KELL WOODS Upon A Starlit Tide. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley

Kell Woods blends history, folklore and fairytales in her second novel set on the French coast in eighteenth-century Saint Malo.

I know what it is to cry and have no one but the sea there to listen.

Lucinde de Leon has always loved the sea. Whenever she can, she sneaks away from her stifling, if privileged and pampered, life as the daughter of a wealthy shipowner in eighteenth-century Saint Malo to the freedom of her secret sea-cave. Guarded by a nearby tide crone, a faerie woman who strikes fear into everyone else, that one stretch of shore has always been Luce’s safe haven. There, her friend Samuel, an English smuggler, teaches Luce to sail, and she doesn’t have to try to be so prim and proper all the time. This tenuous sense of independence can’t last forever, of course. Privately, she nurses a dream of disguising herself as a man and signing up as a sailor to make her fortune in her own right, instead of relying on an advantageous marriage, like her two sisters.

But after Luce rescues a shipwrecked sailor from drowning, she is taken in by his charm. As a result, she is shown the darker side of Saint Malo and its wealthy families; a side that her influential father had always managed to shield her from. As old secrets finally come to light and the distant battles with England seem to come closer and closer to Saint Malo, Luce must decide if there is anyone she can trust.

Lucinde is clever, thoughtful and brave and it’s a pleasure seeing the world from her perspective. She is very attached to her family and her homeland, despite being looked down on much of the time, whether directly or indirectly, because of her disability – a problem with her feet that makes it difficult for her to walk for long or wear normal shoes. This story is full of engaging, three-dimensional characters and the family dynamics are very well thought out and convincing.

Jean-Baptiste was watching her, grey eyes twinkling through a veil of smoke. ‘Don’t tell me you, too, have fallen under our handsome guest’s spell? Veronique has already come knocking: “Would you like a cup of chocolate, Papa?” Charlotte, too, tried her luck – she brought oranges. Of course, I told them nothing.’ He chuckled. ‘Do not look at me like that, mon trésor. I know it was cruel of me. But oh, the expressions on their faces …’

This story has a lot to say about the timeless tragedy of sisters competing with each other and destroying their relationship with envy. That said, it’s not all dark either. There is also enough humorous family drama to delight any Jane Austen fan:

Preparations for the ball began swiftly and with violence. It came as no surprise to anyone that Veronique and Charlotte both coveted the same piece of fashionable Rose Pompadour silk taffeta for their ball gowns. The malouiniére became a battlefield, filled with shouting and tears, professions of life-long hatred, promises of eternal vengeance … Fashion dolls dressed in miniature ball gowns lay like fallen soldiers among ribbons, rosettes and lace. Luce picked them up whenever she passed, straightening their little gowns, fixing their tiny wigs. The brave and glorious dead.

Upon A Starlit Tide really sweeps the reader off into the decadence and beauty of the 1700s French aristocracy only, so very gently, to make us feel guilty for enjoying a spectacle that was always built on suffering. The difficult lives of the servants and the poor of the time is mentioned in passing a few times, as it’s just not something that Lucinde really gets to see in her sheltered upbringing. The faeries, who are steadily leaving, however, are quite successfully used as a metaphor for humanity’s spectacular ability to mistreat both each other and the natural world:

Luce walked on, browsing a lifetime’s worth of collecting, from countless trading voyages and privateering runs. Oh, to visit such places! To see such wonders alive, and whole. She could not deny that the sight of them, lifeless and still, filled her with an aching sadness. It was, after all, a collection of death, of wild and beautiful creatures stolen from their lives and fixed with hook and pin.

Woods skilfully weaves both classic and less well known fairytales into something wonderful and new. The twist on Cinderella is delightful – the handsome prince type doesn’t get the keepsake you might expect after the ball.

There’s also a lot of historical detail in with the magic and folklore that enhances the story. Sailor superstitions that are absolutely bonkers are always a good laugh, even in this tale where some of them are perhaps well founded.

This is a fantastic standalone read for lovers of fantasy and historical fiction alike. But most of all, Upon A Starlit Tide is a beautiful tale about the things we do for love.

Kell Woods Upon A Starlit Tide HarperVoyager 2025 PB 448pp $34.99

Amelia Dudley has degrees in plant biology. But despite spending a lot of time in the garden, her plants still occasionally die.

You can buy Upon A Starlit Tide from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW.

You can also check if it is available from Newtown Library.

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Tags: Australian fiction, Australian women writers, Australian writers, fairytales, fantasy, folklore, historical fantasy, St Malo