UPON A STARLIT TIDE by Kell Woods │ Review

Hey Bookworm friends! It’s been a while since I posted a review but now that I finally have a new laptop, I’m eager to post more! Today’s review is of my first 5 star novel of the year. The second I started reading I knew I was going to love this book and it’s so satisfying to be right! Here are my thoughts on Upon A Starlit Tide.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for the ARC; All opinions are my own.

About Upon A Starlit Tide

Review

Equal parts fairy-tale and historical fantasy, and all palpable atmosphere.

Set in Saint-Malo, Brittany, in 1758, we are thrust into a world separated into wealthy ship-owners and high society versus smuggles and pirates. The French and English are at war, and the local fae are leaving Brittany, taking their magic with them and leaving the area vulnerable. Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of the wealthiest ship-owners feels stifled by Saint-Malo’s walls and dreams of adventure on the open ocean. The only bright spot in her days is her best friend Simon, an English smuggler who secretly teaches her how to sail.

But one morning when she sneaks away to the beach, she finds a drowning man and saves his life. When he turns out to be Morgan de Chatelaine, the son of the city’s most powerful ship-owner, she finds herself enchanted by his good looks and rogueishly charming attitude. As she attends the glittering ball to celebrate his safe return and spends more time with Morgan, she also begins to discover long buried secrets and only some of them are about herself.

“To bear witness to the fury of the sea, to have your life held entirely in its hands—to live or die depending on its whim—must be terrifying, indeed.”

I adored everything about this book from the characters, to the pacing, to the plot. One of the elements that impressed me the most was the way the fae creatures and folklore were seamlessly embedded into every aspect of life in this world. Despite being common knowledge to the locals that Saint-Malo’s strength comes from the fair folk, seeing them and interacting with them is still rare enough that it holds a sense of mystique. The more I learned about the connections to these mythic beings, the harder my eyes were glued to the page!

Another aspect of this book that I particularly enjoyed is the mix of fairy-tale inspirations and the unique ways they manifested in the story. Various tropes or story hooks from both Cinderella and The Little Mermaid were recognizable but molded believably into this world. This made my reading experience so enjoyable because my theories were always part right but in an unexpected way. This book absolutely excels at playing in the sweet spot between familiar and strange.

“Whoever decided that women were bad luck at sea clearly never sailed with you.”

I think that this book will easily find devoted readers in fans of Katherine Arden’s The Winternight Trilogy. Both are deeply atmospheric historical fantasies inspired by fairy tales and folklore. They both also contend with the consequences of the same specific tipping point in time. That of organized religion and modernization pushing away pagan ways of life, much to the detriment of the common folk. Not only is that comparison the best compliment in my opinion, but I feel the truth of it in the level of complete immersion they both gave me. Upon a Starlit Tide convinced me that Kell Woods is an author to watch; I will be trying to get my hands on her debut!

---

• Goodreads
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Bluesky