Soulgazer

Rapier’s passable debut romantasy checks many familiar boxes: a timid maiden with as-yet-unrealized powers, a hunky swashbuckling love interest, and a quest for both of their freedom that comes with a strict time limit, all wrapped in Celtic-inflected mythology. The maiden is painfully naive Saoirse, 22, whose powers her parents work hard to suppress, leaving her traumatized; the hunk is flirty pirate Faolan, also known as the Wolf of the Wild, whose adventures at sea are legendary even at his young age of 26. Saoirse flees her parents and their chosen husband for her to set sail with Faolan in search of the Isle of Lost Souls, whose legendary wonders have enticed many adventurers, though none have yet found it. The result is a fast-paced adventure combined with a steamy love story, but the central couple feels somewhat underdeveloped. Though Rapier occasionally attempts to subvert expectations in the relationship between the meek, virginal heroine and her worldly savior, the novel mostly plays the trope straight. (Faolan teaches Saoirse about sex when she asks him what it means for a man to “worship a woman on [his] knees,” a phrase she overheard from the sailors.) Readers who don’t mind an old-school romantic dynamic will like this just fine. (July)