Shipboard settings are a delightful mashup of forced-proximity and neighbor tropes, and the ships themselves can be anywhere – a river, an ocean, space, or the sky! So when it comes to ships, do you prefer yours to set sail or countdown for launch? Here’s a handy quiz to help you decide!
Would You Rather… A shipboard romance challenge!
Would you rather salute:
Space’s finest female captains:
- Hunt the Stars by Jesse Mihalik
- Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair
- Lord of the Storm by Justine Davis
- Kinsman’s Oath by Susan Krinard
OR
Historical lady officers?
- The Iron Rose by Marsha Canham
- Almost a Scandal by Elizabeth Essex
Would you rather discover your shipboard lover is
Secretly your fiancé?
- Beast by Judith Ivory
OR
Secretly the major deity of your religion?
- An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair
Would you rather watch a traumatized hero set sail with
A princess on the run?
- Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale
OR
A failed psychic?
- Sweet Starfire by Jayne Ann Krentz
Would you rather see a YA romance on…
A quest for mysterious potentially-alien artifacts?
- Navigating the Stars by Maria V Snyder
OR
A cruise on the Mediterranean?
- One True Loves by Elise Bryant
Would you rather watch the hero rescue the heroine from
An alien race violating treaties of non-contact with humans?
- Class 5 (series) by Michelle Diener
OR
Himself, a pirate out for revenge?
- The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley
OR, Steampunk bonus!
Airship pirate kidnappers trying to extort a ransom from her wealthy brother?
- The Kraken King by Meljean Brook
Would you rather see the protagonists manage superior officers who are
Drunk and derelict in their duty?
- A Scandal To Remember by Elizabeth Essex
OR
Giving orders that are woefully immoral?
- Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell
Would you rather see your lead embark with
An experienced sailor?
- Float Plan by Trish Doller
OR
A fraud?
- His Compass by Con Riley
(Neither of those is on a spaceship, you say? Well, you get what you pay for…)
So what’s your final choice for this Setting Smackdown? Would You Rather a spaceship or a ship on the water? Or do you ship all the ships, as long as they’re relation-ships? (Ugh, I made it to the last sentence before I did that.) Let us know in the comments!
Our previous Setting Smackdowns:
I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.
Mostly none of the above. Sweet Starfire by Krentz is ok, but not one of her best.
In traditional romance, I mostly read Regency and Georgian books, and I don’t particularly find shipboard life then romantic. Even when there is a luxurious cabin, mostly decent food, and saltwater baths. My knowledge about sea travel at the time overrides my willingness to succumb to the illusion the author is constructing.
In SF/fantasy, the shipboard story that came to mind was The Ship Who Sang, which is and isn’t a romance, depending on how books in the romance genre are defined. Anne McCaffrey hadd an interesting plot for those characters.
I remembered a book I read a few years ago by Lori Wick “Wings of the Morning” pretty sweet old school christian romance the heroine is a captain of a ship. I remember her suffering quite a bit throughout the book.
I like the author but I don’t recommend it if you don’t usually read Christian romance or you like but the less “preachy” or heavy versions Lori LOVES Biblical quotations.
Darlene Marshall has a number of shipborne romances, but my absolute favorite is The Pirate’s Secret Baby—it lives up to the promise of its title.
I really like all the Class 5 stories and Sinclair’s An Accidental Goddess. I also liked Hunt the Stars, Ocean’s Echo, and Meljean Brook’s version of steampunk, though not as much.
The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber is the first book I thought of when trying to recall titles beyond those you listed, but mostly for an early scene. It is SF (with a number of really nasty villain scenes) with a romance thread, not genre romance, but the hero pulls the heroine out of the middle of the Atlantic near the beginning. For a finest female captain list, the straight SF Honor Harrington series by David Weber would be my pick, but there is only a little romance.
Dianne Duvall has recently extended her Immortal Guardians series into interstellar SFR I have enjoyed, all at least partly in starships.
N. J. Walters also has interstellar SFR at least partly in starships.
I am currently reading, which I promise to review, a batshit crazy shipboard romance called Sea of Ruin. It is SOMETHING. It has the least believable female pirate captain on the planet. I can’t wait to share my thoughts about it.
When I think of shipboard romances, my mind automatically goes back to 1984 and Laura London’s The Windflower. It had all the elements: pirates, American and British history, a swashbuckling travel romance on the high seas, a sweet love story, and amazing secondary characters. It’s one book that I wish had a sequel just so I could read more about the adventures of Cat and Captain Rand.
That was an amazing book, and I think it has held up better than many of that era. I don’t think of it as a shipboard romance, however. The scenes that stuck in my mind were on shore, such as the “white oak cheese” discussion or the scene on the beach where Cat comments on the contents of the ocean.
Cat is one character I wish I could requisition a story for. Kevin Renfrew, from the Company of Rogues books by Jo Beverley is another. I wish Susan Napier had written the rest of the Marlow stories for Harlequin, and that Elizabeth Lowell had written books for the Donovan twins. But that’s a whole other topic for another day…
When I saw shipboard romance, I immediately thought of Float Plan by Trish Doller. No pirates, just a lovely story of two people falling in love while at sea. I remember enjoying Priceless by Mariah Stewart a lot, which is an older story where the characters are salvaging a shipwreck. The Reef by Nora Roberts has the same theme, of salvagers around a shipwreck but takes place in the Caribbean. Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich only partially takes place at sea but revolves around the theft of a boat and sunken treasure. Spaceship-wise, there is no beating the Class 5 books by Diener. My absolute favorite space romances.
Can’t choose! Nope. I love every Linnea Sinclair book I’ve read. Finders Keepers and Games of Command are both on spaceships, while The Accidental Goddess is on a space station/space port.
Meljean Brooks made good uses of “ships” in her Iron Seas world, whether on airships (Heart of Steel and Riveted on air ships or Kraken King on an ocean going shop) and her worldbuilding is amazing.
Sweet Starfire is one of my absolutely favorite JAK (under whatever penname) books.
I’ll add the historical mm by Alex Beecroft, False Colors. Beecroft writes first and foremost a wonderful historical novel on the lines of Patrick O’Brian. The details of the life of a sailor were incredibly realistic.
Dark Horse didn’t work for me. The only character I enjoyed was Sazo, the AI, although the premise of the book is good. I found Rose to perfect and the pacing slow.
We have 2 B+ grades for Beecroft here – just missed the DIKs!
https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/false-colors-alex-beecroft/
https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/captains-surrender/
Thanks for the links. I haven’t read Captain’s Surrender, but I may pick it up now. I do like this author’s writing, although her historicals can be pretty gritty.