sarah k.l. wilson – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★.5
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 464 pages
Author: Sarah K.L. Wilson
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: February 24th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A desperate queen makes a deal with the gods to save her land in this spellbinding romantasy debut from Sarah K. L. Wilson.

Queen Coralys rules the Kingdom of the Five Isles, but when disaster strikes, killing her husband and destroying half her nation, she pleads with the gods for salvation. And they do save her, turning back the terrible winds and tide and snatching her islands from the brink of destruction.

But the gods have a wicked sense of justice and they demand an exchange for their help: Coralys must marry the first man to set foot on her pier. Coralys expects the fleet of a neighboring country to come to rescue her people, led by its prince, a loyal ally. What she gets instead is a fisherman so sunburnt and stinking that her court can barely keep their breakfast down.

Coralys marries the fisherman just as she promised the gods, and sets out with him in his unkempt dinghy, with nothing but hopes of revenge against the gods to keep her from despair. But what she does not know is that the fisherman is actually the god of the sea. And he stepped on her dock for a reason.

His own kingdom besieged, his body terribly wounded, and his place as a god threatened, the fisherman has plans to turn the tides set against him and finally offer a place of refuge for his people. But working the magic he needs will require the help of the one woman bent on his destruction.

Thank you Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

EH, I DON’T KNOW Y’ALL.

I will say that I’m still obsessed with this cover.

Alright, now about the inside of the book. Initially I was fine with it, I was leaning into the vibes and I love marriage of convenience so I wanted to give it a chance. I loved the ocean based setting and that there seems to be a lot of meddling gods.

Then somewhere in the middle it kind of lost me? I was getting frustrated with the FMC and how she was choosing to make her decisions and listening to parties that were pretty dang obvious not anyone Coralys should be considering which caused more things to fall a part. And then the romance was missing something. It felt like certain pieces were forced and since this is a series I think it would have benefited from a different type of slow burn.

This book isn’t spice forward, which is super nice because I feel that’s all I see lately, which does lean me towards wanting to try book two. I thought the conclusion was a decent cliff hanger and made me curious to see how this will continue.

I listened to the audiobook as well and I did like the narration.

Overall audience notes:

Fantasy Romance
Language: low
Romance: heated kisses
Violence: moderate+
Content warnings: loss of a spouse, loss of life, battle themes, weapons altercations

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 311 pages
Author: Sarah K.L. Wilson
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: March 2nd, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A STOLEN BRIDE. A TERRIFYING BRIDEGROOM. THE GAME THAT WILL DETERMINE THEIR FATES.

No one told her the most important law of the court – the Law of Greeting.
If they had, maybe she wouldn’t have greeted Bluebeard when he arrived to claim a mortal wife. And if she hadn’t greeted him, she wouldn’t have become his sixteenth wife or been swept away to the lands of the Wittenhame.

But if none of that had happened, then she wouldn’t have been an integral part of the game that takes place every two hundred years – a game that determines the fates of nations .

For not all is as it seems, not in her homeland of Pensmoore, not in the Wittenhame, and certainly not in her new marriage.

CONSIDER ME INVESTED.

This is my first book by Wilson and it will not be my last! What an enjoyable fantasy romance that holds a lot of potential for future books.

I was here for this slow burn romance. And it is verrrrry slow. But I think that really led to Izolda and Bluebeard connecting past the initial differences between them. Throw in a curse that is an occasional nuisance to work around added to the fun. I thought they had great banter and some of those quiet moments I am always begging for. I can’t wait for to see the intensity ramp up between them.

The plot is really interesting! I don’t know much about the story of Bluebeard (though BRB going to go look it up). Each plot line kept me reading, and even at a short fantasy the world building and magic system lined up well. It wasn’t trying to do too much and was easy to envision and enjoy. I could have used something intense. That was the only thing missing. I never felt amped by the romance or the story itself until the last 20 pages. I wanted a little more from that vibe throughout. The ending is great though and I will definitely have to get to book two ASAP.

Overall audience notes:

Fantasy Romance
Language: very little
Romance: kisses
Violence: low/mild
Trigger/Content Warnings: kidnapping, physical and magical altercations, creature attacks