Epeolatry Book Review: Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods

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Title: Upon a Starlit Tide
Author: Kell Woods
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: 18th November, 2025

Synopsis: Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758. To Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of a wealthy French shipowner, the high walls of Saint-Malo are more hindrance than haven.

While her sisters are busy trying to secure advantageous marriages, Luce spends her days secretly being taught to sail by Samuel, her best friend―and an English smuggler. Only he understands how the waves call to her. Then one stormy morning, Luce rescues a drowning man from the sea.

Immediately drawn in by the stranger’s charm, Luce is plunged into a world of glittering balls and faerie magic, seduction and brutality. Secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface, but as Luce wrestles with warring desires, she finds that her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.

Or the scales of a sea-maid’s tail.

In Upon a Starlit Tide, Woods takes familiar tales such as The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and Bluebeard, and weaves them into a delightful tapestry that both honours the stories and inverts their tropes in a refreshing way. The threads of these fairy tales are clear, but instead of creating predictable patterns that spoil the book, Woods’ innovations add surprises I didn’t expect.

Lucinde is a young woman and the adopted daughter of a French noble. In a time when women of her class have limited options, she longs for adventure and the sea. Lucinde does her best to play the dutiful daughter to her strong-willed mother, Gratienne, and doting father, Jean-Baptiste, but she sneaks away every chance she gets to spend time with her smuggler friends, Samuel and Bones. She also has two sisters, the sophisticated Veronique, who is the perfect version of what women were expected to be at this time, and the jealous Charlotte, who longs to be the best at something.

Lucinde is mostly content to navigate her double life, but then one day, she finds a handsome noble drowning and decides to save him. This is Morgan de Châtelaine, the “prince” in this fairy tale, and his presence in her life changes everything.

The setup begins like we might expect: a young woman out of place in her adoptive (step) family meets a handsome prince who sweeps her off her feet and gives her a better life free of her confines. Woods utilizes the familiar elements of both Cinderella and The Little Mermaid to great effect. There is a ball, tense relationships with envious sisters, and the knife-like pain Lucinde feels in her feet that is only soothed by the sea.

But where this novel truly shines is in its characters. Instead of limiting them within their fairy tale confines, Woods plays around with themes of identity, deception, and the dangers of judging a book by its cover. Each main character is layered and just when I thought I had figured out their role in the story, another facet would shine through. Some I saw coming, but others surprised me.

Lucinde herself is the strongest character by far. She is no weak fairy tale heroine reacting to forces beyond her control. I loved watching her grow and develop from a naive girl into a powerful woman.

I struggled to put this book down and spent my holidays snatching moments between family and food to keep reading until the end. This book is a treat for anyone who loves fairy tales.

/5

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

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