Sea Fiction

Seventeen-year-old Akane has everything she could ever want: friends, a boyfriend, and an all-round perfect life. No one knows that her every move is a calculated performance, dictated by a compulsive need to be liked. Her flawless act is disrupted when she meets a man named Ai, who looks and sounds exactly like the protagonist of Akane's favorite novel. Can this be a coincidence? And if not, what does it mean? From Yoru Sumino, bestselling author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, comes this ensemble drama of fragile hearts and intersecting fates.

His enemies stole the woman who claimed his soul. They betrayed him out of greed and desire for the crown, but they won't die for that betrayal. No. They'll die for touching her. His heart belongs to a stunning little bird. He will never stop searching for her light across the skies. Not until the blood of his enemies spills at her feet, and his queen wears their bones around her neck.

A rip roaring high seas adventure set in Elizabethan England when dashing privateers known as sea hawks banded together to guard their country and their queen against the Invincible Armada being amassed by Spain. Simon Dante, the Pirate Wolf, meets his match in battle and in love when he crosses swords with Isabeau Spence. Together, they join forces with Sir Francis Drake on a daring attack on Cadiz.

“Sharks are as timid as rabbits,” says a superintendent of the Coast Guard, dismissing the possibility that a shark could be the culprit in an unprecedented fatal attack at the Jersey Shore. It’s July, and swimming in the sea is a popular new pastime, but people up and down the East Coast are shocked and mystified by the swimmer’s death. A prominent surgeon at the shore, Dr. Edwin Halsey is the one who examines the victim, and the only one who believes the perpetrator was a shark—and that it will strike again.

When Humphrey Van Weyden finds himself struggling in the freezing waters of San Francisco Bay, he thinks the worst that can happen to him is drowning. After he is rescued by the Ghost and its captain, Wolf Larson, Humphrey discovers that there are fates far worse than death. On Larsen's hell-ship, the dilettante hero is forced to slave as cabin boy and humble seaman. And over the seven months' voyage to the sealing grounds off Siberia, he engages in an epic duel with his ruthlessly Nietzschean skipper.

More than one hundred years after Columbus blundered onto Hispaniola, the West Indies are held in Spain's iron fist, and no threat to that absolute rule is tolerated. But such total control cannot last, and one threat will emerge as the most dangerous of all: the buccaneers. Camped on the shore of Hispaniola, these half-wild men eke out a living hunting the island's feral livestock. Among them, Jean-Baptiste LeBoeuf lives out his exile, content that no one in the hunters' camp is curious about his past. But when a hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean, it upends their rough existence.

When the Duke and Duchess of Kent and their daughter—the future Queen Victoria—rent neighboring Woolbrook Cottage for the winter, the Summers sisters are called upon to host three of the royal family’s male staff in their seaside house. But they soon realize they’ve invited secrets and intrigue into their home. Meanwhile, Emily Summers longs to become an author. A local publisher offers to consider her novel if she will first write a Sidmouth guidebook for him. Emily agrees and begins researching the area with help from the Duke of Kent’s handsome private secretary.

Abbakka Chowta never expected to be queen. The Porcugi—giant half-men, half-snakes who attack from the sea—haven't been seen in Ullal since their failed invasion more than fifty years ago. But now, they're back with vengeance and a choice: pay their tithes or suffer total devastation. Soon, Abbakka's definitions of strength, subterfuge, and statecraft are put to the test. Will marriage to a neighboring king give her the resources she needs to protect her people... or will she watch her homeland be crushed beneath the waves of would-be colonizers?

The hero of The Pilot - modeled on John Paul Jones - leads the American Navy in dangerous raids on the English coast. James Fenimore Cooper's fourth novel, published in 1823, helped start the genre of sea novels. Cooper's other major works include the renowned Leatherstocking Tales: The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prarie, The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer.

Nestled into the cliffs in southern Italy's Amalfi coast, Positano is an artist's vision, with rows of brightly hued houses perched above the sea and picturesque staircases meandering up and down the hillside. Santina, still a striking woman despite old age and the illness that saps her last strength, is spending her final days at her home, Villa San Vito. The magnificent 18th-century palazzo is very different from the tiny house in which she grew up. And as she decides its fate, she must confront the choices that led her here so long ago.

Enid Blyton's much-loved classic series, packed full of adventure and mystery. A mysterious trip to the desolate northen isles leads to another exciting adventure for Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann and Jack. Bill is kidnapped, and the children are marooned far from the mainland. Will they rescue Bill...

It was her talent for tracking magic that got Anna Zhdanov sent to catch a thief. A scholar's daughter sold as a bond servant, she has no desire to recover the Emperor's jewel for herself. But a chance to earn her freedom has driven her to the untamed Eddalyon province, awash with warm breezes, lapping waves, and more danger than she could possibly guess. Within days her cover as an indolent noblewoman is in question, and it's clear there's more to Anna's task than she knows.

Accompanied by Princess Shalliceres, Haruka sets out for the capital—and rescues the crown prince from an ambush along the way! Meanwhile, the city falls under the control of the second prince in a coup d'etat backed by the Merchant Kingdom. Haruka is determined to break through the capital's defenses, but he'll have to get past the Merchant Kingdom's trump card: the Seven Swords. Does this loner stand a chance against the world's mightiest magic swordsman?

In 1937, seventeen-year-old Ella’s life changes forever when she is sent to spend the summer on the beautiful Île de Ré and meets the charismatic, creative Christophe. They spend the summer together, exploring the island’s sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, and, for the first time in her life, Ella feels truly free. But the outbreak of war casts everything in a new light. Ella is forced to return to Scotland, where she volunteers for the war effort alongside the dashing Angus. In this new world, Ella feels herself drifting further and further from who she was on the Île de Ré.

Fiona Clayburn is one lucky girl. Not only does she have a job she loves, working with fine art at Gallery Roche, but she's also managed to catch the eye of one of the most desired bachelors around—Giles, son of the Earl of Bancroft—and they're madly in love. Well, that's what everyone thinks, anyway. Little do they know it's all but a ruse to help the pair achieve their individual dreams and goals. After all, Fiona couldn't have possibly melted the Icy Scion's heart...right?

H.M.S. Surprise, the third in O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin series, follows the variable fortunes of Captain Jack Aubrey's career in Nelson's navy, as he attempts to hold his ground against admirals, colleagues, and the enemy, and accepts a commission to convey a British ambassador to the East Indies. The voyage leads him and his friend Stephen Maturin to the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and through the archipelago of Spice Islands where the French have a near-overwhelming local superiority.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them. The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

Three people set out to research a large unknown sea animal that turns out to be an advanced submarine roaming the ocean. The three find the vessel and are taken aboard but are not allowed off since the captain does not want to be discovered. The three manage to escape after the captain becomes despondent and allows the craft to be caught in a whirlpool.

War is coming. With the reappearance of the Tuatha De, the countryside is thrown into chaos. Entire villages have been obliterated. Magic users are suffering persecution along with the Faie, leaving droves of refuges to wait outside the gates of the great cities, hoping for the acceptance that will never come. After a brief reunion with her companions, Finn is stolen away during the night by an unseen foe. Lost and alone, she must put her trust in a stranger if she hopes to reach Migris alive. Yet, nothing is as it seems, and those she trusts most may be the ones to betray her.

Brought to you by Penguin. For over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of civilization. David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean, from the erection of temples on Malta around 3500 BC to modern tourism. Ranging...