Saint

Elias grew up on the coast of the Narrows, the son of a fisherman who died when he was a boy. His own disregard for the sea's old superstitions cost his father everything. The loss remade him. He now keeps every rite sailors use to calm the sea's temper, and years of surviving storms that killed steadier men have earned him a name along the coast: Saint.

He is close to inheriting his father's dream, a ship, a crew and a trader's license, when a dredger named Isolde crosses his path. She reads gemstones and is fleeing her mother, a powerful merchant who wants her back. She carries a secret Saint cannot see past, and the pull between them tests the faith that has shaped his whole life.

The book is a slow-building fantasy romance, told close on its two leads and heavier on atmosphere than on fights or chases. Superstition and old sea rites shape nearly every decision the characters make, and the prose lingers on the water and the ports rather than rushing between them.

Saint is a prequel to Adrienne Young's Fable duology, following the two people who become Fable's parents long before she is born.