Soulgazer

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Thank you to Berkley for providing me with an e-ARC.

If you've been looking for a pirate fantasy-romance book, look no further. Soulgazer is the book that you've been waiting for. I have a feeling that this is the book that everyone's going to be talking about this year. Rapier does an absolutely fantastic job of knitting a beautiful tapestry with her words – there's a gorgeous, interesting world at the base, and a compelling love story between a pirate, and a girl with magic in her veins at the forefront.

I adored this, plain and simple. As soon as I saw the cover for the first time, Soulgazer became a must read for me. I requested an e-ARC on Netgalley with low, low hopes that I would actually get approved. (For some reason Berkley doesn't tend to grant my requests, but THANK YOU SO MUCH BERKLEY.) To my utter shock, I was granted a copy. I pretty much immediately dived in – and flew through this book. It is so good. So, so good.

Our main character is Saoirse – a 22 year old young woman who is cursed with the ability to see glimpses of the future. She is stuck in an absolutely horrible life. Her father, the king of her island, despises her because he believes she caused her brother's death. The king keeps her locked away from everyone else, and doesn't allow anyone to touch her. Saoirse hasn't been physically touched by anyone in ages. Her mother allows this, and basically ignores her daughter (while also crying about it.) Saoirse blames herself for everything bad that happens, even though literally none of it is her fault.

We start the book with a holiday? Of sorts. All eligible young men and women are dressed up as animals and dance around an island. I think to find their future spouses? (This part isn't fully explained, but there's enough to guess at what goes on.) Saoirse dresses as a magpie. She participates on the edges of the holiday, and is caught by her father who explains that she is to wed another king – someone awful. Saoirse is both furious and terrified, and runs away from her father right into the crowd where she meets our MMC – Faolan.

Faolan is pretty much everyone's dream romantic pirate. He's cocky, handsome, and flirty. His crew loves him. He's got a secret heart of gold. You know, all the great things about romantic pirates. I adored him. I would have read eight million more pages of him flirting with Saoirse, and her getting flustered and frustrated with him. Faolan and Saoirse come up with a plan to get her away from her horrible life, and run away.

Together, they snipe at each other, pick and tease and argue, but all the while they're falling for each other. My personal, favorite kind of romance.

There's magic woven deeply throughout the whole book, along with a quest of sorts. I'm not going to spoil this, because I want you (and everyone else) to read this! I wish this book had been twice as long. I loved Soulgazer so so much, but my one (literally one!) beef with it is the ending. There is nothing in my ARC that says this is the first part of a duology. I had to go look up the author, and even then, I only saw she was working on the second book on her Instagram.

The book ends on a hopeful, but sad note, and THERE IS NOTHING THAT SAYS IT'S GOING TO GET BETTER. I am begging Berkley to add a TO BE CONTINUED or something before this gets sent to be printed or there's going to be a lot of sad readers out there.

Anyway, please, please pick this one up once it comes out. Soulgazer is the pirate romance you've been looking for, I promise.