Across the Star-Kissed Sea by Arlem Hawks is a great at-sea adventure and romance. This was a really fun novel to escape into this past week. As with Georgana's Secret, the first book in this series, there is a lot to love about this book. First, it’s non-stop action. As I was reading this book, I was reminded of all the fun movies from the 30s and 40s like Captain Blood, Sea Hawk, and The Spanish Main. The constant action definitely kept me turning pages well into the night. I also enjoyed that as a sequel I got to see many of the main characters from Georgana’s Secret again. It was awesome to see Georgana and Capt. Peyton navigate marriage while dealing with all the issues of being at sea during war with France. I also liked getting to see Etienne again. There is a bit of intrigue with him at the end of this novel. I hope this means a third book in this series is in the future. As far as the main characters go, Elias and May are very realistically drawn. Elias is a wonderful hero, but he’s been so emotionally beat down he can’t see his true value. And his internal voice is heartbreaking. Born from all those who have emotionally beaten him down in his past, Elias’s intrusive thoughts are rough. I wanted so badly to hug him and tell him it was all going to be alright. How he deals with his intrusive thoughts, his lack of confidence, and his fear because of all his past emotional smack-down felt incredibly realistic and made Elias one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever read. I do appreciate how May, with all her life and fire and boisterousness, props Elias up and rehabilitates his confidence levels. I did find their journey to friendship and then to romance believable and charming. But I struggled a bit with May as a heroine. She is SO self-focused and myopic and young and frustrating. And she can get absolutely MEAN. There were some moments I had to walk away from the story because I needed a break from her. She does see the error of her ways and she does grow, which are all good things, but I still struggled with her character as a whole. She didn’t feel very hero-ish to me, and I found it hard to root for her. Mostly, the mom in me wanted to put her in a time out. LOL!

There truly is so much to love about Across the Star-Kissed Sea, and I do heartily recommend this story. If you’re a fan of well-written, well-researched historical romances full of adventures on the high-seas, then this is definitely a story for you!