Hunt on Dark Waters by Katee Robert – Review

Published: November 7, 2023

Publisher: Berkley

Series: Crimson Sails #1

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

Pages: 326 (Kindle)

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Synopsis:
Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their ship’s crew or die.

Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his band of pirates are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.

But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, the danger at sea escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price….

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I accidentally requested the second book in this series on NetGalley, so I figured I should probably read the first one to have some context. I am now regretting my life choices. I thought I would like this series, but those Goodreads reviews were right…

Hunt on Dark Waters follows Evelyn, a witch who has just fled her vampire ex with a handful of stolen jewels and one thing on her mind – escape. Unfortunately for her, the portal she jumped through went to a realm between realms called Threshold and any outsider who appears is given the choice of joining the Cŵn Annwn (the Wild Hunt) or death. Evelyn has no intention of staying, but Bowen, the handsome telekinetic captain that picked her up won’t let her get away. 

I love the idea of Threshold and a multitude of worlds filled with magical beings of all sorts, but I really did not like either of the characters. Evelyn is brash and gives such an overt middle finger to rules of any sort that it’s a wonder she wasn’t thrown overboard immediately after her rescue. She also starts questioning the hierarchy, the leaders of the Cŵn Annwn, and flaunts so many rules! I would typically find all of these things admirable in a main character, but she was just too much at once. And Bowen! Sure, he’s a big handsome guy and he’s decent, but I didn’t click with him because he’s too much of a company man and full of naivete. These characters didn’t work for me and I didn’t like their chemistry.

The plot itself is actually pretty boring overall. Evelyn keeps trying to run away, Bowen doesn’t let her, he gets ousted as captain and they both get ditched, but his morals dictate that they have to go get a new assignment from these douchebags that lead the Cŵn Annwn. Oh, and eventually he starts questioning things that he’s never once second guessed in his entire life and now the pair are going to bring down the establishment from the inside!

I didn’t care for this and the spice didn’t make up for the lackluster plot and characterization. I’ll give the next book a try because it focuses more on another character that readers were introduced to in this book. Though still early, that installment has much better ratings so hopefully I’ll enjoy it more!