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A review by megsbookishtwins
The Navigator's Touch by Julia Ember
4.0
Disclaimer: I received this free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
Ragna is a skilled warrior and is on a quest for revenge and to save her home. She was dragged away in the middle of the night, her family murdered, her village destroyed. Now she is back, ready to reclaim her home and free the children who are held captive. However, she only has a mermaid and a disloyal crew to aid her in her mission. She crosses the Northsea in hope of aid from a Jarl in Skjordal. However, the Jarl only sees an inexperienced leader, not quite yet worthy of aid. In order to gain her help, she must gain the respect of the Jarl and also of her own crew.
I read The Seafarer’s Kiss just the other week, and you can read my review here, and I liked it but didn’t love it. But, The Navigator’s Touch is a little bit of an improvement for me. The Navigator’s Touch has a different character as the protagonist than The Seafarer’s Kiss. It follows Ragna, our Viking shieldmaiden, rather than Ersel, our mermaid/human/Kraken.
While The Seafarer’s Kiss was a retelling of The Little Mermaid, The Navigator’s Touch takes inspiration from Peter Pan. Most obviously, Captain Hook as Ragna loses her hand in battle with the man who was responsible for the destruction of her village and her kidnapping and she then replaces it with a Hook and then captains her own ship.
The romance was between Ragna and Ersel was healthier than it was in The Seafarer’s Kiss, and Ragna became aware of how she was treating Ersel as just a weapon to keep her crew in line and to gain favour with other people rather than treating her as a person. The romance wasn’t really much of a focus in The Navigator’s Touch as the story focused more on Ragna and her quest for revenge. The Navigator’s Touch also featured another non-binary character aside from Loki, they are called Aslaug and is the Jarl’s right-hand warrior.
My favourite part of The Navigator’s Touch was both the world-building, as it was very atmospheric, and I also really loved the Norse mythology and how Julia Ember weaved the mythology into the character’s worldview. Ragna was also a fierce and formidable protagonist. What really let me down a bit was the plot and pacing as it went over a lot of what I already knew from the Seafarer’s Kiss and actually repeated some of the stuff that had happened. Because of this, The Navigator’s Touch actually probably could be read on its own if you haven’t yet read The Seafarer’s Kiss.
But other than that, The Navigator’s Touch was a relatively fun read full of mermaids, mythology, and Vikings!
Ragna is a skilled warrior and is on a quest for revenge and to save her home. She was dragged away in the middle of the night, her family murdered, her village destroyed. Now she is back, ready to reclaim her home and free the children who are held captive. However, she only has a mermaid and a disloyal crew to aid her in her mission. She crosses the Northsea in hope of aid from a Jarl in Skjordal. However, the Jarl only sees an inexperienced leader, not quite yet worthy of aid. In order to gain her help, she must gain the respect of the Jarl and also of her own crew.
I read The Seafarer’s Kiss just the other week, and you can read my review here, and I liked it but didn’t love it. But, The Navigator’s Touch is a little bit of an improvement for me. The Navigator’s Touch has a different character as the protagonist than The Seafarer’s Kiss. It follows Ragna, our Viking shieldmaiden, rather than Ersel, our mermaid/human/Kraken.
While The Seafarer’s Kiss was a retelling of The Little Mermaid, The Navigator’s Touch takes inspiration from Peter Pan. Most obviously, Captain Hook as Ragna loses her hand in battle with the man who was responsible for the destruction of her village and her kidnapping and she then replaces it with a Hook and then captains her own ship.
The romance was between Ragna and Ersel was healthier than it was in The Seafarer’s Kiss, and Ragna became aware of how she was treating Ersel as just a weapon to keep her crew in line and to gain favour with other people rather than treating her as a person. The romance wasn’t really much of a focus in The Navigator’s Touch as the story focused more on Ragna and her quest for revenge. The Navigator’s Touch also featured another non-binary character aside from Loki, they are called Aslaug and is the Jarl’s right-hand warrior.
My favourite part of The Navigator’s Touch was both the world-building, as it was very atmospheric, and I also really loved the Norse mythology and how Julia Ember weaved the mythology into the character’s worldview. Ragna was also a fierce and formidable protagonist. What really let me down a bit was the plot and pacing as it went over a lot of what I already knew from the Seafarer’s Kiss and actually repeated some of the stuff that had happened. Because of this, The Navigator’s Touch actually probably could be read on its own if you haven’t yet read The Seafarer’s Kiss.
But other than that, The Navigator’s Touch was a relatively fun read full of mermaids, mythology, and Vikings!