Hunt on Dark Waters by Katee Robert is an intriguing fantasy romance novel that blends elements of pirates, witches, vampires, and other fantastical creatures. The story follows Evelyn, a witch, who falls through a portal to another realm and is rescued by Bowen, the captain of a band of seafarers.

The book's setting is unique and well-developed, and the inclusion of different fantastical creatures gives the story its own feel. I think Katee Robert should be praised for the individuality she managed to bring to the story.

I also liked the inclusion of gender neutral pronouns for some of the characters, however I will say that it would have been useful to be made aware that some pronouns would be introduced through the book as at first I thought there were spelling errors until I caught on what they were! Additionally, I had no idea how to pronounce the Welsh word in the book so a page on the pronunciation would be really helpful. In terms of the story itself

Katee Robert does a great job of creating a sense of adventure and excitement, and the romance between Evelyn and Bowen is steamy. However, some of the more "tense" moments in the story fell a bit flat for me, and I would have liked to see the characters suffer a bit more. Every hurdle seemed almost too easily surpassed but perhaps that is just me being overly critical. Overall, Hunt on Dark Waters is a fun and enjoyable read for fans of fantasy romance. If you're looking for a book with a unique setting, interesting creatures, and a hot romance, then this is the book for you.

Here are some specific things I liked about the book:

- The inclusion of different fantastical creatures: I loved the way Robert incorporated different creatures into the story, such as vampires, witches, and werewolves. It made the world feel more magical and exciting.
- The unique setting: The setting of Threshold was well-developed, and I loved the way Robert described the different realms. It made me feel like I was right there with the characters.

Here are some things I would have liked to see improved:

- The character development: I found some of the characters to be a bit underdeveloped. I would have liked to learn more about their backstories and motivations.


Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Cornerstone, Del Rey and Katee Robert for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Was this objectively a great book? Not really but it was entertaining!
This felt very nostalgic for me, I read a lot of fantasy romance on Wattpad in 2016 and this felt very reminiscent of that. The writing style is very easy and readable. The one thing that really grated at me is the exposition, this book was all telling and no showing. The world building was very flimsy and I thought it could have been done better.

Rating: 5⭐️

Summary:
Evelyn, a witch with a penchant for trouble, escapes to Threshold, another realm, after robbing her vampire ex. Rescued by Bowen, a telekinetic captain and his seafaring crew, who have vowed to protect the sea between realms and the portal it contains she is forced to join them … or die. As Bowen and Evelyn start falling for each other, tensions and danger rise, and trust wavers. Their fates become intertwined and her betraying her vows would lead him to join her in suffering the consequences.

What stood out to me:
The writing style, the characters, the take on monster-hunters and the spice.

My thoughts:
Wow this book was hot! Although this isn’t the smuttiest book I’ve ever read the spice in it was perfect. The story was amazing and well written and I loved discovering Threshold. I cannot wait to read book two (Blood on the Tide) and to see more of Evelyn, Bowen, Nox and Lizzie. I want to know how they get on and what happens to them. What I also really enjoyed about this book it's that although it had spice it didn't feel like it (or the romance) were the whole plot, but instead the travels/adventures were. I really recommend this book to anyone who like fantasy and romance fantasies with monsters, witches vampires, and all sorts of other. creatures.
Note: this book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger but (part of) the plot story will continue in book 2.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for providing me with the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this book up because all the elements in the plot appealed to me; fantasy, romance, pirates, thieves, witches….right up my street.

I liked Evelyn, she was independent and strong willed. Bowen, less so. I just found him a bit…forgettable, so much so that I’ve just had to flick back to the book to remind myself of his name. Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn’t quite buy into their romance.

The plot, work building and magical systems and groups at play here are really interesting and I am curious to see where the plot leads in the sequel.

Whether or not I’ll pick it up will remain to be seen, as the main romance just wasn’t quite compelling enough for me and I’m not certain the other elements of the plot will be enough for me to want more.

3 stars.

I wanted to love this more than I did.

Starting with what I enjoyed. I loved the world building and magic within this series, very different from what i have previously read from this author. I thought the characters were interesting and hope we get to explore more of the side characters in future books. The representation in this book was fantastic.

My biggest issue with this book was the romance. I usually love Katee Roberts romances but in this case something just fell flat. This is an insta love scenario which isn't usually a problem for me however I just wasn't convinced and didn't feel the chemistry between them and as a result felt bored in places. The ending also felt very abrupt!

I will continue the series because I did overall enjoy the story and want to see what happens next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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.”