A Swift and Savage Tide by Chloe Neill – Review

Published: November 30, 2021

Publisher: Berkley

Series: Captain Kit Brightling #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 368 (Paperback)

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

Synopsis:
Chloe Neill’s bold, seafaring heroine Captain Kit Brightling sets sail for high seas and high sorcery in this swashbuckling fantasy series.

Captain Kit Brightling is Aligned to the magic of the sea, which makes her an invaluable asset to the Saxon Isles and its monarch, Queen Charlotte. The Isles and its allies will need every advantage they can get: Gerard Rousseau, the former Gallic emperor and scourge of the Continent, has escaped his island prison to renew his quest for control of the Continent.

Gerard has no qualms about using dangerous magic to support his ambitions, so Kit and the crew of her ship, the Diana, are the natural choice to find him—and help stop him. Sparks fly when Kit’s path unexpectedly crosses with that of the dashing and handsome Rian Grant, Viscount Queenscliffe, who’s working undercover on the Continent in his own efforts to stop Gerard. But he’s not the only person Kit is surprised to see. An old enemy has arisen, and the power he’ll wield on Gerard’s behalf is beautiful and terrible. Sparks will fly and sails will flutter as Kit and crew are cast onto the seas of adventure to fight for queen and country.

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Somehow this was even better than the first book!! A Bright and Breaking Sea was a surprise favorite when it was released and I was eager to return to this alternate Napoleonic War setting, mostly to see if Captain Brightling and the handsome Viscount Queenscliffe would finally fall madly in love. I’ve been on such a romance kick lately and this is the perfect blend of slow burn romance and delightful historical fantasy.

The story begins with Kit Brightling assigned to track down Gerard’s warship and hopefully Gerard himself. This takes Kit and the crew of the Diana into enemy territory, where she finds none other than Rian Grant working undercover. She also sees firsthand that a powerful Aligned who was thought dead in the first war is very much alive and leading Gerard’s military forces. This new revelation means the threat to the Saxon Isles is even greater than was thought and it must be ended.

Thus begins the Diana’s magically fueled dash back to the Isles to deliver crucial information to the Queen and to save a wounded crewmember. The Diana is shortly sent back out with a fleet of other ships, but then sea dragons, magic, shipwreck, declarations of unrequited love, and Pirates happen. I 

This story was excellent and kept me glued to the audiobook, which has great narration by the way. I did miss the other Brightling sisters who didn’t get as much page time in this installment- perhaps we’ll see more of them in book 3.