairy tales, this book will give you more than your money's worth. Definitely recommend!
Finally dove into this DARK FAIRY TALE retelling.🧜♀️ These were my reactions while reading:
CHAPTER 01
Jumping jellyfish! The writing is gorgeous. I especially love when Kell Woods uses imagery that draws from the sea:
"She wore it like a shell, that coat; a briny leather casing that hid the soft, female truth of her."
Fae creature(s) spotted: jetins wearing feathers, bones, and seashells in their beards. 🐚
Oooh, there's a little nod to Anderson's original story of The Little Mermaid. I won't say what it is because I prefer to avoid spoilers (okay, if you must know it's ). I'm curious to see if this will play a larger role in the story or if it's just something that gets mentioned in passing.
CHAPTER 02
It's been a while since I read Anderson's The Little Mermaid, but so far I think I've seen more nods to the Disney movie than the original story. I'm okay with that because the movie was one of my favorites as a little girl. 🥰
Fae creature(s) spotted: a lutine dressed in green and sporting a jaunty red hat. Fions at the beach. There's also mention of korrigans in the kitchens and water sprites in the well. (Love the alliteration!)
I'm starting to get a clearer picture of the "storm-stone" that exists in this world. It's used to build homes and walls or is carried in the pockets of sailors. It offers protection and peace because it's infused with magic imparted by the Fae Folk. (Interesting. How will this play into the story?)
We've spotted the handsome sailor who secretly taught Lucinde ("Luce") to sail. Is their relationship platonic, or do I spy a love triangle in the making?❓
CHAPTER 03
I am loving the sumptuous world Luce lives in. It's all luxury and light, furniture carved with flowers and shells, and silk waistcoats and ivory gowns. ✨
Luce's surname is Léon ("lion"), and Woods often plays up the lion symbolism with Luce's father, saying his eyes gleamed with "catlike speculation" or he has "the lion's share" of the family's luck. 🦁 Here's another beautiful example:
"Looking at him there, trapped beneath his desk, overseeing his ships instead of striding across their decks as they stormed into war-torn waters, Luce wondered if he dreamed of taking the helm again. Pushing out onto the night-dark waters of the Manche like a scarred old lion in search of prey. The memory of adventure was on him still."
CHAPTER 04
Well, this just took a little turn that I did not see coming. Curious to see where this is going. . .
CHAPTER 05
Fae creature(s) spotted: a tide crone (she was actually mentioned earlier, but I didn't realize until now that she's a groac'h, otherwise known as a kind of Breton water-fairy). 🌊
I'm really enjoying the chapter names. So far it's been (1) Wrecked, (2) Rough Water, Dark Moon, (3) Wolf Cub, (4) Prickling, (5) Storm-Diving. And I've already sneak peeked Chp 6: All Wild and Beautiful.
CHAPTER 06
"Every seaman had his tale. A green-haired woman combing her hair before a storm, or diving alongside a ship, or gazing at her reflection in a hand mirror. A fisherman who ensnared a seamaid in his net and, despite the maiden's pleas, refused to set her free."
I don't think I trust this Morgan character. Seems sus. 🤨
CHAPTER 07
Fae creature(s) spotted: a spring sprite who's prone to mistrust and no larger than a newt.
CHAPTER 08
Fae creature(s) spotted: mention of night screamers and brous, the Night Washerwomen, and the Bugul Noz. (It's nice to know these creatures exist in this world, but it would be a lot more fun if we could actually see them.)
Wait, now we've got . . . undead? 🧟
CHAPTER 10
"She wore a ragged chemise, its sleeves rolled up to her elbows, with a bodice made of what could only be fishes' scales—thousands of them, sewn cunningly together. Her rust-colored skirts were tattered, overlaid with swathes of ruined fishing net cinched roughly around her waist with a piece of old rope."
This book has me so invested in the clothes. 😍
"Your tears fell into the sea. There is magic in such meetings."
CHAPTER 11
COOLEST SHOES EVER! 👠
CHAPTER 14
I'm starting to think this book is following the same plot as Frozen. . .
Fae creature(s) spotted: mention of houle fairies, cave wights, and mari-morgens. (Again, I wish these creatures were actually part of the story.)
"Perhaps we should visit one of these magical quarries," he mused. "See the fairies for ourselves." YAS! Let's GO! I want to see the FAIRIES! 🧚♀️
"We can't," Luce said. [...] "Because most of the Fae have left Bretagne." DANG IT! 😖
CHAPTER 16
I have a theory about what's going on...
CHAPTER 17
Fae creature(s) spotted: a sea-maid.
"The tales always say that seamaids are lovely. That their beauty as well as their voices lead men to their delight. Or their doom."
CHAPTER 20
"By their very nature, the sea-folk are different to the other Fae. They are of the in-between, creatures of both land and sea. They are light and dark, sun and moon, shallow water and deep. They love to swim, and yet they also love to walk upon the shore. Such duality would prove to be their undoing."
Excuse me, why has Kell Woods been hiding Samuel's family all this time? They're absolutely adorable and I could spend an entire book with them. 🥰
CHAPTER 23
"There are still places of beauty and wonder left in the world. Places that men in their death-ships have not despoiled. A fair breeze and a path of stars is all that is required to find them."
CHAPTER 25
Oh no! 😢 Oh, this is worse than I thought. 😭
CHAPTER 26
"The world is large, the oceans endless. There is magic left in it, still."
CHAPTER 27
"Now, all that she had been, all that she was, had upended, as though she glimpsed herself through a mirror, darkly."
Yes! YES! YAAAAAAAS! GO, LUCE!
CHAPTER 28
Wait, WHAT?! ⁉️NO!!!!‼️
CHAPTER 29 + EPILOUGE
Oh my stars, THAT ENDING! Just a gorgeous, GORGEOUS ending! 😭😭😭
—
👉 Afterthought: Was my theory right?
January 29, 2025
I loved the retelling of famous fairy tales threaded together. It felt familiar while still being original.
The dark tones are perfectly balanced with hope and the strong relationships between the characters.
It has everything: a beautiful historical setting, strong characters, legends and magic, betrayal and love.
The writing is very good and it makes for a beautiful and compelling tale.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator was fantastic, it was really immersive.
Thank you Macmillan audio!
The dark tones are perfectly balanced with hope and the strong relationships between the characters.
It has everything: a beautiful historical setting, strong characters, legends and magic, betrayal and love.
The writing is very good and it makes for a beautiful and compelling tale.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator was fantastic, it was really immersive.
Thank you Macmillan audio!
March 9, 2025
follow your dreams. become a monster. destroy your fathers legacy
Bookstagram | Blog
Bookstagram | Blog
February 8, 2025
Like waves drawing you into the dark depths, Upon a Starlit Tide is an enchanting tale of romance, secrets and transformation against a seafaring backdrop. Kell Woods blends lyrical prose with a lush immersive 18th century France sparkling with fae magic to deliver a feminist twist on Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. More than just a heartfelt romance it's an exploration of self discovery, power, and dark secrets, full of adventurous spirit.
Woods's prose is pure poetry, bringing to life windswept coasts, masquerades, ships and shimmering seas. It's a world that's dazzling and magical, with the sea becoming a living breathing part of the story ready to sweep you away in search of adventure and freedom.
Which is exactly what Lucinde Leon longs for, to escape the strictures of respectable life, join a ship crew and experience the world. Luce is a kindhearted and spirited lead and its impossible not to get caught up in her hopes, dreams and loves. Her two love interests, the dark, charming stranger she rescues from the sea and Samuel, her British smuggler friend who has been teaching her to sail, are both alluring in their own ways. The romance is electric as Luce is torn between her desire for them and the future they can offer.
But this isn't the story of Prince Charming sweeping in to save the day. Told through a bold feminist lens, Woods tells Luce's story through her relationships with her family, local fae and love for her land and the sea with a twist I genuinely did not see coming. Every good fairy tale has a lesson and Upon a Starlit Tide is about self discovery, the price of dishonesty, and finding our own power. Like the tide itself, it pulls you in and leaves its mark — bold, breathtaking, and utterly unforgettable.
Thank you HarperCollins Publishers Australia for the ARC.
Woods's prose is pure poetry, bringing to life windswept coasts, masquerades, ships and shimmering seas. It's a world that's dazzling and magical, with the sea becoming a living breathing part of the story ready to sweep you away in search of adventure and freedom.
Which is exactly what Lucinde Leon longs for, to escape the strictures of respectable life, join a ship crew and experience the world. Luce is a kindhearted and spirited lead and its impossible not to get caught up in her hopes, dreams and loves. Her two love interests, the dark, charming stranger she rescues from the sea and Samuel, her British smuggler friend who has been teaching her to sail, are both alluring in their own ways. The romance is electric as Luce is torn between her desire for them and the future they can offer.
But this isn't the story of Prince Charming sweeping in to save the day. Told through a bold feminist lens, Woods tells Luce's story through her relationships with her family, local fae and love for her land and the sea with a twist I genuinely did not see coming. Every good fairy tale has a lesson and Upon a Starlit Tide is about self discovery, the price of dishonesty, and finding our own power. Like the tide itself, it pulls you in and leaves its mark — bold, breathtaking, and utterly unforgettable.
Thank you HarperCollins Publishers Australia for the ARC.
May 9, 2025
Thoughts
I've read a fair share of retellings and as they keep adding books to this category I'm always intrigued to see how each story plays out.. This one however exceeded my expectations so much so I will probably reread again in the future ( I'm not one to reread books ) but this one was done ever so beautifully that I couldn't get enough of it. To add to the retelling there was authenticity which what made me fall in love with it even more, it kept me wanting more and let's be honest Cinderella and The Little Mermaid together? Childhood complete if I say so myself... The easiest 5 stars I've given in a while!
Plot Summary
In 1750s Saint-Malo, Luce Léon feels out of place among her marriage-minded sisters. Born with a deep yearning for the sea, she secretly learns to sail with a smuggler friend. Everything changes when she rescues a shipwrecked nobleman and is swept into a world of mystery, magic, and old fae secrets. As tensions rise between duty, desire, and hidden truths, Luce must choose between the life she was given—and the one she wants.
I've read a fair share of retellings and as they keep adding books to this category I'm always intrigued to see how each story plays out.. This one however exceeded my expectations so much so I will probably reread again in the future ( I'm not one to reread books ) but this one was done ever so beautifully that I couldn't get enough of it. To add to the retelling there was authenticity which what made me fall in love with it even more, it kept me wanting more and let's be honest Cinderella and The Little Mermaid together? Childhood complete if I say so myself... The easiest 5 stars I've given in a while!
Plot Summary
In 1750s Saint-Malo, Luce Léon feels out of place among her marriage-minded sisters. Born with a deep yearning for the sea, she secretly learns to sail with a smuggler friend. Everything changes when she rescues a shipwrecked nobleman and is swept into a world of mystery, magic, and old fae secrets. As tensions rise between duty, desire, and hidden truths, Luce must choose between the life she was given—and the one she wants.
August 7, 2025
she saved a man’s life once and literally said “ew never again”
April 8, 2025
The Little Mermaid meets Cinderella and Bluebeard in this fantastical historical fiction.
The writing was luscious. Woods creates spellbinding sentences, vivid descriptions, and a fairytale lilt that had me enchanted.
A man, draped lifeless upon a wedge of broken hull, cheek pressed against the timber as tenderly as a lover's as he rose gently up, gently down with the exhausted breath of the sea.
Luce dreams of freedom, more at home in the sea and dreaming of captaining her own ship - not an appropriate desire for the daughter of one of Saint-Malo's wealthiest ship-owners.
She gets away when she can, to sail with her best friend Samuel, an English smuggler, who understands the restrictions of class and status.
When Luce rescues the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea, she starts to imagine a different future.
But only a fool steals a soul from the sea once the sea has claimed it.
The blend of fantasy, fairytale, historical fiction, and romance was stunningly crafted and flawlessly executed.
There are mentions of Fae, seafolk, smuggling. Ballgowns, glass slippers, illicit rendezvous. Secrets, sea caves, sea storms.
Beautifully captivating.
Physical arc gifted by Titan Books.
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The writing was luscious. Woods creates spellbinding sentences, vivid descriptions, and a fairytale lilt that had me enchanted.
A man, draped lifeless upon a wedge of broken hull, cheek pressed against the timber as tenderly as a lover's as he rose gently up, gently down with the exhausted breath of the sea.
Luce dreams of freedom, more at home in the sea and dreaming of captaining her own ship - not an appropriate desire for the daughter of one of Saint-Malo's wealthiest ship-owners.
She gets away when she can, to sail with her best friend Samuel, an English smuggler, who understands the restrictions of class and status.
When Luce rescues the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea, she starts to imagine a different future.
But only a fool steals a soul from the sea once the sea has claimed it.
The blend of fantasy, fairytale, historical fiction, and romance was stunningly crafted and flawlessly executed.
There are mentions of Fae, seafolk, smuggling. Ballgowns, glass slippers, illicit rendezvous. Secrets, sea caves, sea storms.
Beautifully captivating.
Physical arc gifted by Titan Books.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
February 24, 2025
I did not want this book to end. The perfect fairytale retelling. A mash up of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and some others. 400 pages and I still want more! This was pure magic.
April 11, 2025
3.5✨
I was really prepared for this to be my next 5✨ read but it unfortunately never hooked me 😔 it’s so beautiful but I was so bored😭 I kept looking at how many pages were left…
I will say that the author succeeds in setting a whimsical & pretty setting. The flowery prose is something I usually like, but struggled with for the first 100 pages. Once I was used to it though, it read fairly easily.
It lies heavily on the Cinderella retelling a little on the Little Mermaid. The thing is that I was totally indifferent to all the characters. I just simply didn’t mind them.
I don’t normally like love triangles but the truth is that I wasn’t rooting for either one 🫠. Don’t get me wrong, I felt Sam. His poverty and struggles, he was relatable. But I feel like no one actually belonged together in this one?
Overall, it’s a sweet fluffy read that I think a lot of people will enjoy (and rightfully so). But honestly, I think I would’ve enjoyed a cartooned-Disney movie version of this, rather than the book.
I was really prepared for this to be my next 5✨ read but it unfortunately never hooked me 😔 it’s so beautiful but I was so bored😭 I kept looking at how many pages were left…
I will say that the author succeeds in setting a whimsical & pretty setting. The flowery prose is something I usually like, but struggled with for the first 100 pages. Once I was used to it though, it read fairly easily.
It lies heavily on the Cinderella retelling a little on the Little Mermaid. The thing is that I was totally indifferent to all the characters. I just simply didn’t mind them.
I don’t normally like love triangles but the truth is that I wasn’t rooting for either one 🫠. Don’t get me wrong, I felt Sam. His poverty and struggles, he was relatable. But I feel like no one actually belonged together in this one?
Overall, it’s a sweet fluffy read that I think a lot of people will enjoy (and rightfully so). But honestly, I think I would’ve enjoyed a cartooned-Disney movie version of this, rather than the book.
July 13, 2025
Tried very hard Ty like it. Restarted chapter one over age over again but couldn't get into the rhythm of the book. Let go on page 67.
March 21, 2025
An enchanting and bold historical fantasy tale that blends elements of fairytales, forbidden love, betrayal and an epic adventure.
This story is beautifully written, and it captured both my attention and my heart. This was a perfect story for some whimsical escapism, with a spellbinding tale combining elements of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.
I have been unable to access a copy of this delightful book from my local library as it is so very popular, although I was fortunate to access the audiobook, which is narrated well by Esther Wane.
I am excited to read more stories from Australian author Kell Woods!
Format: Audiobook, thanks to Borrowbox
Audio time: 14 hours, 39 minutes
This story is beautifully written, and it captured both my attention and my heart. This was a perfect story for some whimsical escapism, with a spellbinding tale combining elements of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.
I have been unable to access a copy of this delightful book from my local library as it is so very popular, although I was fortunate to access the audiobook, which is narrated well by Esther Wane.
I am excited to read more stories from Australian author Kell Woods!
Format: Audiobook, thanks to Borrowbox
Audio time: 14 hours, 39 minutes
February 27, 2025
I loved this so much! It is an immersive and delightful audiobook and a richly reimaged maritime fairytale with nods to The Little Mermaid and Cinderella!
Set in 1758, this mixes historical fiction with fantasy, folklore, and feminist themes. The result is a unique and captivating maritime story of self-discovery, fae magic, love, darkness, and adventure. I enjoyed the fantastic world-building, the layered plot, and the lush, descriptive prose.
FMC Lucinde "Luce" is the youngest daughter of a well-to-do shipowner. Well-developed and endearing, she is passionate and determined as she deals with a physical disability, her growing power, and a call to the sea. I rooted for her, and she's a protagonist I won't soon forget. A compelling cast surrounds her, and we see her relationships evolve and lots of family dynamics. There is a very intriguing love triangle. While the romance is delightful, my favorite relationships were the ones between the female characters. I was honestly unprepared for how much I enjoyed this book and I didn't want the magic to end. The author is a gifted storyteller.
Esther Wane narrates and does an excellent job bringing the sights, sounds, and wonders to life. She was perfect for Luce and delivered a nuanced performance that hit every emotional note. This was so entertaining!
Set in 1758, this mixes historical fiction with fantasy, folklore, and feminist themes. The result is a unique and captivating maritime story of self-discovery, fae magic, love, darkness, and adventure. I enjoyed the fantastic world-building, the layered plot, and the lush, descriptive prose.
FMC Lucinde "Luce" is the youngest daughter of a well-to-do shipowner. Well-developed and endearing, she is passionate and determined as she deals with a physical disability, her growing power, and a call to the sea. I rooted for her, and she's a protagonist I won't soon forget. A compelling cast surrounds her, and we see her relationships evolve and lots of family dynamics. There is a very intriguing love triangle. While the romance is delightful, my favorite relationships were the ones between the female characters. I was honestly unprepared for how much I enjoyed this book and I didn't want the magic to end. The author is a gifted storyteller.
Esther Wane narrates and does an excellent job bringing the sights, sounds, and wonders to life. She was perfect for Luce and delivered a nuanced performance that hit every emotional note. This was so entertaining!
February 17, 2025
Apparently throw folklore into two well-known Disney movies I grew up and it feels better than the OG. 🤷🏽♀️
This was a pleasant surprise & a smirk worthy win during love month. My thanks to #MacAudio2025 for this ARC
RELEASE Date: 18 Feb 2025
This was a pleasant surprise & a smirk worthy win during love month. My thanks to #MacAudio2025 for this ARC
RELEASE Date: 18 Feb 2025
May 11, 2025
objectively i think this was a good book. it didn't do anything that offended me, but it didn't really do anything to really wow me either. I wanted just a little bit more of the magical elements, especially since they don't come into play until like halfway through the book. other than that it was really enjoyable, setting was fun, characters were good. just not as magical as I had hoped.
Want to read
December 20, 2024Had to look up the cover artist and cover designer bc what a huge slay!!!
Cover art by Lindsey Carr @lindseycarrillustrates
Cover design by Katie Klimowicz @katiejaneklim
Cover art by Lindsey Carr @lindseycarrillustrates
Cover design by Katie Klimowicz @katiejaneklim
May 2, 2025
3.5/5 stars
October 3, 2024
Upon A Starlit Tide is relentlessly enchanting; I was spellbound from start to finish. Kell Woods’ lyrical prose dances off every page, sweeping the reader into a world of delicate opulence, stormy desire and knife-sharp betrayals. It is historical fantasy at its absolute best, a lush, nuanced depiction of 18th Century France that sparkles with magic. Intricately woven plots, endearing characters and a sea-swept backdrop made it a struggle to put down. Luce was a sweet, spirited protagonist any reader would find impossible not to root for. Her tale, like this book, was magic in every sense of the word. As a lover of fairy tales, romance, and the sea, I cannot recommend Upon A Starlit Tide enough.
Thank you to Kell Woods for reminding me what a great book feels like, and to Harper Collins for the advanced copy of a new favourite.
Thank you to Kell Woods for reminding me what a great book feels like, and to Harper Collins for the advanced copy of a new favourite.
June 11, 2025
This was a stunner of a story. A new favourite. The most magical, beautifully-written, historical, fairytale retelling. I didn't want to put it down, and I also didn't want it to end. It was mermaids and magic and fae folk and also dark secrets and sinister betrayals. It felt compelling and unique, but also cosy and familiar, and I know I will read it again and again. I was behind sweet, spirited Luce, the FMC, from page one. Please pick this up if you're looking for a Little Mermaid/Cinderella, fairytale-inspired historical fantasy, with great characters and writing that sweeps you away and paints a vivid picture.
🎧
🎧
May 16, 2025
Narrated by Esther Wane
Presented by Bolinda Audio
An interesting blend of Cinderella and Pride & Prejudice with a splash of The Little Mermaid.
I had both a physical and audio copy of this one, so began with physical and finished with audio.
The story revolves around Lucinde, who saves a man from a shipwreck. He's the handsome son of a wealthy family and she - as the adopted daughter of another wealthy family - finds herself greatly intrigued by him. She's also not like other girls so she likes to dress as a man to help her dude bro Samuel salvage wrecks.
So yes there's a little bit of a love triangle, but there's also fae folk running about and popping up to help or hinder. Which, honestly, was a rather refreshing twist - especially as they're not the purpose of the story, just an aspect of its world.
There's class stuff, too, with the snooty rich folk looking down on people who actually work for a living, so there's your P&P for you.
I enjoyed the blend, but it did bog down in the middle for me. I found, after certain events, that I was expecting it to wrap up but as it continued I was wearied by it. Still, it picked up again and finally introduced some really unique stuff that won back my interest.
The writing is quite pretty, and paints some beautiful scenes. I did notice I had more time for the writing when reading, as opposed to listening. The narrator has a very strong English accent and it did change how I related to the story. Still, she did an okay job, though some of the characters started sounding the same and every now and then she'd read a line in the wrong voice.
I think it was a little too familiar a tale for most of it to properly draw me in. The setting didn't hugely interest me and the 'rich people looking down on poor people' trope is one I'm really tired of. While the blend of retellings was a new angle, the stories themselves are not and I really felt that here.
I do think other fantasy lovers will enjoy this more than I did. There are some intriguing moments and it did re-tell the stories its own way. So as a retelling, it's quite unique. The characters are an interesting mix, but Charlotte was the standout for me because she was a character I haven't encountered often. I liked her blend of love/hate.
If you're looking for a retelling that does things differently, or a fantasy story that goes easy on the romance, this might be just the ticket for you.
With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC, and Harper Collins for a physical ARC
Presented by Bolinda Audio
An interesting blend of Cinderella and Pride & Prejudice with a splash of The Little Mermaid.
I had both a physical and audio copy of this one, so began with physical and finished with audio.
The story revolves around Lucinde, who saves a man from a shipwreck. He's the handsome son of a wealthy family and she - as the adopted daughter of another wealthy family - finds herself greatly intrigued by him. She's also not like other girls so she likes to dress as a man to help her dude bro Samuel salvage wrecks.
So yes there's a little bit of a love triangle, but there's also fae folk running about and popping up to help or hinder. Which, honestly, was a rather refreshing twist - especially as they're not the purpose of the story, just an aspect of its world.
There's class stuff, too, with the snooty rich folk looking down on people who actually work for a living, so there's your P&P for you.
I enjoyed the blend, but it did bog down in the middle for me. I found, after certain events, that I was expecting it to wrap up but as it continued I was wearied by it. Still, it picked up again and finally introduced some really unique stuff that won back my interest.
The writing is quite pretty, and paints some beautiful scenes. I did notice I had more time for the writing when reading, as opposed to listening. The narrator has a very strong English accent and it did change how I related to the story. Still, she did an okay job, though some of the characters started sounding the same and every now and then she'd read a line in the wrong voice.
I think it was a little too familiar a tale for most of it to properly draw me in. The setting didn't hugely interest me and the 'rich people looking down on poor people' trope is one I'm really tired of. While the blend of retellings was a new angle, the stories themselves are not and I really felt that here.
I do think other fantasy lovers will enjoy this more than I did. There are some intriguing moments and it did re-tell the stories its own way. So as a retelling, it's quite unique. The characters are an interesting mix, but Charlotte was the standout for me because she was a character I haven't encountered often. I liked her blend of love/hate.
If you're looking for a retelling that does things differently, or a fantasy story that goes easy on the romance, this might be just the ticket for you.
With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC, and Harper Collins for a physical ARC
February 18, 2025
When I first saw the cover of Upon A Starlit Tide, I was immediately intrigued—a recurring theme in my reading choices. But when I realized it was a reimagining of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, I wasn’t sure I was ready to dive into another fairy tale-inspired story just yet. However, after seeing an overwhelming number of glowing reviews, I decided to revisit the synopsis, and the premise captivated me. Then, when I discovered the audiobook was available on NetGalley—produced by MacMillan Audio, a publisher that never fails to impress—I knew I had to give it a listen.
And I’m so glad I did. While it draws inspiration from classic fairy tales, Upon A Starlit Tide is far from the familiar stories we grew up with. Instead, it delivers a sweeping, atmospheric fantasy filled with intrigue, romance, and self-discovery. Kell Woods crafts an intoxicating blend of history and magic, transporting readers to 18th-century France, where the sea itself feels alive, shaping the fates of those who dare to embrace it. The writing is lush and evocative, pulling you into a world of moonlit masquerades, hidden dangers, and shimmering fae magic. Beyond the adventure and romance, the novel offers a thoughtful exploration of power, freedom, and the constraints placed on women, making it a refreshing and compelling take on traditional fairy tale themes.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its ability to subvert expectations. Woods sets up familiar character archetypes, only to twist them in ways that feel fresh and unpredictable. The relationships, particularly between the female characters, are richly developed, offering a narrative that celebrates both independence and the power of connection.
Narrator Esther Wane does a fantastic job bringing the story to life, making each character feel distinct and immersive. My only minor gripe—though it made me laugh more than anything—was Sam’s voice. I get that he was supposed to sound like a pirate, but at times, he came across as a grizzled old sailor straight out of a storybook (where was his peg leg and parrot?), which made it a little difficult to picture him as a romantic lead. That aside, the audiobook was an absolute delight.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advanced audiobook. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to read (or listen to) more of Kell Woods’s work in the future. And on a final, amusing note—having a love interest with my name (but the opposite gender) was an unexpected experience. Though I have to admit, I loved when Morgan was referred to as “from the sea.” I may just have to adopt that title for myself!
And I’m so glad I did. While it draws inspiration from classic fairy tales, Upon A Starlit Tide is far from the familiar stories we grew up with. Instead, it delivers a sweeping, atmospheric fantasy filled with intrigue, romance, and self-discovery. Kell Woods crafts an intoxicating blend of history and magic, transporting readers to 18th-century France, where the sea itself feels alive, shaping the fates of those who dare to embrace it. The writing is lush and evocative, pulling you into a world of moonlit masquerades, hidden dangers, and shimmering fae magic. Beyond the adventure and romance, the novel offers a thoughtful exploration of power, freedom, and the constraints placed on women, making it a refreshing and compelling take on traditional fairy tale themes.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its ability to subvert expectations. Woods sets up familiar character archetypes, only to twist them in ways that feel fresh and unpredictable. The relationships, particularly between the female characters, are richly developed, offering a narrative that celebrates both independence and the power of connection.
Narrator Esther Wane does a fantastic job bringing the story to life, making each character feel distinct and immersive. My only minor gripe—though it made me laugh more than anything—was Sam’s voice. I get that he was supposed to sound like a pirate, but at times, he came across as a grizzled old sailor straight out of a storybook (where was his peg leg and parrot?), which made it a little difficult to picture him as a romantic lead. That aside, the audiobook was an absolute delight.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advanced audiobook. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to read (or listen to) more of Kell Woods’s work in the future. And on a final, amusing note—having a love interest with my name (but the opposite gender) was an unexpected experience. Though I have to admit, I loved when Morgan was referred to as “from the sea.” I may just have to adopt that title for myself!
March 3, 2025
♾️ ⭐️!!!!!
This book is storytelling at its finest.
It’s been a minute since a book has been absolute perfection. This is easily one of my top five favorite books I have ever read. I have no notes. Not a single complaint. I only put this book down to sleep, then finished it the next day.
This is a masterpiece. The writing style, the plot, the twists, turns, the character development, and ending… I think I stopped breathing at times.
The story is so magical, and emotional. The romance was beautiful.
THANK YOU Kell for this work of art. I can’t wait to reread this story. It will forever be on my shelf. I cannot recommend this enough. It deserves nothing less than 5 stars. I will be reading anything this woman writes.
This book is storytelling at its finest.
It’s been a minute since a book has been absolute perfection. This is easily one of my top five favorite books I have ever read. I have no notes. Not a single complaint. I only put this book down to sleep, then finished it the next day.
This is a masterpiece. The writing style, the plot, the twists, turns, the character development, and ending… I think I stopped breathing at times.
The story is so magical, and emotional. The romance was beautiful.
THANK YOU Kell for this work of art. I can’t wait to reread this story. It will forever be on my shelf. I cannot recommend this enough. It deserves nothing less than 5 stars. I will be reading anything this woman writes.
February 11, 2025
I adored this book so much. Magic, heartbreak, adventure, betrayal, love and so much more. The fairytale aspects were so cleverly woven into the story and done in a way that were fresh despite feeling familiar.
August 30, 2025
To quote Mean Girls, "Damn, Kell Woods, what happened?"
I really loved the first book of hers I've read, After the Forest, which was a mashup of Hansel & Gretel and Snow White. But this book, which is meant to be a mashup of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, fizzles away into flotsam.
First of all, the story is clunky and very slow. The book takes forever to really kickstart the plot and the middle is baggy and pointless. You know the whole ball scene where it's like, THE iconic moment of Cinderella? The changing point of the story where she finally gets freed from drudgery, meets the Prince for the first time and gets a night of joy and excitement after enduring constant abuse and mistreatment? Yeah, this gets tossed into the book because, well, you can't very well have a Cinderella retelling without the ball, but the ball doesn't really matter. If you took it out of the story it makes no difference. Luce (autocorrect changed her name to 'Lice', which I find hilarious so I'll call her that from now on) already met her second love interest Morgan before, when she rescues him from drowning, and he also already knows that the mysterious masked woman is her. Also, Lice getting all dressed up and fancy falls utterly flat because she lives in the lap of luxury and already dresses well being the youngest daughter of a very wealthy merchant, so it's just a vehicle for everyone to gush over Lice for the thousandth time in this damn book. The plot drags on and on and I was skipping through it just to wait for SOMETHING of note to happen, there was no tension to be found anywhere and a lot of the story just kind of happened without real buildup and all the characters feel very flat and one-dimensional.
And now let's get onto Lice, because I hated her. I started noticing it about 50 pages in or so, and by page 100 I started writing them down out of disbelief, but this book is just full of NON-FUCKING-STOP praise over Lice and how wondrous she is. It's goddamn endless! Allow me to list all the quotes praising her I groaned at (and mind you this is just from the first 150 pages or so):
"When Jean-Baptise was at his work, no-one, not even Gratienne, was permitted to disturb him. No one, that is, but Luce."
"Samuel laughed. "There you go again. Bewitching the wind, or my boat. Or both."
"Whoever decided women were bad luck at sea clearly never sailed with you."
He tightened his grip on the tiller. "Perhaps I am wrong. The sea loves you, Luce. She always has."
"There's no need to worry about this one." Jean Baptiste said proudly. "She knows her way around a ship."
"Me talking, you repeating things. It is often the way with young women, I find. But you...I feel as though you might have something to say." Gotta love how the male characters in this book constantly tear down other women to praise Lice!
It never fucking stops! Granted, I will give the author credit that Jean-Baptiste's obnoxious and frankly quite creepy coddling, praising and spoiling of Lice does have an explanation and proper payoff towards the end of the book, it was just torture getting there because he felt the need to dismiss her sisters every time he did it and half the time his praise came across like he was in love with his own daughter:
"You grow more beautiful every day, even more beautiful than Veronique, though I will deny it if you ever tell her I said so." A bittersweet smile. "No doubt some rogue will take you steal from me and break my heart." Ewww.
"'Breathtaking,' Jean-Baptiste said, as he beheld his daughters. His gaze returned, again and again, to Luce, until it was plain that of the three of them, it was she who drew the eye. Too tall, too thin, too dark she might be, but in that moment, she outshone her sisters like a single star in a velvet sky." - IN THAT MOMENT?? Lice, when are you NOT constantly outshining your sisters?
"Indeed. Luce cannot help being beautiful."
I know the author was constantly bringing up Lice being beautiful and having mysterious connection with the sea to foreshadow that she's actually - which is so obvious you can easily figure it out from the moment she drops the "Oh Luce is adopted, her father found her in a shipwreck as a baby." But my god, the endless praising is exhausting! She barely does anything to deserve this constant ass-kissing, mind you. In the first hundred pages of the book the only thing of note she does on her own is save a drowning man - which is heroic, to be fair, but nobody sees her do it but Samuel and yet every man in this bloody book is tripping over themselves to worship her. I'm surprised neither Samuel or her father offer to chop their own feet off and give them to Lice, since she's so wondrous and special and amazing she would surely make better use of them!
Lice is such a black hole of a character. I don't understand what happened - when Kell Woods wrote Greta in her other book, she remembered that characters are supposed to have, you know...flaws? Personalities? Arcs? But Lice has nothing close to one. She's treated like she's special from the word go and then guess what! She is special! She doesn't have to change or learn from her mistakes at all, ever! She's so important that she all by herself! The author tries to downplay how spoiled and coddled Lice is by giving her all this faux-humility, having Lice correct people "mildly" and downplay all the presents and praise she gets, but it doesn't change the fact Lice does whatever she wants, never receives any punishment or consequences for her actions and has no character growth - Charlotte is a more dynamic character than she is. Every character who dislikes Lice or wants to see her fail is either evil or jealous. Oh, and: "She had always thought herself too tall, too plain, too dark to be truly beautiful, yet she could not deny that the new gown, plain as it was, looked...well on her." Again with the false modesty! She's been told she's beautiful by at least six different people by that point already. Oh, but she doesn't care about the latest fashions or know how to style her hair, of course, because she'snot like other girls not silly and vain like her mother and sisters.
Her love triangle thing with Samuel and Morgan was so bland and boring - Samuel's personality is "loves Luce and hates rich people" and he does nothing but fret and hover over her the entire book, while Morgan just smirks and flirts with her incessantly from the word go. None of the characters had ANY chemistry with each other. Also she's such a hypocrite, she gets all up in her sister's business for flirting with their bumbling tutor (I hated that subplot, Charlotte deserved better!), but Lice is constantly thirsting over Samuel and Morgan, sneaking off with the former to help him plunder shipwrecks, and the first time she even meets the latter she's already passionately snogging him on the beach. (Of course when Gratienne scolds Lice for sneaking out at night which would reflect badly on her sisters, she is immediately overruled). Though there was this one bit:
'"He cares for me!' Luce was truly angry now. How dare he speak to her this way?" - Yes, how dare someone not tell you exactly what you want to hear like they've been doing the whole book? It's hilarious the one time she actually loses her temper is when Samuel tells her the truth, that she's a pampered, incredibly sheltered, spoiled noblewoman and she actually barely knows anything about the other guy she's going "Ooh, Morgan would be a good match indeed!" over.
The only characters I did like were Veronique and Charlotte, Lice's older sisters, but unfortunately they don't get to do much because we can't possibly have other women take the spotlight from Lice - then she wouldn't be the most special girl in the world anymore! Veronique's role is just to be pretty and to be the mediator between Charlotte and Lice, to the point where her sisters don't even tell her the truth about the man she's marrying and instead choose to keep her in the dark like she's a child who needs to be sheltered, and Charlotte is the only character who has anything resembling a character arc, going from Lice's biggest hater because she's (understandably so!) sick of all the blatant favouritism Lice gets, to maturing into a woman and taking risks for her future happiness. I actually wished the book was from Charlotte's POV because as much as the author desperately tried to get me to feel sorry for Lice for having bad feet and feeling trapped in her circumstances, it was extremely difficult for me to break out the violins when Lice was the favourite daughter of her extremely rich father, he always indulges her whims over what her sisters want, had two good-looking men constantly flirting with her and trying to kiss her, people are always telling her she's beautiful, she has servants to attend to her and keep her secret outings for her, clothes, food, some kind of sixth sense that told her about changing weather, etc. Oh NO, poor Lice for being expected to get married! The horror! Meanwhile I did feel bad for Charlotte, who isn't as accomplished or beautiful is Veronique but she's also not as special or beautiful as Lice and their own father even outright says as much. (Of course, it's all onesided because perfect Lice never retaliates against her sister's jealousy, that might make for actual interesting conflict!) Also, I never like female characters who notably don't have any female friends, which Lice doesn't. She only has her sisters, servant girls she can patronise, or the sea-hag when the plot needs nudging forwards. It's all about the men for her.
Also, there's quotes like this:
"Did he never wonder about the feelings of his wife and daughters? Did he never think that a different kind of life - one in which they could somehow be more than just a wife, mother or daughter (or more than rivals bickering over silks) - might have benefited them?" - I fucking hate you, Lice. She's never happy. Her father coddles and spoils her, lets her do whatever she wants, and all she can do is whine about wanting more and demean her mother and sisters for liking traditionally feminine things and pity them for being "just" something and not as special and adventurous as she is, even though Samuel rightly points out she'd never be able to handle being a sailor with her feet and her having no actual practical experience. You know what book did this idea well? Ship of Magic, where Althea is unquestionably her father's favourite and is being unfairly brushed aside by her brother-in-law, but he's right when he points out that Althea sailing with daddy as a girl doesn't qualify her to run her own ship and giving her one would be straight-up Nepotism. Althea then goes through a trilogy-long character arc where she has to swallow her pride and admit her asshole brother-in-law was right and then actually put in the work to sail and work aboard a ship, thus eventually earning her place in the world - but Kell Woods just chooses to gloss over that Lice thinks wanting something means she should have it and she isn't required to put in effort to do anything, she just gets given everything she needs throughout the story so there's no emotional investment or satisfaction in her winning in the end because she already started out from an incredibly privileged position and never really has to grow up or change.
"Compelled, through no choice of her own, to follow a course charted by another" - This is Luce whining about the figurehead on the brand new ship daddy just bought her, btw. Will her suffering never cease?!
Why am I supposed to root for this character, exactly? At least if the author had owned how spoiled Lice is and made her a brat, it would have been solid groundwork for a character arc. You can still tell that despite Lice giving lip-service "feminist" quotes about "being more", she thinks she's better than the women around her for not being content with her lot. Also it annoyed me massively that Gratienne was being criticised for trying to improve their daughter's stations and find them advantageous matches instead of letting them run off with random men they meet. Like...oh no, how evil of her??
The fae elements were also really disappointing, the sea-stone stuff was plot relevant but I wasn't completely clear on how or why they work and the sea creatures only exist for Lice's convenience - every time the plot needs advancing, the sea-hag is there to hand Lice things she didn't earn like giving her a new ballgown after hers goes mysteriously missing, making her fucking glass slippers out of seawater and gives her a sea-knife after dumping a bunch of exposition on her and tells Lice the truth about her backstory. Lice is constantly being bailed out by the plot doing the work for her and the mermaid thing just kind of happened midway through the book but it was written in such a dull, anticlimactic way.
The face-heel turn pulled by one of the main characters is incredibly unconvincing and badly-handled, and the scene where he tortures one of the side characters failed to be impactful at all because said side character barely had any dialogue and only existed to tease his friend about being obviously in love with Lice - when he was captured I was like, "Who? Oh, him." I feel like it was only included (along with a very fleeting reference to masturbation and Samuel saying "fuck" a lot) to try and make this book seem more "adult" and "dark", but this book is far too conflict-averse and mild to be anywhere close to dark. It is kind of funny that Lice being so determined to play the hero ends up causing a lot of problems in the story, but it's disappointing the weight of her decision never really impacts her. Again, a solid chance for some growth and the author just refused to take any.
I want to try and sell this book off asap so I can at least try to get some money back I wasted on this shitty book. I'm so disappointed.
EDIT: SO, considering I've just written a whole-ass dissertation on fairytales, I now feel even more qualified to critique this book. Why? Because the fairytale part is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT for the most part.
For a book that's meant to be a mashup of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, the Cinderella part is so ridiculously lacking it's barely Cinderella at all. Lice is NOTHING like Cinderella, the abused daughter of a widowed nobleman who shows strength of character by remaining kind-hearted despite being mistreated by the people meant to protect her. She's granted favour by either fairytale animals or a fairy godmother and falls in love with the Prince and gets her happily ever after. But here's the thing - Lice is not ANY of those things. She isn't abused - the opposite, actually, she's actually incredibly spoiled - her older sisters don't bully her mercilessly and Charlotte only picks on Lice because she's daddy's favourite and goes through her own character arc where she matures and apologises, which is way more than Lice ever does. She doesn't have a rags-to-riches story, she grows up incredibly rich and with a powerful father, and later on, she gets given sea-glass slippers and a dress and gets to go to the ball anyway. Why? Because, Lice is special! She's constantly being rewarded for doing nothing! The ball also has basically zero importance to the story and Love Interest #2 already knows the mysterious masked girl is Lice and it's just used an excuse for her to flirt and dance and show off anonymously. So where exactly is the Cinderella? The whole point of Cinderella is staying strong through hardship and not giving up. Lice has never had a fucking hardship to speak of besides her bad feet, so watching her being showered with all these totally unearned for things isn't a fairytale wish-fulfilment, it's just a spoiled girl being indulged even more. Hell, the ONLY reason Lice doesn't go to the ball at first at all is because someone hides her original dress - her mother wanted to punish her for being disobedient but daddy overruled her, so why do we care if Lice can go to the ball or not? When Cinderella can't go it's sad because it's like the only time she asks for something and gets the chance to have a night of fun cruelly ripped away from her. Lice gets to go to the ball even though Gratienne is well within her rights to discipline Lice for constantly disobeying her, and it's not like she's ever short of chances to flirt with her love interests. (Also, Lice doesn't CARE about dresses or ribbons, which she helpfully tells us several times, yet she gets all woe-is-me when she can't go to one ball. I thought she didn't care about such frivolity?)
Secondly, The Little Mermaid is more tied to the plot but it's still done in a sloppy, poorly-done way. Again, The Little Mermaid is pining for a Prince she can't be with and makes massive sacrifices to be with him. Lice doesn't sacrifice jack shit. She never worries about whether she'll have to pick between her love interests or family, she doesn't have to give anything meaningful up and eventually she gets to have her cake and eat it too. Again, there is no satisfaction in Lice's transformation because she's just given even more powers on top of all the other things she has going for her. and she still walks out of the story with everything she could possibly want, even though half the problems that happen are all because of Lice anyway but nobody calls her out on it because nobody saw it happen and she never engages on any self-reflection. The only thing about this book that makes it at all like The Little Mermaid is the fact mermaids exist in the story, but it has NOTHING in common with the Hans Christian Anderson novel. It's kind of an insult to even consider this book a fairytale retelling, honestly. The magic is treated like just another day in the life, the sea-hag and other creatures are no more of note than any other wildlife. I'm actually lowering the rating even further because it's so lazy and insulting to the genre.
Rating: 1/5
I really loved the first book of hers I've read, After the Forest, which was a mashup of Hansel & Gretel and Snow White. But this book, which is meant to be a mashup of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, fizzles away into flotsam.
First of all, the story is clunky and very slow. The book takes forever to really kickstart the plot and the middle is baggy and pointless. You know the whole ball scene where it's like, THE iconic moment of Cinderella? The changing point of the story where she finally gets freed from drudgery, meets the Prince for the first time and gets a night of joy and excitement after enduring constant abuse and mistreatment? Yeah, this gets tossed into the book because, well, you can't very well have a Cinderella retelling without the ball, but the ball doesn't really matter. If you took it out of the story it makes no difference. Luce (autocorrect changed her name to 'Lice', which I find hilarious so I'll call her that from now on) already met her second love interest Morgan before, when she rescues him from drowning, and he also already knows that the mysterious masked woman is her. Also, Lice getting all dressed up and fancy falls utterly flat because she lives in the lap of luxury and already dresses well being the youngest daughter of a very wealthy merchant, so it's just a vehicle for everyone to gush over Lice for the thousandth time in this damn book. The plot drags on and on and I was skipping through it just to wait for SOMETHING of note to happen, there was no tension to be found anywhere and a lot of the story just kind of happened without real buildup and all the characters feel very flat and one-dimensional.
And now let's get onto Lice, because I hated her. I started noticing it about 50 pages in or so, and by page 100 I started writing them down out of disbelief, but this book is just full of NON-FUCKING-STOP praise over Lice and how wondrous she is. It's goddamn endless! Allow me to list all the quotes praising her I groaned at (and mind you this is just from the first 150 pages or so):
"When Jean-Baptise was at his work, no-one, not even Gratienne, was permitted to disturb him. No one, that is, but Luce."
"Samuel laughed. "There you go again. Bewitching the wind, or my boat. Or both."
"Whoever decided women were bad luck at sea clearly never sailed with you."
He tightened his grip on the tiller. "Perhaps I am wrong. The sea loves you, Luce. She always has."
"There's no need to worry about this one." Jean Baptiste said proudly. "She knows her way around a ship."
"Me talking, you repeating things. It is often the way with young women, I find. But you...I feel as though you might have something to say." Gotta love how the male characters in this book constantly tear down other women to praise Lice!
It never fucking stops! Granted, I will give the author credit that Jean-Baptiste's obnoxious and frankly quite creepy coddling, praising and spoiling of Lice does have an explanation and proper payoff towards the end of the book, it was just torture getting there because he felt the need to dismiss her sisters every time he did it and half the time his praise came across like he was in love with his own daughter:
"You grow more beautiful every day, even more beautiful than Veronique, though I will deny it if you ever tell her I said so." A bittersweet smile. "No doubt some rogue will take you steal from me and break my heart." Ewww.
"'Breathtaking,' Jean-Baptiste said, as he beheld his daughters. His gaze returned, again and again, to Luce, until it was plain that of the three of them, it was she who drew the eye. Too tall, too thin, too dark she might be, but in that moment, she outshone her sisters like a single star in a velvet sky." - IN THAT MOMENT?? Lice, when are you NOT constantly outshining your sisters?
"Indeed. Luce cannot help being beautiful."
I know the author was constantly bringing up Lice being beautiful and having mysterious connection with the sea to foreshadow that she's actually - which is so obvious you can easily figure it out from the moment she drops the "Oh Luce is adopted, her father found her in a shipwreck as a baby." But my god, the endless praising is exhausting! She barely does anything to deserve this constant ass-kissing, mind you. In the first hundred pages of the book the only thing of note she does on her own is save a drowning man - which is heroic, to be fair, but nobody sees her do it but Samuel and yet every man in this bloody book is tripping over themselves to worship her. I'm surprised neither Samuel or her father offer to chop their own feet off and give them to Lice, since she's so wondrous and special and amazing she would surely make better use of them!
Lice is such a black hole of a character. I don't understand what happened - when Kell Woods wrote Greta in her other book, she remembered that characters are supposed to have, you know...flaws? Personalities? Arcs? But Lice has nothing close to one. She's treated like she's special from the word go and then guess what! She is special! She doesn't have to change or learn from her mistakes at all, ever! She's so important that she all by herself! The author tries to downplay how spoiled and coddled Lice is by giving her all this faux-humility, having Lice correct people "mildly" and downplay all the presents and praise she gets, but it doesn't change the fact Lice does whatever she wants, never receives any punishment or consequences for her actions and has no character growth - Charlotte is a more dynamic character than she is. Every character who dislikes Lice or wants to see her fail is either evil or jealous. Oh, and: "She had always thought herself too tall, too plain, too dark to be truly beautiful, yet she could not deny that the new gown, plain as it was, looked...well on her." Again with the false modesty! She's been told she's beautiful by at least six different people by that point already. Oh, but she doesn't care about the latest fashions or know how to style her hair, of course, because she's
Her love triangle thing with Samuel and Morgan was so bland and boring - Samuel's personality is "loves Luce and hates rich people" and he does nothing but fret and hover over her the entire book, while Morgan just smirks and flirts with her incessantly from the word go. None of the characters had ANY chemistry with each other. Also she's such a hypocrite, she gets all up in her sister's business for flirting with their bumbling tutor (I hated that subplot, Charlotte deserved better!), but Lice is constantly thirsting over Samuel and Morgan, sneaking off with the former to help him plunder shipwrecks, and the first time she even meets the latter she's already passionately snogging him on the beach. (Of course when Gratienne scolds Lice for sneaking out at night which would reflect badly on her sisters, she is immediately overruled). Though there was this one bit:
'"He cares for me!' Luce was truly angry now. How dare he speak to her this way?" - Yes, how dare someone not tell you exactly what you want to hear like they've been doing the whole book? It's hilarious the one time she actually loses her temper is when Samuel tells her the truth, that she's a pampered, incredibly sheltered, spoiled noblewoman and she actually barely knows anything about the other guy she's going "Ooh, Morgan would be a good match indeed!" over.
The only characters I did like were Veronique and Charlotte, Lice's older sisters, but unfortunately they don't get to do much because we can't possibly have other women take the spotlight from Lice - then she wouldn't be the most special girl in the world anymore! Veronique's role is just to be pretty and to be the mediator between Charlotte and Lice, to the point where her sisters don't even tell her the truth about the man she's marrying and instead choose to keep her in the dark like she's a child who needs to be sheltered, and Charlotte is the only character who has anything resembling a character arc, going from Lice's biggest hater because she's (understandably so!) sick of all the blatant favouritism Lice gets, to maturing into a woman and taking risks for her future happiness. I actually wished the book was from Charlotte's POV because as much as the author desperately tried to get me to feel sorry for Lice for having bad feet and feeling trapped in her circumstances, it was extremely difficult for me to break out the violins when Lice was the favourite daughter of her extremely rich father, he always indulges her whims over what her sisters want, had two good-looking men constantly flirting with her and trying to kiss her, people are always telling her she's beautiful, she has servants to attend to her and keep her secret outings for her, clothes, food, some kind of sixth sense that told her about changing weather, etc. Oh NO, poor Lice for being expected to get married! The horror! Meanwhile I did feel bad for Charlotte, who isn't as accomplished or beautiful is Veronique but she's also not as special or beautiful as Lice and their own father even outright says as much. (Of course, it's all onesided because perfect Lice never retaliates against her sister's jealousy, that might make for actual interesting conflict!) Also, I never like female characters who notably don't have any female friends, which Lice doesn't. She only has her sisters, servant girls she can patronise, or the sea-hag when the plot needs nudging forwards. It's all about the men for her.
Also, there's quotes like this:
"Did he never wonder about the feelings of his wife and daughters? Did he never think that a different kind of life - one in which they could somehow be more than just a wife, mother or daughter (or more than rivals bickering over silks) - might have benefited them?" - I fucking hate you, Lice. She's never happy. Her father coddles and spoils her, lets her do whatever she wants, and all she can do is whine about wanting more and demean her mother and sisters for liking traditionally feminine things and pity them for being "just" something and not as special and adventurous as she is, even though Samuel rightly points out she'd never be able to handle being a sailor with her feet and her having no actual practical experience. You know what book did this idea well? Ship of Magic, where Althea is unquestionably her father's favourite and is being unfairly brushed aside by her brother-in-law, but he's right when he points out that Althea sailing with daddy as a girl doesn't qualify her to run her own ship and giving her one would be straight-up Nepotism. Althea then goes through a trilogy-long character arc where she has to swallow her pride and admit her asshole brother-in-law was right and then actually put in the work to sail and work aboard a ship, thus eventually earning her place in the world - but Kell Woods just chooses to gloss over that Lice thinks wanting something means she should have it and she isn't required to put in effort to do anything, she just gets given everything she needs throughout the story so there's no emotional investment or satisfaction in her winning in the end because she already started out from an incredibly privileged position and never really has to grow up or change.
"Compelled, through no choice of her own, to follow a course charted by another" - This is Luce whining about the figurehead on the brand new ship daddy just bought her, btw. Will her suffering never cease?!
Why am I supposed to root for this character, exactly? At least if the author had owned how spoiled Lice is and made her a brat, it would have been solid groundwork for a character arc. You can still tell that despite Lice giving lip-service "feminist" quotes about "being more", she thinks she's better than the women around her for not being content with her lot. Also it annoyed me massively that Gratienne was being criticised for trying to improve their daughter's stations and find them advantageous matches instead of letting them run off with random men they meet. Like...oh no, how evil of her??
The fae elements were also really disappointing, the sea-stone stuff was plot relevant but I wasn't completely clear on how or why they work and the sea creatures only exist for Lice's convenience - every time the plot needs advancing, the sea-hag is there to hand Lice things she didn't earn like giving her a new ballgown after hers goes mysteriously missing, making her fucking glass slippers out of seawater and gives her a sea-knife after dumping a bunch of exposition on her and tells Lice the truth about her backstory. Lice is constantly being bailed out by the plot doing the work for her and the mermaid thing just kind of happened midway through the book but it was written in such a dull, anticlimactic way.
The face-heel turn pulled by one of the main characters is incredibly unconvincing and badly-handled, and the scene where he tortures one of the side characters failed to be impactful at all because said side character barely had any dialogue and only existed to tease his friend about being obviously in love with Lice - when he was captured I was like, "Who? Oh, him." I feel like it was only included (along with a very fleeting reference to masturbation and Samuel saying "fuck" a lot) to try and make this book seem more "adult" and "dark", but this book is far too conflict-averse and mild to be anywhere close to dark. It is kind of funny that Lice being so determined to play the hero ends up causing a lot of problems in the story, but it's disappointing the weight of her decision never really impacts her. Again, a solid chance for some growth and the author just refused to take any.
I want to try and sell this book off asap so I can at least try to get some money back I wasted on this shitty book. I'm so disappointed.
EDIT: SO, considering I've just written a whole-ass dissertation on fairytales, I now feel even more qualified to critique this book. Why? Because the fairytale part is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT for the most part.
For a book that's meant to be a mashup of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, the Cinderella part is so ridiculously lacking it's barely Cinderella at all. Lice is NOTHING like Cinderella, the abused daughter of a widowed nobleman who shows strength of character by remaining kind-hearted despite being mistreated by the people meant to protect her. She's granted favour by either fairytale animals or a fairy godmother and falls in love with the Prince and gets her happily ever after. But here's the thing - Lice is not ANY of those things. She isn't abused - the opposite, actually, she's actually incredibly spoiled - her older sisters don't bully her mercilessly and Charlotte only picks on Lice because she's daddy's favourite and goes through her own character arc where she matures and apologises, which is way more than Lice ever does. She doesn't have a rags-to-riches story, she grows up incredibly rich and with a powerful father, and later on, she gets given sea-glass slippers and a dress and gets to go to the ball anyway. Why? Because, Lice is special! She's constantly being rewarded for doing nothing! The ball also has basically zero importance to the story and Love Interest #2 already knows the mysterious masked girl is Lice and it's just used an excuse for her to flirt and dance and show off anonymously. So where exactly is the Cinderella? The whole point of Cinderella is staying strong through hardship and not giving up. Lice has never had a fucking hardship to speak of besides her bad feet, so watching her being showered with all these totally unearned for things isn't a fairytale wish-fulfilment, it's just a spoiled girl being indulged even more. Hell, the ONLY reason Lice doesn't go to the ball at first at all is because someone hides her original dress - her mother wanted to punish her for being disobedient but daddy overruled her, so why do we care if Lice can go to the ball or not? When Cinderella can't go it's sad because it's like the only time she asks for something and gets the chance to have a night of fun cruelly ripped away from her. Lice gets to go to the ball even though Gratienne is well within her rights to discipline Lice for constantly disobeying her, and it's not like she's ever short of chances to flirt with her love interests. (Also, Lice doesn't CARE about dresses or ribbons, which she helpfully tells us several times, yet she gets all woe-is-me when she can't go to one ball. I thought she didn't care about such frivolity?)
Secondly, The Little Mermaid is more tied to the plot but it's still done in a sloppy, poorly-done way. Again, The Little Mermaid is pining for a Prince she can't be with and makes massive sacrifices to be with him. Lice doesn't sacrifice jack shit. She never worries about whether she'll have to pick between her love interests or family, she doesn't have to give anything meaningful up and eventually she gets to have her cake and eat it too. Again, there is no satisfaction in Lice's transformation because she's just given even more powers on top of all the other things she has going for her. and she still walks out of the story with everything she could possibly want, even though half the problems that happen are all because of Lice anyway but nobody calls her out on it because nobody saw it happen and she never engages on any self-reflection. The only thing about this book that makes it at all like The Little Mermaid is the fact mermaids exist in the story, but it has NOTHING in common with the Hans Christian Anderson novel. It's kind of an insult to even consider this book a fairytale retelling, honestly. The magic is treated like just another day in the life, the sea-hag and other creatures are no more of note than any other wildlife. I'm actually lowering the rating even further because it's so lazy and insulting to the genre.
Rating: 1/5
March 12, 2025
Upon a Starlit Tide is an atmospheric and immersive tale full of greed, mermaids, hidden treasure and self discovery.
I loved that this was an inspired mashup of both Cinderella and the Little Mermaid but still felt incredibly unique! If you enjoy a historical setting you won't be disappointed, as you will be swept up in the glitter and corruption of 1758 Saint-Malo, Brittany. The descriptions and gorgeous and decadent and I loved the seaside and clothing choices.
I loved that while somethings were predictable, other plot points and twists totally took me by surprise. There is a slight love triangle which I actually found to be well done but not dragged out. There are fantastic, multi facetted side characters who are good and evil and I loved unwrapping everyone's intentions.
After really enjoying this authors first book, I can now confidently say i'll read whatever she writes next! If you love historical fantasy with magic, the sea, daring, and sweeping romance, give this one a try!
CONTENT:
**open door (1 scene), one handsier scene beforehand
**strong language that increases towards the end of the book (biblical swears as well)
I loved that this was an inspired mashup of both Cinderella and the Little Mermaid but still felt incredibly unique! If you enjoy a historical setting you won't be disappointed, as you will be swept up in the glitter and corruption of 1758 Saint-Malo, Brittany. The descriptions and gorgeous and decadent and I loved the seaside and clothing choices.
I loved that while somethings were predictable, other plot points and twists totally took me by surprise. There is a slight love triangle which I actually found to be well done but not dragged out. There are fantastic, multi facetted side characters who are good and evil and I loved unwrapping everyone's intentions.
After really enjoying this authors first book, I can now confidently say i'll read whatever she writes next! If you love historical fantasy with magic, the sea, daring, and sweeping romance, give this one a try!
CONTENT:
**open door (1 scene), one handsier scene beforehand
**strong language that increases towards the end of the book (biblical swears as well)
March 5, 2025
Here’s the thing about retellings: they only work if you add something to the original story. And mashing two fairytales together does not a new fairytale make.
Upon a Starlit Tide was a bland, vanilla story with a bland, vanilla heroine, and a bland, vanilla “love triangle” between the heroine and Prince Eric and Prince Charming (both of whom have the personality of toast). I kept thinking we had to be almost done, but then somehow, incredibly, there were dozens of chapters left. Every plot point was well-forecasted beforehand so things that were meant to be twists were, decidedly, not.
The writing was not bad, per se, which is why I’m giving this two stars. But on the whole, this book just wasn’t interesting, which was a shame.
Upon a Starlit Tide was a bland, vanilla story with a bland, vanilla heroine, and a bland, vanilla “love triangle” between the heroine and Prince Eric and Prince Charming (both of whom have the personality of toast). I kept thinking we had to be almost done, but then somehow, incredibly, there were dozens of chapters left. Every plot point was well-forecasted beforehand so things that were meant to be twists were, decidedly, not.
The writing was not bad, per se, which is why I’m giving this two stars. But on the whole, this book just wasn’t interesting, which was a shame.
March 9, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
That was a really satisfying ending!
I’m a suckkkkeeerrr for a mermaid book it. If there are mermaids, I will read it 👏 This was a Little Mermaid-Cinderella-type retelling. And not at all what I was expecting. There were some parts that lagged, and I found my attention waning a bit, but overall, it was really enjoyable!
That was a really satisfying ending!
I’m a suckkkkeeerrr for a mermaid book it. If there are mermaids, I will read it 👏 This was a Little Mermaid-Cinderella-type retelling. And not at all what I was expecting. There were some parts that lagged, and I found my attention waning a bit, but overall, it was really enjoyable!
March 5, 2025
It's like Rachel Demeter and Juliet Marillier teamed up and said, "Hey, let's write a historical fantasy alternate retelling book together."
It's felt like so long since I've read a fantasy-with-romance story instead of romantasy book and let me tell you -- I definitely miss it. I wish there were more books like this out there.
THE GOOD
1) A creative blend of the tales of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella. I never thought about how well the fairytales can probably be melded together.
2) The writing came alive. It was special, magical, tragic, and heartwrenching all at once.
3) Jean-Baptiste and Luce were special. I never once doubted the love he had for his daughter, as complicated as that love was.
4)
5) That epilogue. I wasn't sure which direction it was going to take, but it was almost perfect. A page or two too short, but almost perfect.
THE MEH
1) The swearing bothered me. Must we take the name of God in vain like that?
2) Book chemistry. I'm never going to like seafaring books with ships and the ocean.
3) Book chemistry again. The writing was magical, but I also skimmed over a lot of it because I just wanted the plot.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I'm pretty sure this would make a killer Korean drama, if it hasn't already been done.
It's felt like so long since I've read a fantasy-with-romance story instead of romantasy book and let me tell you -- I definitely miss it. I wish there were more books like this out there.
THE GOOD
1) A creative blend of the tales of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella. I never thought about how well the fairytales can probably be melded together.
2) The writing came alive. It was special, magical, tragic, and heartwrenching all at once.
3) Jean-Baptiste and Luce were special. I never once doubted the love he had for his daughter, as complicated as that love was.
4)
5) That epilogue. I wasn't sure which direction it was going to take, but it was almost perfect. A page or two too short, but almost perfect.
THE MEH
1) The swearing bothered me. Must we take the name of God in vain like that?
2) Book chemistry. I'm never going to like seafaring books with ships and the ocean.
3) Book chemistry again. The writing was magical, but I also skimmed over a lot of it because I just wanted the plot.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I'm pretty sure this would make a killer Korean drama, if it hasn't already been done.
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