Fantasy is 100% my favorite genre, but I enjoy dabbling in locked-room mysteries and Voyage of the Damned was a perfect combination of the two! The main character, Ganymedes, is truly the unlikeliest of heroes and I loved him for that, even if his personality was a little grating (he was doing it on purpose, so I forgive him!). The author did an exceptional job juggling 12 very distinct characters and their magical abilities and I was kept guessing basically up until the big reveal. Overall, I’m very impressed and would love to read more books in this vein!

I ordered myself a fancy Waterstones exclusive edition with the fancy gold and edges and all of the things.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the ARC.

(3.5 stars rounded up)

Dee is one of the Blessed and on a boat ride to a ceremony to celebrate all the Blessed (kids with special powers to help their country). People start dying and secrets start coming out. This book has a somewhat complicated magic system and honestly it was a little hard to follow combined with the numerous provinces, powers, province animal/character name (used interchangeably), and their hair colors (that supposedly tell you where people are from). I couldn’t decide if I like Dee and his sarcasm, jokes and relationship with some of the Blessed, or hated him and his obsession with food, constant drama and weirdly being turned on by things in weird situations. I enjoyed the murder-mystery aspect (a la “And Then There Were None” but with superpowers) but some parts of the backstory and lore of this magic situation were just a little hard to follow. A bit of the romance felt super rushed and like Dee just would fall in love with anyone, but that made sense later. I think that relationship was maybe the most interesting aspect of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley & Frances White for allowing me to read and review this!

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one. I was super intrigued by the premise, it seemed like a really fun twist on a closed-room (ship?) murder mystery. However, I had a really difficult time relating to the writing style and characters. Although marketed as more of an adult novel, to me it read more middle-grade. I felt as though the characters lacked depth and I felt more apathy and annoyance to them rather than interest and care, despite the variety of ages and backgrounds. The lore was super well developed and it's clear that a lot of effort was put into creating this world, each providence and the history behind each.
Although I seem to not be the target audience for this novel, I can see it being a great fit for a large variety of readers.

I didn’t particularly like the last 15% or so (the big reveal, the final twist, the villain speech, etc) and none of the characters really felt like people except for Dee and Grasshopper. But I liked the messy politics and picking sides and who was more important and Dee. Dee gave the story heart with his humor, his genuine goodness, and yes even his self loathing. I think this book could have benefited from having the characters interact together more either in a group or directly one on one with Dee instead of all his deductions coming from flashbacks. Also the hair colors as sole and definitive indicator of what providence the characters were from felt kinda tacky

I landed on a middle of the road grade for Voyage of the Damned by Frances White, because there were 5 star aspects but also 1 start aspects. I enjoyed the very tongue in cheek writing, which lent a lot of humor to the story and made me love the MC and his little sidekicks. 5 stars for Grasshopper and Dumpling! And I thought there were some really interesting concepts in terms of the world and magic. Sadly though, these things weren't explored and I had too many unanswered questions in terms of the world building.

Although I love a locked door who dun it mystery, this one was too long without much happening. I was invested once I was in - which took awhile as the writing skews very young, not adult - but it did get awfully repetitive in the middle, with too much being quickly resolved at the end. But without giving me all the answers I was hoping for. The main murder plot was resolved, but I wanted so much to know what happened next with the surviving characters and their world! Which was only given a couple ending pages.

“Voyage of the damned” is a unique fantasy journey with magical characters and murder mystery themes. Sounds like a random concoction to throw together but somehow it works.

I will say that this book takes a little while to get into, and reads more like a YA novel, however once you push past the first bit the rest of the ride is pretty enjoyable.

What drew me to this book was the reference to Agatha Christie’s whodunnit style of writing, although there are similar themes, there is also lots of humour in this book so it is not one to take too seriously.

My overall thoughts are I did enjoy this book. I do think it could have benefited from some extra editing to tighten things up a little, maybe dropping a few characters to keep from confusing the reader with all that was going on. Nevertheless I recommend giving this one a go as you will likely have a fun time reading.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Fances White and NetGalley for the EARC!

Publish date: August 20th

I was such a huge fan of Agatha Christie when I was younger (I still am today), so reading a fantasy murder mystery was a lot of fun for me! I love anything fantasy related, so I ate this up.

This was an enjoyable read and I had a hard time putting this down!

This book was categorized as fantasy, but the fantasy world did not seem well researched with a lot of flaws in the timelines. This book did not seem like an adult fantasy and it fell a little flat for me.

3.5 but I am rounding up.
The amount of main characters in this book really threw me.
It became a bit hard to keep track of I’m not going to lie.
It had a lot of humor, but also a lot of plot.
While the world building isn’t the most complex I have read, and it did take me a LOT to get into the book at the beginning, it was entertaining and I loved the body positivity in it.
I don’t think this fits in the target audience of older readers, as it feels far more YA, yes there are a few “bad words” and some romantic situations, it’s definitely not a full adult romance novel in my opinion.
All in all it was an ok read, I think it’s a good starting point but the writing can definitely be a bit more complex, and instead of over explaining menial details, the world building could use a lot more focus.

For a murder mystery book, this sure was a fun and whimsical read. I found Dee to be absolutely delightful, especially his relationship with Grasshopper. Man did I love Grasshopper. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed with how many characters there were, but I quickly got to know each of them (and this isn't REALLY a spoiler, because murder mystery, but the body count definitely helped me keep track of who was who) and they all had distinct personalities and goals.

I loved the sense of humor that was prevalent throughout the book, even if I do think it detracted from the... I guess maturity of the cast? I kept forgetting most of the characters were late 20s to early 30s. Definitely not a YA book, but also not adult fantasy. Maybe adult-lite. Overall, I flew through this and thoroughly enjoyed myself the entire time.

Yikes, I DNFed this one real quick. This book should have been pitched as a Middle Grade. The main character was super annoying, throwing finger guns on the first page was a choice. It also felt like the setting switched between a 21st century contemporary and a medieval fantasy, sometimes within the same page. We have magical brightly colored ancestral hair and a medieval monarchy, but we see them eat hot dogs and poutine? That took me right out of the story.

I see some reviewers have enjoyed this book. If you don’t mind a wacky fun plot, this book may be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for this ARC.

I absolutely adored this book!

A murder mystery in a fantasy world where our main character is a fish out of water (pun intended) and even though he doesn’t fit in, does everything he can to save his fellow passengers and solve the mystery.

I don’t want to spoil things so I’ll try to keep things vague as possible. First, Dee is a wonderful character. He’s just a good person and seeing his motivation to be good override his fear of his secret being found out is so well done. He’s easy to root for!

The rest of the cast I won’t mention to try and keep things spoiler free but I did love the rest of them too!

The twists in this book were excellent. There were a few times where I put down the book and said, “Well that one got me!” That’s the fun thing about a mystery in a magical world, anything can happen!

A great read, and a satisfying end that left me smiling and wanting to hug each of the characters. So much heart went into this book, and I felt the love for the story and characters on every single page.

Wow. This book was a goddamned DELIGHT.

"Gay magical murder cruise" is a pretty accurate pitch tbh, but it doesn't really capture how much *more* there is to this book. (I cannot adequately express the depths of my desire for a dragon servant named Dumpling.)

It's written in the POV of Ganymedes ("Dee") Piscero, aka Fish, aka Pissfish, who has instantly become one of my favorite protagonists ever: he's the reluctant heir to an unimportant fishing province who masks both his innate kindness and his self-loathing in irreverent clownishness. He's chubby, anxious, imperfect, and 100% relatable -- the kind of hero the world could use more of.

I won't rehash the plot here, but suffice to say that the worldbuilding is rich and fascinating, the characters are diverse and all highly distinctive, and the pacing is relentless in the best possible way. A genre-blending smorgasbord, *Voyage of the Damned* somehow manages to be hilarious and poignant and sad and bloody and kind and triumphant and cathartic all at once. It's what you'd get if you threw Agatha Christie and Terry Pratchett into a blender, with perhaps a dash of The Goblin Emperor and some Legends & Lattes for good measure.

Frances White has pulled off a masterful debut and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Short Synopsis:
Dee is one of the Blessed…or at least he’s pretending to be. In Concordia, the land is broken up into 12 provinces, and each province is led by a Blessed - a person gifted with magic from their goddess. The 12 blessed are on a boat to their sacred mountain. But then bodies start piling up.

My Thoughts:
This was a fun read. Mysteries and settings on boats, normally aren’t my cup of tea. But this was fun. Dee is funny and quirky and lovable.

But the real star of the show is 6-year-old Grasshopper. She was the cutest.

I found this to be a bit on the longer side, but the character growth, the mystery and plot was excellent.

Read if You Like:
🛥️ Locked Room Mysteries
🛥️ Blend of Genres
🛥️ LGBTQIA Rep
🛥️ Body Positivity
🛥️ Magic
🛥️ Friends to lovers

𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺 • 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺 • 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 • 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘳

This one surprised me so much! I don’t know why I thought it was going to be a pirates story, which I do also like, but which this very much was not. I think it was Illumicrate’s beautiful endpapers of the Dragon’s Dawn [not pirate] ship that got me confused.

I would class Voyage of the Damned as a light fantasy novel, with a very easy to grok system of magic. But it’s more than that because it’s also a Mystery/Thriller whodunnit story in the style of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Just make it far, far less serious ☠️😂.

If whimsical, dry humor, sarcasm, slow burn light queer romance, or murder mystery is your thing, you are going to want to pick up this book. Honestly Frances White had me at the dedication page: “𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨.” 🥹🫶

The main character Dee is such a kind hearted, humble soul who for his whole life has been taught he was worthless... so when he’s suddenly stuck on a ship with an incredibly eclectic cast of characters of course no one sees him as either a threat or a strong ally, other than the other “weaker” crew members. The plot of the book centers around figuring out what magical powers each of the 12 passengers has and also who is killing everyone before Dee bites the dust himself. I’ll just say that there were things I saw coming, but most of it I was wrong about. At one point or another I think I suspected everyone. 🤣

I just loved this story. It brought my two loves of locked room murder mysteries and fantasies together in the best package. As Dee’s backstory got revealed bit by bit I wanted to cry for him! He felt unloved, unwanted, and was so sick of lying… and so sick of living.

This was funny, full of heart, diverse!!!! and the characters were lovable.

A murder mystery to the nth degree with many fantastical twists and turns. Highly recommend!

The vibes: Whodunnit, LGBTQ, body positivity, Death on the Nile, Knives out, and a little bit of Hunger Games? I’ll explain.

TW: fatphobia, suicide

This was fun! I was perpetually behind on this buddy read but I had a good time. I think it’s important to go into this one knowing it’s fantasy with modern speech (I know that bothers some people) and more on the YA side in tone, but hornier. The world building has some flaws, but just don’t take it too seriously haha. The main character is Dee- clever, funny, and deeply underestimated. He has a good heart, and wants to solve murders, despite the prejudice he receives from the people around him. He celebrates his soft body in the face of judgement and fatphobia. Dee’s personality alone makes me want to continue the series! (EDIT: nvm, it’s a standalone 😂) The characters and costumes remind me *visually* of the main citadel in Hunger Games, with all the colorful hair and clothes. The characters are also from different provinces, bringing their own secrets, plots. There’s a lot of hate between higher and lower provinces, secret magical powers, and pretty much everyone is suspicious.

One of the main themes I enjoyed in this book is finding that sense of belonging and self-worth. It’s somehow a murderous and cozy book 🧐 If you want a light-hearted, fantasy-murder mystery, this one’s for you!

This was such a fun read! Murder mystery cruise? Sign me up! Except, I want the game edition not the in real life version 😆 Dee was so relatable - a chubby slacker who loves food?? It Me. He was a good person at heart despite being looked down on by others, and trying to figure out whodunit without a blessing to protect him was no small feat. However, throw in a potential love interest and a cute little girl with colorful hair and you have the perfect murder mystery solving team. I loved that this book had found family, lgbtq+ and body positive representation. The story was hilarious especially because of Dee's witty personality. This was a wonderful debut novel by Frances White and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next! Also, this book is now available in North America so preorder your copy!

What an absolute delight this book was! The Dragon’s Dawn sets sail with the heirs of the 12 different provinces aboard for the Festival of the Blessing. Each heir has a special, secret, magical ability called a Blessing and this festival is supposed to help them celebrate their differences while also uniting them. Until people start being murdered.

A locked door murder mystery on a ship full of blessed heirs with various magical abilities. Full of witty banter, puns, and jokes. This novel touches on SO MANY themes… complicated families, found families, class, discrimination, love, hate, loyalty, betrayal, friendships, insecurities. We get representation of mental health issues, physical disabilities and limitations, LGBTQI+, racial diversity, and so many different shapes, sizes, and physical traits.

You will fall in love with these characters and be so invested in their wellbeing. You’ll be left guessing whodunit until the very end.
I just loved it.