This is a book review of this standalone, dual POV, spicy ocean romantasy novel by authors Sarah C Davies & Megan G Mossgrove.

I received an ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This Vicious Sea

Releasing: 24th February 2026

A blood-soaked pirate on a quest for her freedom.

A siren prince caught between vengeance and answers.

When Odelia Ivor, daughter of the most violent pirate on the Adamaris Sea, finds herself in the brig of The Gilded Hart, she doesn’t expect the captain that rescued her to be so . . . enticing. Bone blade, blue hair, bulging—cough—buttons on his shirt. Too bad he’s determined to let her rot in the inland prison. She’s got one hope to convince him to let her go—and it just might work out in all their favour.

Captain Rune Ahren, siren prince by blood, bounty hunter by choice, knows the routine. He’s caught his prey, and she wants to bargain. Except—this time—it’s a deal he can’t refuse. Lethally gorgeous and armed with a razor sharp tongue, the woman’s got more violence in her than a sea wyrm. It’s all he can do to focus on the task at hand, waiting for the moment she tries to kill him. Again.

One map, four keys, a deadly secret, and this vicious, monster-laden sea . . . But the greatest threat may just be the viper in his bed.

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My Review

This Vicious Sea is a standalone pirate/siren adventure romance story, and I was here for it! It has dual POV between the pirate FMC Odelia (Odi) Ivor and the bounty hunter MMC Rune Ahren, who is a siren prince.

I always like getting to see both points of view in books like this (enemies, to allies, to lovers), and the authors did a great job of showing how each of the two main characters dealt with their internal conflict and their reactions to each other.

The pace was pretty quick to start with, but then slowed a little before picking up again. There were parts that slowed throughout, but that never detracted from the story – instead, it added a brief reprieve before more action happened.

Both main characters were well fleshed out with interesting personalities and intriguing backstories. (Ps I could totally read a prequel regarding Odi, as I liked her backstory the most).

I would have liked to see more of Rune’s family life. I almost felt sad it was a standalone because I wanted them to visit the Siren world. 🙂

I really liked how Rune was not the typical dark, angry, brooding male character that seems to be in almost every book these days. He is quick, charming, intelligent and a little vicious, which works well. Also, the idea of long blue hair – nice! 😀

The plot was definitely strong with the romance element, but the treasure hunt adventure part was not left to languish too far in the background. There are stakes in the form of unknown dangers and traps (of course, you can’t have treasure hunting without traps), threats from villains (eg. Odi’s ruthless pirate father).

I liked the side characters we got to meet, especially Otto, who almost instantly captures your heart. The more we learn about him… he could have had his own mini spin-off novella.

The world-building is good. The locations, which are mostly the ship, the islands looking for treasure, and just the odd inn, mean we don’t get extensive world-building, but I think for the story it works well enough, especially for a standalone story.

A quick mention on the cover – GORGEOUS. I don’t often like books with characters on them as I like to imagine the characters myself, but this is the exception, the artwork, style and colour just really grabbed my attention and I love it.

Overall, an excellent read that I couldn’t stop reading. I love books that make it impossible to put down (even when I have to get up early the next day). This has got me right back into wanting to read more pirate stories.

My rating:

Visit the authors linktrees

Sarah C Davies

Megan G Mossgrove

Happy reading

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