Upon a Starlit Tide

The adopted daughter of a Bretagne merchant, Lucinde dreams of setting sail to new destinations. For now, she assists her smuggler friend Samuel and sneaks to the shore, constrained by overprotective parents and the pain in her disfigured feet. Then she rescues a nearly drowned sailor: Morgan, son of another powerful family. Suddenly Luce’s horizons expand, drawing her into a world of glamor and seduction. But conflict is brewing at home and at sea, and Lucinde must call on talents she didn’t know she possessed to chart her own future. Woods’s (After the Forest) historical fantasy weaves together elements of “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid” to create a wholly original tale. Lucinde’s Bretagne is filled with magic found in the land, its Fae inhabitants, and even her own past. Readers will root for Luce as she chafes against her confines and discovers long-buried truths about herself. An English invasion looms, and tension brews between Morgan and Samuel’s opposing livelihoods, until everything comes together in a fittingly explosive climax.