A heart-wrenching grim cozy pirate's tale with a little bit of romance. This is not 'Cozy' in the traditional sense unless you find misery and betrayal to be as comforting as a cup of hot cocoa.
"This book is for the girls who are moody, feisty, and in another world may also be stabby. Trust me you will fall in love with Caraway."
"Caraway Auclair has devoted herself to protecting her brother, serving as the ship's first mate and enforcer. Sacrificing nearly all she is to ensure that he becomes the most fearsome pirate Captain to ever sail the Carnelian Sea. She realizes too late, that the seas have only grown darker, and the waves more fearsome, they threaten to pull her under completely and mold her into something akin to a nightmare.
After Caraway's closest friend dies in a brutal storm, grief puts Caraway and her brother at odds more than ever before.
When they dock on Isla Dalia after the devastating storm, Caraway is surrounded by both friend and foe, oftentimes unable to distinguish between the two. She must navigate a torrent of emotions unlike any she has weathered before. Seeking out any and all distractions, she begins to grow dangerously close to a rival Captain, despite her brother's warnings.
As another storm looms, ever encroaching upon her crew's uncertain future, her fears are laid bare for all to see. Caraway struggles to face the demons of her past ... only to discover that they pale in comparison to the monster that she had a hand in creating.
As she drifts further away from all that she once knew, secrets slowly begin to surface, and the tides of her life as she knew it begins to shift ...
A shift that just might destroy the life she's worked so hard to protect, and her future with it."
What to expect!
Caraway of the Sea is a new adult pirate fantasy, featuring an asexual main character. This book is not cozy unless you are like me and find misery and betrayal to be like a warm cup of hot cocoa. This book does NOT contain any explicit content (Spice), although it is well-seasoned in my opinion. If you look for any of these items in a book, you should enjoy the voyage: rage, paranoia, tension, secrets, betrayal, mischief, banter, slow-burn forbidden romance, one bed, rivals, found family, and of course LGBTQA+ representation.
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Violence, gore(light), blood, vomiting(light), character deaths(both on and off the page), discussion of and attempted SA, drowning, dismemberment(light), anxiety, emotional abuse, physical abuse, manipulation, PTSD, sharp objects(many) and gun violence(few), swearing(very light), narcissism, depression, and alcoholism(shiver me timbers).