This was a fantastic read. Pirates, witches vampires and a whole load of adventure. I loved the turns and development of the character, the chemistry between Evie and Bowen was HOT as was the spice, but the plot was well developed and gripping.

OK, so I am a huge Dark Olymus fan. I literally loved every book so far, and this book although I enjoyed the difference, I think I still prefer the Dark Olymus series.

So we follow Evie, who is our curvy, chaotic, bi sexual witch whose energy I loved, and Bowen, who is this stickler for the rules captain of his ship under the instructions of Cŵn Annwn.

Evie ends up going through a portal to where Bowen is after she steals family jewels from her Vampire ex lover Lizzie and under the rules she has to join Bowens team of pirates and swear to a vow or be killed.

Great tension and spice as expected from Katee, and I really liked how this 1st book has set up the story for the remaining books, we get a good insight to the main & side characters. The world building and other magical/mystical creatures were not overly complicated and easy to follow.

I'm looking forward to Lizzie story next.

3.5⭐️ Hunt on Dark Waters is exactly what you'd expect from a Katee Roberts book: diverse cast, queer lead, and spice galore. She managed to make pirating sexy - taking away all the ick factors of dirty ships, a lack of toilets and hideous crew.

The female lead, Evelyn, is your stereotypical badass female lead. Her inner monologue is unfortunately the same carbon copy you find with all independent powerful loner witches in paranormal fiction, the difference in Katee's book being that she's bi. The one unique factor of her character is that she has a bleeding heart and questions everything.

The male lead was the reason I enjoyed reading this book -and not just because of the telekinetic sex scenes (that was something I didn't know I was missing). Bowen had a proper character arch from being entirely certain of his cause to questioning everything.

The best part of this book had to be the world building: putting together different mythologies and creatures and the intension of the Threshold as a mythic sea between islands that hold portals to different worlds - it was amazing. I also really enjoyed Evelyn's unique brand of magic having spells tattooed onto her body.

The romance in this book was done nicely. It was on the cusp of insta-love but done well enough that I still believed they could have real feelings for each other.

I felt like the ending happened quite abruptly. Perhaps because I was expecting it to be a standalone and this is simply the first in a series, but I finished the book expecting there to be several more pages and instead was met with the acknowledgements!

This is my first foray in to the world of Katee Robert’s, and I think it could be my last.

By all means, I should have loved this book for it has many tropes and themes that I like. It’s got pirates, witches, all sorts of magical creatures, adventure, smutty/spicy romance, the ‘there’s only one bed trope’, so and so forth. It checks so many boxes, and yet . . . Here we are.

I’m not even sure I can quite pinpoint the problem. It could be the pacing, which felt both incredibly rushed and yet so painfully slow. There was an interesting plot filled with conspiracy and the pain in having to confront your life long held beliefs, however this got grating after a while because it just didn’t go anywhere! While Bowen originally resisted, he quickly realised the fault in his life long held beliefs and the way he was doing things, and that was about it. He had the same conversations with Evelyn over and over, so aside from the Ingush character growth it just felt stagnant. I’m sure Robert’s is going to do more in the sequel, which is the issue . . . More should’ve been given in this book.

Which brings me to the plot. It felt very repetitive, and while the world building and the magic systems had its merits, I wish we got more of it. But, again, I reckon more of that is going to be saved for the sequel.

I liked how this book used mythologies, that was incredibly interesting and I wish we got to explore more of it (again, sequel?).

Overall, just feeling very eh about this. I liked it, but it’s not something I’d go back and reread or enthusiastically recommend to a friend.

I’m going to start off by saying most of my issues with this book are purely down to my personal taste and opinion, this book is within my preferred genre but the tropes are not ones I would generally go for. I have read one other book by this author and didn’t mind it and believe in second chances so gave this book a decent chance and read the whole thing instead of DNFing at around the half way mark.

The romance in this book is incredibly insta-love and the unclear pacing and timeline of this book makes it more so. What I thought was ‘too soon’ (considering intense feelings and potentially love whilst spending 24hrs having sex) was in fact a week and not 2 days, but my point still stands as I think the whole book takes place over around 2 weeks-ish. If it is more than this then it wasn’t particularly clear but I did begin skim reading at one point as it felt like much of the plot was made to set up the next smut session.

This book was incredibly diverse in gender and sexuality in a way I will give credit to, the plot doesn’t revolve around characters discovering themselves or even mention or make a big deal out of sexualities that aren’t “straight” such as Evelyn being with both a man and a woman over the course of the book. Normalising these things rather than making them a plot point is important in books.

I will say that I think the smut was starting to get boring, the characters literally go at it for hours at a time over and over again. If that’s your cup of tea, go for it but I wanted more out of a spicy romantasy than just smut.

Overall, if you don’t mind insta-love intensely spice-heavy fantasy romances then you might enjoy this but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for proving an ARC.

I hope the author had as much fun writing this book as I did reading it. This is fun and entertaining fantasy, lots of humour and definitely an adult read (lots descriptive sex). The first in a series. I look forward to reading the next book. Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

2 ⭐️DNF

I’ve been trying to read this book for days but it’s just not clicking with me for some reason :( I was really looking forward to this one, but fsr I thought it was sapphic pirates and it wasn’t that at all.

It kind of felt like this just dragged a lot?? And was kind of frustrating because the MMC just felt so bland.

So sad that I didn’t vibe with this—the spice was great as usual, but unfortunately I was just bored reading it.

I'm in two minds about this book. I enjoyed it but there were some issues with it.
The romance felt very rushed & insta-lovey and I didn't really understand how the characters fell in love so fast. I was also hoping for more from Lizzie, but maybe that will be the case in the next books.
I noticed quite a lot of errors and missing/wrong words in this edit which really frustrated me and kept pulling me out of the story.
Overall, it was a decent read, but not sure if I feel that invested to continue on with the series.

"Dean, Sam, John and ... Cas"

I literally laughed out loud when I read this line.

Evelyn is a witch equipped with impressive thievery skills which she uses at every opportunity as she is a strong proponent of the "work smarter not harder mindset. Bowen is a sea captain who has no memory of his time before joining the Cwn Anwnn as a boy. When Evelyn accidentally finds herself forced to join his crew, she is determined to find a portal back to her realm despite Bowen insisting that she will be found no matter where she goes.

I found the attraction between Evelyn and Bowen a little too quick but I loved the way Evelyn makes Bowen pause and question what he has taken as gospel his entire life. I utterly love how Evelyn questions the basis of everything that is done to understand why which I personally feel is so important.

This series promises to be very interesting based on the plot development and I'm eager to follow Evelyn and Bowen's journey, both together and in their quest to understand the truth.

Thank you to Penguin Books South Africa, Netgalley, Random House and Del Ray for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

PS Bonus points if you get the reference in the quote I included.

“A lot of people look at something Other and decide it’s monstrous simply because they don’t see themselves reflected back.”

A cinnamon roll pirate with telekinetic powers? A chaotic bisexual witch that likes to steal things? Add forced proximity and a vampire ex-girlfriend hunting for her missing jewels and I’m in.

Hunt on Dark Waters had a lot to love about it and the book started off really strong. Part of her larger multiverse, but you don’t need to have read her previous books, Katee Robert brings us her usual easy-to-read dual narratives with action from the start.

I loved Evelyn’s snarky voice and Bowen was a surprisingly noble pirate captain that created some fun banter together. There were some adult ‘Daughter of the Pirate King’ vibes at the start and the premise of this other world witch falling straight onto a pirate ship intent on hunting her or making her join their crew was hard to put down. There was some fantastic rep; Evelyn, as previously mentioned, is bisexual and there are multiple side characters that use they/them or ze/zir pronouns integrated into a queer normative world. Plus, Evelyn was plus size!

The struggle came from the second half of the book. The plot was simple and after some midpoint conflict, it became incredibly drawn out just to set up further books in the series. So much of the second half could have been condensed and a larger end conflict added to increase the pace and tension. Instead, the second half became more reflective and romance fluffy with a couple of loose end tied up. I get that the characters themselves were feeling a little lost and unsure what they should do next, but the plot shouldn’t feel like that for too long too.

In the first half I was debating 4 or 5 ⭐ but by the time I finished the book, I could only average it out to a 3.5 ⭐ It was still a bit of fun and after all the time taken to set up the next book, I’d be interested in seeing what punch book two gave.

I'm conflicted. I love reading Katee's work, and there were all the bits in Hunt on Dark Waters that keep me coming back for more - good monsters, good spicy scenes, great pacing and tempo. That being said, I don't think my romance itch has been scratched this time, but hopefully more of that will appear in the subsequent books, and it just felt a little unrounded (though I can't put my finger on why, which is unhelpful!).

Will I continue to pick up Katee's books whenever they're released? Absolutely. Am I desperate to know what happens next in this series? Not really...

As an aside, the formatting wasn't great for the Kindle version, so I might be tempted to read again if a more finished version is released to us.

I loved this book. The pace is really good and the slow burn enemies to lovers is so good. It has every trope imaginable includ9ng one bed, close proximity and alot of spice. I found the characters were well developed Along with the magic system (although I'm still intrigued about these portals). This has to be one of my favourite fantasy romance books I have read. I would 100% reccomend this book! (Please note review has already been posted to goodreads and would rate 4.5 if I could do half stars)

So this didn't quite work for me and here is why:
1. It's a fantasy romance so it should've focused in the romance, but it really didn't. Evelyn and bowen weren't really insta love more insta lust, but somehow all tension was missing anyway. There was no build up to the characters or feelings.
2. Telling not showing. A little telling is fine but when it comes to romance I want to be shown how the characters feel about each other, not just told. It disconnected me from them and I wasn't invested in their relationship.
3. While I enjoyed the piratey parts of the story, nothing really happens and the end is more a big to be continued.

Some positive aspects were Robert's fun writing and easy prose that made it a quick read.

I have to say for a Katee Roberts book this was quite tame and very more based on the storyline than it was based on the explicit scenes. Not to say that I did not like the book and the storyline itself was quite compelling and engaging. The characters had an intrigue to them and I did enjoy reading this book.

For those of you who are definitely wondering about the sex scenes, because we all know that if you’re into Katee Roberts books you are going to want the sex scenes. The first one is about 50% of the way through, and there are two in total, though there is a sexual scene that isn’t a sex scene as well slightly before that .

If you are a Katie Robert fan, then I would say this is a really good book, personally though the Dark Olympus series will always be the one for me in my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t love this book but I didn’t hate it either. It has some good world-building and plenty of action (of which I sometimes could not keep up), but I just couldn’t connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. The lust and subsequent love between Bowen and Evelyn is beautifully written and made me swoon at some points. However, I wish there had been more depth to their relationship-building, but maybe this will follow in future books in the series.

On another note, the formatting from the eBook is TERRIBLE. I don’t know if this is an issue everyone with the ARC eBook has had on Kindle, but words were randomly broken up and there was no separation between chapters which sometimes made it very difficult to try and maintain a good flow of reading. There were also a fair few grammar and spelling errors which hopefully is corrected before being published.

Some of my favourite quotes:

“Give me a few more orgasms, Evelyn.”

“I’ve wanted you too long to be satisfied with a single time. I want you again and again and again, until we’re both too exhausted to f*ck.”

“Don’t you dare die.” “And lose out on even a moment with you? Never.”

“I think I started falling in love with you the moment you stole my flask.”

“Eternity with you would never be enough.”

Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone and Netgalley for providing me with the ARC of ‘Hunt On Dark Waters’ by Katee Roberts in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of this book in which a thieving which, after stealing her ex-girlfriends some jewelry enters a portal into an unknown world to escape. She lands in Threshold which can only be described as portal-hopper transfer hub as there is many portals to many different worlds and all kinds of magic creatures (even including dragons). She gets fished from the sea and gets to make a choice regarding dying immediately or swearing her life to become a pirate and hunt monsters.

Since I gave this 4 stars, it is needless to say I liked this book and I absolutely flew through it. I don’t normally read about pirates.. but this makes me think hat maybe I should ?? Maybe it’s the fact paced storyline or Katee Robert’s writing that kept me hooked from the first page and made sure I don’t put this one down at all - bar 50 pages at the end did almost read it in one sitting.

The only thing that didn’t work for me and reason why I couldn’t justify giving 5 stars is the insta-love aspect between the main characters. I think there was great potential in the story for some brooding, slow burn romance with insane tension, but the way their love story developed made me cringe and I found it slightly unreadable at times. I do think the characters have chemistry but as their love story progressed so insanely fast and went to 0-100 in like 2 minutes I felt like this was lost and it sadly manifested into a typical run-of-the-mill love at first sight, gooey romance.

On the same note I did start off by liking the main characters, thinking that they have some sort of badass edge but after developing an extremely intense insta-love I felt like they lost some of their individualism and at least this aspect of the book became predictable, cringey and all together too sickeningly sweet for my liking. That being said I would have also liked to hear more about Bowen’s background and past but I am sure that this will be revealed in later installments in this series.

That being said and to be honest, I don’t know why I do this to myself and start a series with book one where only the first installment is even out. I have just finished this story and I’m itching to find out what happens next. It’s a series I am definitely keen to continue with and already can’t wait for the next installment.

>> Review also posted to Goodreads

Katee Robert writing a series about queer pirates in a fantasy world... as soon as I heard this was happening I was excited, and it didn't disappoint.
Hunt on Dark Waters is the first book in the Crimson Sails series, which mostly takes place in Threshold - a realm with portals to all other realms.
Evie is a witch with a thieving habit, who accidentally portals to the sea in Threshold while trying to escape her vampire ex-lover-not-girlfriend. She's fished out of the water by Bowen and his crew, who give her a simple choice: join the crew and hunt monsters, or be killed.
And so we have a captor/captive romance with a whole heap of forced proximity. The romance thread starts with lust woven into the hatred, and adds grudging respect over time. Because it's Katee Robert writing, the steamy scenes are obviously top notch.
For the rest of the story, we have Bowen doing a lot of soul searching on his place in the world and the rules he's been brought up with. This book does a lot of heavy lifting to set up the world and series, which does make the plot balance feel a bit off at times. But it's also made me excited for the rest of the series.
I absolutely adored the bisexual rep in this book - Evie started the book with a female lover, flirted with non-binary characters, and ended up in a relationship with a male character. Side character rep is also found in heaps.
Read this if you like steamy fantasy romance, and think that monster hunters are the real monsters.

Katee Robert has been on my TBR for a while, and I'm so glad I started reading her with Hunt on Dark Waters. I devoured this book. It was captivating from page one, and not only because of how spicy it is.

Evelyn is not the typical heroine. She's more like a villain, so when the vampire she was in a situation ship with dumps her, Evelyn takes the dumb decision to steal from her, and in her attempt to escape ends up in a different world. Here, she's forced to join a crew of pirates until monsters. But witches are considered monsters by many too in this world, so she needs to behave. Funny, isn't it? Evelyn behaving? So she does the only logical thing. She tries to escape and find a way back home. But Bowen, the captain of the pirate ship, won't let her. Thankfully Evelyn can start showing him the truth of what's going on in this world, and things aren't all black or white has he was made to believe. And now they are ready for a revolution.

I wasn't sure I'd like this book as romance isn't my thing, but it sounded so interesting I had to give it ago... and I loved it!

I read it pretty quickly and it kept my attention throughout. The women are amazing and, although, I am not a romance fan - it was great.

I would definitely read more from this author and will be recommending this to people.

Katee roberts is an author that I will pick up any book she writes and this is no different! Fantastic and just what you want when you know her books! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my eArc of this book.