π΄ π΅πππππ π»ππππ‘ ππ π΅ππππππππ ππ‘πππ. Gina Denny. 2026.
Silky smooth, brightly polished, and elegantly choreographed feminine pirate story for new adult romantasy readers.
A runaway princess trades her cloistered safety for an adventurous life amongst pirates. Now she must rely on a sharp blade and fickle magic to survive a dangerous journey and navigate a slow-burn romance.
The protagonist, Ida, is a princess πππ a pirate. But she is no Yara Greyjoy. Idaβs focus, and the focus of this story, is not on piracy per se. It is fixed, instead, on the princess’ internal emotional journey.Β Β In fact, all of three POV characters are on an emotional journey of some kind, and they spend much of their time on the page thinking about it.
This is romantasy that speaks to a primarily female audience. Yes, there are pirates and politics and dangers to life and limb. But how people are dressed matters a great deal. As does how they smell, how we feel about how they smell, and what they might be thinking about us as we worry about how they smell. This is a romping romantic, distinctly feminine, fantasy adventure.
I have no doubt that π΄ π΅πππππ π»ππππ‘ ππ π΅ππππππππ ππ‘πππ will be a great commercial success. The author is highly skilled and she knows the audience she is writing for. She has crafted this story particularly for them. And since this is the first of a series, you should expect to hear a lot about it over the next two years.
AUTHORS – I write short book reviews that focus on voice and vibe. They are useful to querying authors searching for comp titles. There are more like this one on my website.
REMINDER – If you follow my reviews, you already know this. I have a policy about reviewing debut novels. Provided I finish them, I always rate debut novels with maximum stars, regardless. When I donβt finish a debut novel, I donβt review it. No exceptions. And I donβt review books I donβt pay full price for.