My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice Rating: 🌶️

Title: Ship of Spells (#1)

Author: H. Leighton Dickson

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 512

Publication Date: 11/4/25

Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books

Categories: Romantasy, Pirates, High Fantasy

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Entangled: Red Tower Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

When Ensign Bluemage Honor Renn is rescued from the wreckage of her first naval post, she expects death or disgrace. Instead, she wakes aboard the Touchstone, a mythic vessel whispered of in dockside ballads and royal war rooms alike. With a crew of misfits. A mysterious, elven captain. And a mission tied to the Dreadwall, the crumbling barrier that has kept the Overland and Nethersea from open war for a hundred years.

But the tragedy that sank her last ship didn’t just take lives―it left something behind.

Now Renn carries a secret everyone wants. A magik that’s chimeric, arcane…and slowly killing her. But the captain’s mission may be her only chance to survive, even if he still doesn’t trust her.

Caught between privateers, princes, and spies, Renn knows each choice could sink her future―or set the sea on fire.

Content Warning: violence, death

+ I love this book cover and the deluxe edition with the sprayed edges looks even more amazing.

+~ This story is a high-seas adventure filled with pirates, battles at sea, magic, mages, politics, a sentient ship and a lot of pirate jargon. Although I enjoyed the setting on the seas and the pirate adventure I felt like I was thrown into the story. So it took me a few chapters in to actually get settled into the story and want to continue. This story has heavy world building with names of elves that are hard to pronounce, an elvish language that appears through the book and lots of names. There’s also magic terms to learn as well. I get that pirates have their own way of talking but I didn’t love some of the pirate language in this book. For example, “fog” is used for the F-word and honestly, this is an adult book, so I would have rather had the F-word in it than “fog”. I mean what pirate doesn’t curse?

+~ There are some interesting characters in this book, my favorite being Fahr. Since it’s a big cast of characters, Honor does create a found family on the ship eventually. Speaking of Honor, she is hard to like. She is so stubborn, doesn’t learn, and is so full of pride for someone of lower ranking. I felt like the first few chapters of the book as we get thrown into this world and follow her, there wasn’t anything about her that I wanted to keep reading about and I honestly wondered if this was a book I was going to DNF. I needed more description of her too – I felt like I didn’t know what she looked like. She does have some character growth by the end at least.

+~ The romance is such a very, very slow burn, there is nothing until almost the end. But there is spice. I did wish Honor and the captain spent more time together so that we could see the romance build though, because there really isn’t much there.

~ Pacing was a bit off at times, there were lulls and then scenes of full action. Although I was fascinated and made myself push through this book in the beginning, I’m not sure I can say I fully gelled with the writing style at times.

Final Thoughts:

This is high fantasy and it’s a world you are thrown into as a reader so I felt like it was a rough few chapters and I had to settle in and get used to the FMC, Honor, who is not very likable. And then there was a lot of learn, like the terminology for the use of magic, elvish words and then of course the pirate language. So there is a lot to process, but I did push through because I thought the sentient ship was unique, and the magic was interesting too. There was a lot of adventure and action in this one, but also the pacing was off at times and there were lulls. And even though Honor was the most stubborn character, I wanted to see if there would be growth. Plus, I definitely wanted to see where the romance storyline would go – but it’s a very slow burn. Overall, I’d say I found the story entertaining once I got myself immersed in the world.

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