Book Review: Hunt on Dark Waters
If there’s one thing I’m going to do, it’s fall headfirst into an extended, interconnected Katee Robert storytelling universe. While only loosely connected to their Bloodline Vampire/Deal With a Demon world, Robert’s latest, Hunt on Dark Waters, opens up a whole new storytelling avenue for those of us that matured into loving sexy novels, but never quite put our pirate phases behind us.
The story follows Evelyn, a witch on the run from her angry vampire ex-girlfriend, who falls through a magical portal into Threshold, a realm between the realms governed by the Cŵn Annwn, monster hunters who press all human trespassers into service. Bowen, the captain of the ship that finds Evelyn, lives and dies by the rules of the Cŵn Annwn, even when Evie begins to give him cause to question it all.
Because this is Katee Robert, the love story is underscored throughout with a larger issue at play within the world, one that I suspect will come back into play in subsequent books in the series. The issue itself presents an interesting moral quandary that feels larger in scale than others I’ve seen in their work. If Dark Olympus holds power to account from within the power structure, Hunt on Dark Waters asks a lot of questions from outside the structure, making for a fascinating adventure for Bowen and Evie.
But that is not at all to say that the love story between the two takes a back seat in the book, not in the slightest. They have a snarky-to-lovers dynamic rife with banter, and filled with the kinds of cozy tropes (communication, open affection, body positivity) that I have come to associate with and look forward to in Robert’s work. Their respective magical powers adds a fun, spicy angle to the book’s steamier scenes, and let’s just say if you’re a Star Wars fan who has ever read or used the tag “inappropriate use of the Force” on AO3, you know exactly what you’re getting into here (and it is amazing).
With Hunt on Dark Waters, Robert has kicked off an addictive new romance series with all the hallmarks fans of her work will enjoy while also opening a portal (heh) to an exciting new dimension of storytelling.
Hunt on Dark Waters hits shelves on November 7, 2023. Special thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance copy for review purposes.
