Upon a Starlit Tide
In the maritime city of Saint Malo in 1758 Brittany, France, Lucinde Léon is the youngest daughter in a rich and aristocratic shipbuilding family. But there is something different between Luce and her sisters. She is beautiful and a bit darker, has a deep and abiding love for the sea and, oddly, has pain in her feet when walking. She also has secrets. Luce occasionally slips off to learn to sail with a local lad who makes a living smuggling between England and France while both are at war with the other.
Early one morning, Luce manages to save from drowning a handsome shipwrecked young man who seems to ignite strange new developments for them all. Her family and her sisters want to marry well and assume proper places in society. Luce more than ever wants to go to sea. As the war heats up, Saint Malo becomes threatened by a ravenous English fleet and Luce’s idiosyncrasies become evident as she learns to work within the realm of fairies and mythical sea folk. Luce now has momentous choices to make and even darker secrets to discover.
Billed as a fantasy, this novel was for me a mixture of romance, paranormal, military, espionage, adventure, and maritime subgenres. Surprisingly, the author pulls it all off quite well. The characters are likeable and believable, though it does feature the obligatory “evil nobility and noble common people” theme as the story develops further. I especially liked the descriptions of the historical settings and Saint Malo in particular, though I would have preferred to read more about the military conflict and less about women’s 18th-century high fashion apparel. In any case, there is something for all historical fiction fans to admire here. Recommended.
