Soulgazer
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
With their freedom on the line, a young woman and a rakish pirate take their fate into their own hands as they attempt to find a lost mythical isle with the power to save their entire world.
Every legend has a beginning.
Saoirse yearns to be powerless. Cursed from childhood with a volatile magic, she's managed to imprison it within, living under constant terror that one day it will break free. And it does, changing everything.
Horrified at her loss of control, Saoirse’s parents offer her hand to the cold and ruthless Stone King. Knowing she'll never survive such a cruel man, Saoirse realizes there is only one path forward…she must break her curse.
On the eve of her wedding, Saoirse seeks out the legendary Wolf of the Wild—Faolan, a feral, silver-tongued pirate. He swears to help rid her of the deadly magic if she’ll use it to locate a lost mythical isle. Crafted by the slaughtered gods, it’s the only land that could absorb her power.
But Saoirse knows better than to trust a pirate’s word. With the wrath of her disgraced father and scorned betrothed chasing them, Saoirse adds one last condition to protect herself: if Faolan wants her on his ship, he'll have to marry her first.
"A tale rife with longing, extraordinary tenderness and delicious tension. A glorious escape for the heart and imagination."—Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of Last Tale of the Flower Bride
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rapier's passable debut romantasy checks many familiar boxes: a timid maiden with as-yet-unrealized powers, a hunky swashbuckling love interest, and a quest for both of their freedom that comes with a strict time limit, all wrapped in Celtic-inflected mythology. The maiden is painfully naive Saoirse, 22, whose powers her parents work hard to suppress, leaving her traumatized; the hunk is flirty pirate Faolan, also known as the Wolf of the Wild, whose adventures at sea are legendary even at his young age of 26. Saoirse flees her parents and their chosen husband for her to set sail with Faolan in search of the Isle of Lost Souls, whose legendary wonders have enticed many adventurers, though none have yet found it. The result is a fast-paced adventure combined with a steamy love story, but the central couple feels somewhat underdeveloped. Though Rapier occasionally attempts to subvert expectations in the relationship between the meek, virginal heroine and her worldly savior, the novel mostly plays the trope straight. (Faolan teaches Saoirse about sex when she asks him what it means for a man to "worship a woman on knees," a phrase she overheard from the sailors.) Readers who don't mind an old-school romantic dynamic will like this just fine.
