Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 480 pages
Author: Maggie Rapier
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: July 8th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Every legend has a beginning.

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.

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 first. 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 if Faolan wants her on his ship, he’ll have to marry her first.

NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS HOPING FOR.

I have been eyeing this book since the day the cover was revealed. It had all of the vibes I could want but I decided to wait for the audiobook and go from there. I will say the audiobook was good! No issues there and I do plan to read book two through that avenue because I’m curious enough to see if Soulgazer improves on some key issues.

One of those being the WORLD BUILDING & MAGIC. Y’all I don’t even know where to begin. I finished this book and can NOT tell you one thing about the world. It was as if the author said look over here at the romance and ignore the fantasy because that’s all we got. And alongside that was a magic system with meddling gods and visions but that didn’t flow well together. I don’t necessarily have to have ALL of the answers in book one. I do need some kind of grasp though.

I liked the two romantic leads well enough. There’s some good banter and scenes that I thought were important and enjoyable. It’s not spice forward which I appreciated x100. Maybe book two will have more fantasy elements???

Overall audience notes:

• Fantasy Romance
• Language: moderate
• Romance; 2-3ish open door
• Violence: moderate

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph