The Seafarer's Kiss, Julia Ember | Spoiler Free Book Review | Overbooked [CC]

I don’t think I’m ever gonna get tired of women 
rescuing each other like I just it’s it’s great  
in all ways let’s have the women rescue the 
women welcome back to dead good book reviews  
I’m Judith and you’re watching another episode 
of overbooked the series where I talk about every  
single book on my shelf because well it’s the 
past when I’m filming this and I like to hope  
that the universe hasn’t completely collapsed 
yet today we are talking about a book that looks  
fairly visually different from a lot of the other 
books on my shelf my mum used to say if you find a  
dark colored book with swirly writing on the cover 
Judith will probably enjoy it and you know what  
she’s not wrong I know you’ve already 
read the title by now but for the sake  
of those listening via audio we’re talking 
about the seafarers kiss by julia ember
so some quick disclaimers before we start as I 
attempt to prop this book up behind me um I did  
receive a digital review copy better this book is 
mine it was purchased for me by my wife christmas  
2017 I think I did however receive a digital 
review copy of the sequel the navigator’s  
touch I think from the publisher for free via 
netgalley regardless of where either book came  
from all opinions are my own I will also say 
that the wonderful people at interlude press  
the publisher have provided content warnings 
I will

link the page where you can find those
below if you want to find out more about that and
I will also say that while I have read the sequel
I did not enjoy the sequel and so I’m gonna just
kind of quietly pretend it doesn’t exist because
I think you can read this book on its own let
me put the cover up close so you can enjoy the
kind of paper cut glory of it the seafarers kiss
published in 2017 and it is another retelling yes
amidst the sea metaphorically and literally sea
of retellings this is a little mermaid retelling
2017 it’s maybe a tiny bit ahead of the game it
would have been one of the early ones before the
stream of them that we had in 2018. it is
a short sapphic ya fantasy romance that has
plus-sized bisexual mermaids and to be honest
that’s all it takes to get me to read a book
julia ember is a seattle-based author who writes
YA fantasy fiction her latest book ruinsong is a
retelling of phantom of the opera and came out in
2020. I wrote these notes quite some time ago she
may have had other books since then I’m not sure
I might need to read that but I was burned by a
book that was a retelling of a musical before on
the back cover of this book it mentions that julia
ember is bisexual and polyamorous obviously labels
changed this book was printed then I have no idea
how she identifies at this point but we’re gonna
go with that for now I’ve mentioned this is a
little mermaid retelling but in this case we have
ice-based mermaids they live in a very cold area
and our main character Ersel is one of them she
discovers that she wants more than the life that
is planned out for her when she rescues shield
maiden Ragna from certain death near the surface
because it’s the best way to solve any problem
Ersel seeks help from loki and yeah it goes about
as well as you can imagine and things progress
from there one of my favorite things about this
book is the plus-size mermaids have I mentioned
them enough plus-sized mermaids I’m so here for it
there is absolutely no way a tiny barbie mermaid
would survive in the cold we’re gonna have larger
mermaids with fat reserves oh amazing it isn’t
like when she goes and gets a little bit warmer
that she’s suddenly like oh I can finally have
the hourglass figure I’ve always wanted it’s just
perfect neutral her body is just fine it doesn’t
come up it’s just how she moves around oh I love
it so much I will continue to champion any book
ya or otherwise which has a plus size or larger or
even just mid-size main character where that isn’t
their entire identity and for that character to be
a romantic heroine and also outsmarting people
and just being generally amazing ugh everything
about it fantastic what’s interesting to me when
I first read this book I was not out yet I was
out to myself and to a few very close friends but
I was not out to the world at large to my family
I was just a tiny in like a closet with the door
cracked open that’s where I was at so for me
getting to read bisexual characters and see that
represented on the page was super important and it
still is and this is still one of my books that I
hold as like helping me make that journey I don’t
think I’m ever gonna get tired of women rescuing
each other like I just it’s it’s great in all ways
let’s have the women rescue the women this isn’t
a very long book I don’t know if it technically
counts as a novella probably though it’s not long
at all it’s uh 214 pages or so I’ve mentioned the
characters identities those are a big part of
the story the romance is a big part of the story
but there is also a story behind this while there
are familiar aspects to the story because we know
the little mermaid julia ember twists enough of
the story that it still feels really fresh there
are some not great little mermaid retellings
out there and this is pretty good it’s more
that sensation of oh that feels really clever when
you realize something links back to the original
rather than feeling like you’re going through the
book and you’re like and next this will happen
oh yeah it did I think the setting is wonderful
I think the threat level and the way that that
plays out within the book is fantastic my kind of
qualm with this book I guess is there is a moment
within the story this isn’t a spoiler where our
two romantic leads hit each other it is within
a moment of really intense drama but every time
I’ve read this book it struck me as odd I think
it’s because this book is shorter there isn’t
the page count to have the kind of communication
you need from from that you need them to talk it
out so that doesn’t happen on page um so that’s
probably the only bit that sort of slightly spoils
that romance for me I’m kind of like oh I don’t
I don’t know how I feel about this no another
thing that you might want to potentially avoid
if you’re sensitive to it or if you just don’t
like reading that is that a lot of the conflict
in this story comes from the fact that the mermaid
population are struggling to survive with a lot of
issues to do with infertility that’s discussed
in the book that comes up very often within
the story so if infertility is something that
you do not want to read about give this one a
miss comparisons for this book are tricky I think
that to kill a kingdom is the obvious other good
little mermaid retelling very different story but
a good good book that has little mermaid elements
to it the other things I’ve written in my notes
are once and future witches by Alix E Harrow I’m
not 100% sure why I think I just read them very
close together and I was like these are both have
sapphic elements and men sucking that that will
do so I guess that and then the other book that
I know has a bisexual main character that I very
much enjoyed is reign of the fallen uh this is a
bisexual necromancer which yes it was just another
one of those formative books on my own personal
coming out journey so I thought I would mention
that one as well should you read this I had a good
time reading this as I say it was a few years ago
my reading tastes have changed slightly I wouldn’t
say I’m as rabid a fan of it as I was in 2017
2018 but I do keep it on my shelf as it’s a good
book that I can lend out to friends especially if
they’re just getting back into reading because I
think it’s got a lot of the kind of the key points
of you can read books that feature characters who
look like you in them and you can have a good
time with it and it’s not too heavy and it’s
just a nice get back into reading after you’ve
fallen out of it for a while kind of book it’s not
something I’m desperate to reread every month but
I do pick it up from time to time when I just need
a good Ersel fix as I mentioned at the start it’s
a shame the sequel just didn’t hold up for me it’s
a peter pan captain hook kind of lean to it I just
didn’t enjoy it very much but I do think this book
works as a standalone so I wouldn’t worry about it
potentially that’s something to bear in mind the
sequel exists but it’s not fantastic in my opinion
full disclosure I wrote the notes for this review
many many months ago as in like september of last
year and it’s now June of 2021 I feel very distant
from this book at the moment in a way that my
notes aren’t it’s a little bit of dissonance
there for me but hey that’s the nature of this
series everything’s a little bit weird and out
of time what are you gonna do about it let me know
have you read this book are there any other little
mermaid mermaid books little mermaid retellings
other retellings all of the plonk those in the
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all from me and I will see you in the next one
it’s gonna be some bloopers now today
we are talking a book come hither