Pasha the Storm

by Linda H. Codega

Moby-Dick meets The Bone Shard Daughter in this swashbuckling queer fantasy adventure packed with piracy, political intrigue, and the eternal souls of the drowned, for fans of The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi and Black Sun. 

An exiled pirate queen hunts a killer whale on the high seas, while caught between a power-hungry empress and a revolutionary conspiring to end her reign . . .

Pasha the Northern Storm was once the most infamous Meridian pirate who ever sailed the sister oceans. Now, a decade into her exile, Pasha’s afterlife is being held hostage by Atle, an absurdly attractive noble who knows far too much about pirate magic—but not enough about sailing to realize how dangerous Pasha really is.

Minister Atle Itaavar is duty-bound to serve the Kingdom of Garda, but as Queen Thivaldís gathers support for her ambitions of empire, Atle turns to treason to stop her. In order to destroy the Queen’s new necromantic navy, Atle plans to steal the Queen’s flagship, kidnap a washed-up pirate to sail it, and track down a legendary killer whale to bring it down. 

But the hunt for the great undying whale drags Pasha, Atle, and the crew of the Dog into a cosmic reckoning as they face threats from ghosts and gods alike—and the Queen of Garda is close behind.

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Lesbian, Pirates, Adult, LGBT, Fiction

554 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2026

Reviews

[Jae Xuân (brief hiatus ~ travel) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for this pirate's tale about Pasha, the horny & crass dyke aunty who is somehow kinda an asshole and also kinda a charmer. She's infamous and the most powerful badass magical pirate the high SEAS 🌊 ever did SEE! 👀

(Sorry.)

This is for anyone who wants a fun read about a super horned up 50+ year old lesbian MC who uses humor as a defense mechanism to avoid her feelings, but is forced to lower those walls when confronting the long shadows of her past.

You can expect:
- high sea & storm adventures. gun fights. sword fights! (not a euphemism)
- betrayal (so much betrayal)
- monarchy & anarchy
- court politics
- lots and lots of grief
- ghost pirates
- a gigantic eldritch creature of the deep sea
- magical powers connected to natural elements of the ocean, wind and weather systems
- a beautifully explained, spiritual- and cultural-based magic system
- painful family tensions
- a slow burn romance that is also somehow predated with the most sex talk you've (probably) ever read

Sometimes it can get cringey with the over-the-top horniness, but other times, you're treated to some of the most beautiful prose. We contain multitudes.

Pasha the Storm comes out on Tues June 30th. The audiobook is highly recommended!

Thank you to Netgalley, RBmedia and the author for this advanced copy.

[BookishKB]

🌊🐋 Pasha the Storm 🐋🌊

📖 Bookish Thoughts

A queer pirate fantasy adventure?! Yes, please!
Full ARC Review to come!

⚓ What to Expect
• Epic Fantasy
• Pirate Adventure
• Queer Fantasy
• Political Intrigue
• Ghosts and Gods
_ _ _

📅 Pub Date: June 30, 2026
Thank you to RBmedia, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy.

[Pujashree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reasons I didn't DNF this even though I was tempted to:
1. C.L. Clark loved this.
2. I had the rare gift of ebook and audiobook ARCs from Netgalley.
3. This had the combined vibes of the Amina Al-Sirafi books and the recent Moby Dick retelling by Alexis Hall, Hell's Heart, which I loved for its worldbuilding.
4. I was on a cruise through the Norwegian fjords and it felt... appropriate.
All of these elements make for a great start and setup with an incredibly charismatic main character who, like Amina, is an older pirate captain, but a very flirty and cocky lesbian. Enter a nonbinary but femme coded colonial official on some misguided nautical quest, where some truly Pirates of the Caribbean level absurd shenanigans ensue, reducing Pasha to a Jack Sparrow type chaos demon with questionable actual skills to back up her legend. Except characters keep coming in and out telling us how legendary she is. Meanwhile all we see is her lusting after the handsome minister, who at one point literally enslaves her by mutilating her for some kind of ship magic. Then suddenly the POVs shift to the actual evil megalomaniac queen who is also just terrible at keeping work and horniness separate, and ends up having zero character growth, making for a very superfluous POV. And honestly at that point, even the chapter opening worldbuilding infodumping couldn't make me care about any of these people because what is even the point of this? Are you trying to tell a fantastical pirate story with subversive anti-colonial themes (like the baseline of every passable pirate story) or are you trying to show off your worldbuilding or just line up action pieces one after another with sexual tension as glue for ALL the POVs? I'm not against horny pirates, believe me, especially if they're queer, very much the opposite. But you gotta make the narrative around it feel worth it. And for me, at least, I could never figure out where the emotional core is supposed to be, or why we should care.
This really shouldn't have been the slog it was but I was determined not to DNF yet another highly anticipated book, and the narration was pretty decent. I legit fell asleep through big chunks of it and somehow it didn't matter where I picked it up, there was the same set of plot happenings were repeating. Someone/something is attacking the ship, Pasha does something, then Atle has feelings about what Pasha did, Pasha makes a very explicit sexual pass at Atle, Atle doth protest too insincerely, elsewhere something is going on with Pasha's son and his poycule vaguely related to Pasha/Atle's quest that has THEIR horny knickers in a twist, and even more elsewhere, the Queen is politicking and trying to find/murder Pasha/Atle delegation. This just goes on an on and as far as we can tell continues in some way or fashion even after the end of the book. I imagine this would work well in a visual and episodic medium, but ugh, this needed way more editing and limited POVs to work as a text narrative.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I love pirates and pirate stories, there's been a tendency the last decade or so to have them be a bit sanitized. Pasha, our dirtbag dyke auntie of a main character, spits in the face of that, and takes us for a hell of a ride while she's at it. We get a noble lady (Atle) who uses her approximate knowledge of pirates and their magic to bind Pasha to her cause, but has no sense of how dangerous she really is, as we discover through the story. We have the larger threat of an empress building an navy based on necromancy as Atle tries to use Pasha to stop her, but they end up being dragged into a wider cosmological reckoning as they try to hunt an undying whale and bring down a budding empire while they're at it. Codega mentioned on Bluesky that they very specifically did anti-tropes (in the sense that they looked up common tropes from the last decade or so of pirate media and made very deliberate choices in opposition to them) in her characterization of the pirates in this, and it's incredibly well done. I'm impressed by the ballsiness of the ending, also. Pirates, politics, dirtbag horned up lesbians, gods, there's so much here, and you'll love all of it. This comes out at the end of June; pre order it now!

[Ashley]

This is SUCH a pivot from her first book, I'm interested for that alone. But also, pirates.

[elina · Rating 3 out of 5]

while the first half or so was truly fun & exciting (just imagine it: a grieving bisexual woman in her 50s whos a sexy pirate on an adventure, what more could u want), this book in its whole feels more like the 2nd book of a trilogy where enough has seemingly been explained to the reader already & the real culmination is yet to come.

initially, the world was very exciting to me: sea mythology, an empire (?), various cultures & histories which were relayed in some detail through snippet chapters in between the plot. but then i was halfway through and the magic system still had not been fully explained (eikons were explained completely only in the Discussion Questions chapter at the end of the book; i still dont know what 'foil' means in the world of the book). it was constantly so overwhelming. i didnt know why i had to read about some boardgame from a snippet chapter. another time, far later in the book i would realise that some 2-page snippet chapter on pronouns would only explain why an extra (a character's child), who was mentioned about 4 times, was referred to with some specific pronoun. the worldbuilding relayed to us simply wasn't truly purposeful, using up so many pages of the book for no reason. the exposition was simply not there at all, leaving me stumbling in the dark & growing more & more irritated by the chapter that the author hadn't given a guiding light to figure it all out. yes, the audience is always smarter than you think, but we require a path to be that smart.

the characters seemed at first also very exciting . . . and then rather stuck in their personalities . . . and then there were too many of them with here recurring the same problem as with the exposition: it was as if we were expected to know them all already.

the pacing was also rather clunky. it really did feel like only bad shit kept happening; i was as if an undead being beaten by a gigantic storm with no relief. sure, there was a culmination, so the events lead somewhere, but there was no rest really anywhere. every event was important, every event lead to deaths, leading to every event being insignificant, every death being insignificant. there were also suddenly pov chapters of characters whose pov was rather pointless. some things couldve been left mysteries & relayed otherwise. all those pages really could've gone to better use.

i really really wanted to love this. i can love trashy novels, truly, wholly, totally, but it was really quite difficult to enjoy this novel by its end (which i think is reflected by this review too). i think i would have much preferred this if it were the 2nd novel in a trilogy.

[Trigger Warning Database]

Trigger & Content Warnings

Alcoholism
Dismemberment
Emesis
Colonization

[Di · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had everything I thought I'd love..... A pirate adventure, sea magic, political intrigue, dangerous waters, and the promise of epic battles. Unfortunately, it just never fully clicked for me.

The narration by Alyssa Bresnahan was well done, but I struggled to connect with the characters. I needed more depth and stronger character development to stay invested. It reminded me a lot of Emily Rath's writing style in the Tuonela Duet + The Puking Books, and I know there's a huge audience that loves that style, so this could do well. It just isn't quite enough for me. I need to truly care about the characters and feel like there's a bigger emotional payoff.

Pasha definitely gave me Captain Jack Sparrow energy at times, which was fun. 😂 But I kept waiting for those massive, unforgettable fantasy moments. Give me the epic battles. Give me the ride-or-die crew. Give me the Thirteen... but on the water. 🌊

🎧 Narrator: Alyssa Bresnahan listened at x 1.25 speed

Thank you to RBmedia, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for this ALC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pirates, adventure, the high seas, Magic, sword fights, OH MY!

This book was SO much fun! Pasha completely stole the show for me. She’s bold, chaotic, fearless, and such a refreshing main character. I also loved having an older FMC in her 50s—it was such a nice change of pace.

The world-building was vivid, the magic system was fresh and unique, and every page felt like a new adventure. This book was action-packed, exciting, and full of heart. I couldn’t get enough of it!

If you’re looking for a swashbuckling pirate fantasy with a fantastic characters, unique magic, and nonstop adventure, definitely add this one to your TBR!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Erewhon Books for the advanced copy!

[Amelia L · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love pirates i love old lesbians i love horny evil women i love weird complicated fantasy and i loved this book! truly this felt like it was lowkey written for me in some ways…
the center of this book is pasha, who can simply be described as a dpmilf (dirtbag pirate… well u know the rest). she’s left the life on the high seas behind after a disastrous final voyage but she’s dragged back to it on what seems like a fool’s voyage to, essentially, kill a god. the romance and other character dynamics in this book were SO excellently done, i especially loved pasha and matvei’s dynamic.
pasha is SUCH a likeable mc even though she sucks so bad (true for multiple characters in this book). the magic system and world are super fascinating, and i’m hopeful for more books since i feel like i only started to grasp the details at the end. the book is structured with in-universe ephemera between chapters, which help to build out the elaborate historical and divine context that the book is set in (because much like other books i love like the locked tomb and ninefox gambit, pasha the storm really throws you into the world and magic and politics without much hand-holding). my only criticisms of the book were that i wished i read it in a physical copy (which is just the facts of having an arc, and i might reread it when it comes out) and that the Dog’s crew was a lot of fun characters and i wanted more of them. overall though i adored this book and had so much fun with it.
thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the advanced reader’s copy!

[jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Creator Collective for approving this ARC because wow... what an absolute gift this turned out to be. I finished it just in time before release and now my only job is to become unbearably annoying about it until everyone else reads it too. Because this is one of my new all-time favorite books. No exaggeration.

If someone asked me what this book is about, I could tell them there’s piracy, political intrigue, gods, ghosts, necromancy, immortal whales, revolutionary plots, impossible magic, cosmic horror, and one of the funniest, horniest, most chaotic casts I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. But somehow that still wouldn’t explain what actually makes this book so special because it has that rare kind of confidence where it knows exactly what it wants to be from page one.

The opening throws you directly into the middle of this world with almost no hand-holding. Usually that would overwhelm me, but here it honestly became one of my favorite parts of the experience. You’re dropped into unfamiliar terminology, strange customs, pirate magic, politics, histories that everyone else already seems to know, and somehow instead of feeling lost, you slowly begin to swim. You aren’t learning the world from a textbook, but living inside it.

Sometimes you’re confused, sometimes you’re absolutely certain you missed something. Then twenty chapters later something clicks into place and you suddenly realize that seemingly random detail from earlier mattered all along and I absolutely adored that. The world feels impossibly old, impossibly lived in like every coastline has centuries of stories buried underneath it. And then there are the little archival pieces after chapter propers like letters, poems, research excerpts, historical records, songs, religious texts, the little scraps of culture scattered throughout the novel that initially seem like fascinating flavor until they quietly become another piece of the larger puzzle.

I am such a sucker for books that make the world exist outside the immediate plot and Pasha the Storm does that beautifully. Every page convinced me there were hundreds of years of history happening just outside my field of vision. The atmosphere deserves its own standing ovation too. Everything feels cold, wet, windswept, haunted. Saltwater practically drips off the pages. The imagery is incredible without ever becoming exhausting. I kept highlighting descriptions because Linda H. Codega has this way of making magic feel ancient and sacred one moment before making someone say the funniest, filthiest thing imaginable the next.
Which brings me to perhaps the greatest realization this book forced me to confront.

Apparently... I’m into pirates now??? This genuinely came as a surprise to me.
I was never the pirate kid growing up. Pirate stories never really grabbed me before. Then along comes this fifty-something disaster lesbian pirate queen who’s foul-mouthed, stubborn, terrifying, deeply emotional beneath all the bluster and somehow still manages to be one of the coolest protagonists I’ve ever read. Well. Consider me converted. Pasha is magnificent. She’s messy in all the best ways. She feels her age without ever feeling diminished by it. She’s experienced, stubborn, funny, deeply flawed, incredibly capable, and constantly wrestling with guilt, grief, legacy, freedom, and survival while also somehow being one of the funniest people in the room. She feels like someone who’s lived several lifetimes already. I loved her. Probably a little too much. Actually... Speaking of loving people too much… I need everyone to understand that I was hopelessly, catastrophically attracted to both Pasha and Atle. Like... What was I supposed to do?! Every interaction between them had me kicking my feet one second and yelling at the ceiling the next. The chemistry is ridiculous. The banter was perfect. The tension was insane. The flirting was absolutely criminal. This book is so unbelievably horny (affectionately, respectfully, enthusiastically) in a way that feels deeply woven into who these characters are. Attraction becomes another language they speak, another battlefield, another joke, another vulnerability. It’s sexy, funny, awkward, sincere and it works.
(And while we’re here... I absolutely pictured Atle as Emma D’Arcy the entire time. No one can take that away from me.)

Every single member of the cast also feels like a real person. Even characters who don’t spend nearly as much time on the page leave lasting impressions. Nobody exists simply to fill space. Everyone has history, everyone has motivations, and everyone feels connected to the larger world. I especially found Queen Thivaldís fascinating. She’s the kind of antagonist who becomes increasingly compelling the more you learn about her. I loved how much complexity the story allowed her to have without softening the horror of what she represents.

The action deserves praise too because this book moves. When things start happening... They really start happening. It somehow manages to be relentlessly entertaining without sacrificing emotional weight because whenever the quieter moments arrive, they hit. REALLY HARD. Underneath all the swashbuckling spectacle is a story that’s deeply interested in grief, family, faith, chosen homes, identity, aging, legacy, freedom and what people owe each other after impossible losses. Those moments caught me completely off guard and I think that’s part of why this book affected me as much as it did. It never settles for being just one thing. It’s hilarious, then heartbreaking, then terrifying, then unbelievably romantic, then weird, then philosophical, then someone says something so absurd I laughed out loud, then suddenly I’m staring at the page having an existential crisis.

And of course I also have to talk about the writing itself. It’s phenomenal. Rich without being inaccessible. Poetic without losing momentum. The prose trusts you. It never talks down to the reader. Instead, it invites you to rise to meet it. That’s something I always appreciate. By the end, I felt like I’d traveled through an entire civilization. Like I’d listened to centuries of folklore passed down between sailors, like I’d stepped onto a ship that existed long before page one and would continue sailing long after the final page. That’s a difficult feeling to create. This book somehow manages it effortlessly.

I honestly hope Pasha the Storm gets every ounce of attention it deserves because I truly believe it’s something special. It’s bold, wildly imaginative, funny, deeply queer in ways that feel joyful and lived in rather than performative, emotionally devastating when it wants to be, full of unforgettable characters, trusts its readers, takes risks. Most importantly, it never feels like it’s trying to imitate anyone else. It feels entirely, gloriously itself.

(Also... To my fellow lesbian MILF enthusiasts.
Possibly even GILF enthusiasts. I see you. This one’s for us.)

Pasha the Storm releases June 30, so if you’re reading this before or around release day, please do yourself a favor and pick it up. SERIOUSLY. I want everyone to experience the chaos of being thrown headfirst into this world, falling in love with impossible pirates, laughing at the ridiculous banter, getting emotionally sucker-punched when you least expect it and eventually looking up from the final page wondering how a book managed to be so funny, so strange, so horny, so epic, and so heartbreakingly beautiful all at once.
I believed I was opening another fantasy novel. Instead, I accidentally found one of my favorite books.
And I don’t think I'll be leaving these seas anytime soon.

[Nina van der Kooij · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

I had a lot of fun with this book. An older female pirate who spent the past 10 years in hiding on land is kidnapped by a non binary minister, and blackmailed into sailing their ship to go kill a mythical whale.

Pasha was a lot of fun as a main character. She's in her late fifties, and used to be a very famous pirate before her ship sank, which she was not supposed to survive as its captain. Nowadays, she claims she's getting too old for these things, but at the same time, she's convinced she's still got it. She's quite vulgar, and tries to flirt her way out of everything, which I found quite charming, especially with an older female main character.

The other main character with an occassional POV was Atle, a minister. The synopsis lays out their motivation, but I think that might get a bit too spoilery. What's important to know is they're the one to kidnap Pasha and hatch the plan to have her sail to kill that whale. There's something of an enemies to lovers romance between Atle and Pasha, and I think the biggest thing to keep in mind here is the massive age gap. While Pasha is in her late fifties, Atle is in their mid twenties, and this age gap is emphasized a lot.

The book is a fun pirate adventure, but also goes a bit deeper into the politics behind this, between the pirates and their republic and the kingdom of Garda, where Atle is from. There's also a couple of chapters from the POV of the Garda queen, not all of which I thought were as necessary.

Not everything in the world building was entirely clear to me, but there was an interesting magic system that was supposed to be known only to the pirates, as well as a plot that revolves around a change coming into this magic system and what Pasha and Atle are going to do about this. I found the reveals about what exactly the mythical whale they're hunting is quite interesting.

The last occassional POV character is a pirate with a special connection to Pasha, but this character shows up later, so I won't spoil who.

Would recommend to people who like pirate adventures and old lady protagonists

[rebeccareads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Pasha the Storm - a rollicking queer high seas adventure that doesn't slow or bore for a single moment.

Pasha herself is a delight, a breath of fresh salty air, a beautifully crass balm against the sea of Mary Sues. She’s brash and angry and grimy, loud and unkempt and just absolutely, relentlessly horny. She surely takes up all the space, sucks out all the air, in a room, and not necessarily in a good way. She’s a force and a menace and honestly pretty fucking annoying, and I adore her completely. I want to be her, or be with her, or be adopted by her; I’m not quite sure which.

Thivaldís is her worthy opponent, strong and capable and deeply unimpressed with the bullshit of everyone around her, and I was obsessed with her too from the moment she shoved a man’s face into her crotch. Atle, Pasha's romantic interest and foil, is more familiar, a cold, closed-off queer with more imperiousness in their little finger than even Queen Thivaldís has in her whole body. Atle may be sharply intelligent, well-dressed, and impeccably groomed, but also is incredibly out of their depth, and only gradually becomes aware of it. I’ve read and loved this character many times over by this point in my queer SFF reading journey, but that’s okay. They’re an archetype for a reason, and Codega handles it with aplomb. Most other archetypes go straight into the incinerator, though, and that's one of the best things about Pasha the Storm.

I'd eat this up as an epic, expensive TV series, and would love to read further adventures about Pasha and the crew of the Dog. More, please!

Narrator Alyssa Bresnahan does a great job with Pasha, and with distinguishing the voices of the large cast. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for both the ALC and ARC!

[⁺˚*༓☾ ness ☽༓*˚⁺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ★ — The novel follows Pasha the Northern Storm, an exiled pirate queen who is dragged out of hiding when the revolutionary minister Atle Itaavar seeks her out for an important quest. Their goal is simple: steal a royal warship and cross vast oceans to find a legendary killer whale capable of destroying a powerful necromantic fleet. But they need Pasha to do any of it. It's a premise that promises swashbuckling adventures, political upheaval, and cosmic horror in equal measure, and it completely delivers on that front.

Codega excels at making the world feel vast, strange, and old. The oceans are not mere stretches of water between destinations, but places haunted by history, myth, and things far older than the characters themselves. I was so invested in the world-building and genuinely excited to learn more about Meridian, the Kingdom of Garda, and the Sister Oceans.

Atle Itaavar emerged as the book's most interesting character almost by default. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that Pasha, the titular character, seems determined to undermine both Atle and the story as a whole. She's written as a lovable disaster: crude, reckless, selfish, and proudly unconcerned with social expectations. The problem is that the novel never seems interested in interrogating those traits or allowing her to grow beyond them. What is intended as roguish charm gradually curdles into irritation. Scene after scene is dominated by the same amalgamation of bravado, performative irreverence, and unbridled flirtatiousness that walks the line of consent. Nowhere is that more apparent than in her relationship with Atle. Their dynamic is clearly intended to build romantic tension from the start, but it all landed awkwardly for me. I found myself wishing it would just stop, or that Pasha would redirect her attention to literally anyone else.

What's frustrating is how close the book comes to greatness. The ingredients are all there: revolutionary politics, necromantic warfare, ancient gods, curses, and some genuinely stunning imagery. I was hooked! And I can easily imagine another version of this novel, one where Pasha is a bit more tolerable, becoming one of my favorite fantasy reads of the year.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review.

Pasha the Storm by Linda H. Codega, narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan, was an enjoyable fantasy audiobook with a memorable lead character and an outstanding narration.

The story took a little while to find its footing for me. After a slower start, it picked up with some exciting action, but there were a few sections where the pacing slowed again, and I found myself having to push through those quieter moments. Despite that, I was glad I stuck with it because the ending was intriguing and left me feeling like there was much more of Pasha's story still to tell.

The narration by Alyssa Bresnahan was a definite highlight of the audiobook. Pasha's voice immediately stood out from the rest of the cast in the best way. It carried the weight and wisdom of someone who had lived a long and complicated life, making the character feel distinct from the very beginning. Bresnahan also did an impressive job giving each character their own recognizable voice. I especially appreciated how naturally she handled the male characters, giving each one a unique sound without ever pulling me out of the story.

While the pacing wasn't always consistent for me, the strong narration, interesting world, and compelling ending made this a worthwhile listen. I would happily recommend it to fantasy fans who enjoy character-driven stories and don't mind a slower burn that builds toward an intriguing conclusion.

Overall, this was a solid 4-star audiobook, and Alyssa Bresnahan's performance was one of the standout aspects of the experience.

[Kimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pasha the Storm is a delightful, unabashedly queer, sexy, yet complex romp across the high seas. Her world spills out before us in bits and pieces that coalesce over time into a richly constructed tapestry. I especially loved the epigraphs of each chapter: quotes from interviews, research, myths, notes, diaries, all hinting to a world much larger than what we see. Queer and nonbinary identities are structured into the world in a way that fans of T. Kingfisher will recognize and enjoy. I remain fully intrigued by the unique magic system of foils and eikons. We rotate between primarily the POVs of Pasha and Minister Atle, the insurgent member of the royal famiy, and Thivaldís, the tyrant queen, with a few others sprinkled in. Thivaldís is wonderfully devious in that I found myself sympathizing with her in the beginning. I absolutely adored Pasha, at the best and worst of her charming jackassery, although my favorite character was probably Matvei. Despite being over 500 pages, this book is tightly paced all the way through and sails right by, without stopping to baby the reader, which I appreciated. It's also deeply apparent that Codega knows and loves sailing, which greatly enriches my impression of Pasha the expert sailor. If you wanted to call this romantasy, it would certainly be romantasy at its best, with flirtation and political intrigue interwoven in a net that will carry you along.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

[numbatreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook review: Pasha The Storm by Linda H. Codega

Narrator: Alyssa Bresnahan

Vibes: 🌊🏴‍☠️🫍

Thanks to Netgalley and RB Media for the free ALC.

(4.5 stars rounded up)

This was a rip-roaring adventure from the first minute to the last with the coolest (crassest, horniest, potentially most annoying) protagonist ever. Pasha the Northern Storm is a little like Jack Sparrow, if Jack Sparrow were a 59 year old, one-eyed, wise-cracking, ruthless, grimy yet charismatic lesbian Pirate Queen.

The story is both unique and action-packed. I will admit rewinding the audiobook on numerous occasions to catch something I missed! The worldbuilding is incredible, with magical ships, complicated Gods, and expansion-bent colonialists. All of the POV characters are multifaceted and extremely flawed but incredibly enjoying to read about!

There were a couple of things I wasn't totally enamoured with, like the large age gap in the romance and the little snippets at the start of each chapter that I didn't feel added much to the story. But overall this was a really cool, really different sort of read. I will definitely keep an eye out for anything else the author writes in this world!

Alyssa Bresnahan does such an incredible job with the audiobook narration. Her dry delivery, especially of Pasha's POV chapters, was absolutely perfect. Highly recommend!

Pub date: 30 June 2026

[Mila · Rating 3 out of 5]

"That buys us... two more days? Three if we are exceptionally competent at incompetence?"

3.5☆|5

If you're looking for a lesbian pirate fantasy with complex worldbuilding, then this could definitely do it for you!

Codega is really good at creating complex worlds, and even though this was quite different from their debut, it worked really well. As I was diving through the pages of this novel, I truly felt lost at sea alongside Pasha and Atle.

Regarding the characters, while I really liked Atle, who was an intriguing and well-constructed character, I had more trouble appreciating Pasha, our main character. She's a lesbian pirate in her late fifties, and while she was definitely a disaster on purpose, she was a bit too crude for me. In the same way, because of her insistence, the romance felt a bit forced and not my cup of tea.

I feel like the main assets of this novel were the universe and its magic, as well as the plot, which unfolded quite well! The pacing was also really nice, and the novel ends up being an enjoyable read.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an e-ARC, if you are looking for a pirate-centered fantasy novel with a queer cast and mature humor, I'd recommend giving it a try!

[Alena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pasha the Storm was an enjoyable fantasy adventure that kept me engaged from beginning to end. The world-building was intriguing, and I enjoyed learning more about the characters and the challenges they faced throughout the story. There was a nice balance of action, magic, and character development that kept the plot moving while still allowing time for the emotional moments to land.

One of my favorite aspects of the book was watching the characters grow as they faced difficult choices and unexpected obstacles. The story had plenty of twists and moments that kept me curious about what would happen next. While there were a few areas where I would have liked a little more depth or development, I still found myself invested in the journey and eager to see how everything would unfold.

Overall, Pasha the Storm was a solid 4-star read for me. It delivered an entertaining fantasy adventure with memorable characters, an engaging world, and enough intrigue to keep me turning the pages. I would definitely be interested in reading more from this world in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me listen to this audio book

[Shea Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you for the Goodreads Giveaway.

I loved how different this book was compared to most pirate books. It was a fun book and I loved the diverse characters within it. I enjoyed the world building and the descriptions of what was happening within each page. I enjoyed the magic system, which is part of what made me want to enter the Giveaway. However, there were parts I was absolutely in love with and got lost in the pages and other times some of it just fell short. One example would be the inserts. I understand why there were there, but they didn't really add anything. And I often times got confused with which side character was who until almost the end of the book. It might have been personally that there were too many characters. And since we are on characters, I loved Pasha and Atle....absolutely hated Thildavis. She was just a boring character overall, wasn't in the story much, and I didn't see the relevance in her being a part of the story as an almost main character.

I give this a 2.5/5. If you enjoy older MC, fantasy, and pirates, this may be the book for you. Even with my rating, I would still give it a read if interested!

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over, Jack Sparrow! There’s a new pirate in town.

All summer long I’ve been craving a pirate story that is akin to Pirates of the Caribbean—a fun, fast-paced adventure that is funny and a little devastating—and I finally found it in Pasha the Storm. Codega’s novel is a rich tapestry of phenomenal world-building, a unique magic system that is cool af, and a cast of loveable characters who I was sad to leave—I even loved the queen. I think Pasha might just be my favourite book character of all time. She had me howling with laughter with her sassy banter and shameless flirting, and she is one fearsome old lady.

If you’re looking for high fantasy with a dash of spice, this is it. I can’t recommend this book enough, and I am desperate for a sequel. It might just be my book of the year. Pasha the Storm is now available wherever you purchase books.

A big thank you to Michelle at @kensingtonbooks for sending me an ARC of Pasha the Storm and for putting this incredible book on my radar.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A high fantasy pirate adventure, Pasha the Storm is a hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, romp through icy Norse inspired seas as the eponymous hero attempts to hunt a legendary magical sea monster. I particularly liked the author’s facility with language and attention to detail (the archaicisms support the setting and I was pleased I wasn’t being “written down to”) as well as the way gender is presented, which is still sadly rare in traditional publishing. The latter, along with the fantasy intrigue reminded me very positively of Alexandra Rowland’ A Taste of Gold and Iron which I think fans will appreciate. Fans may also recognize the same streak of dizzyingly swoony fucked up romance as in Interview with the Vampire (after all the author is in the writer’s room). Overall an excellent read with the narrative turns of a Norse saga.

[Loreweaver · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually wait to DNF until at least 20% so I can confirm that this isn't a fit for me. But this one started out rough and got to a strange moment that had to call it. I liked that the protagonist was a woman in her 50s with a lot of lived experience. That was destroyed straight away when she was kidnapped, her finger was cut off, and she was magically bound into service. Then, she actively lusted over and flirted with the person who had that done to her. I still continued because the text noted how absurd it was. But then another character was dealing with a political issue and the person she was talking to randomly started going down on her while she continued talking over the issue. I don't know if this was meant to be comedic, but it made it impossible to take the story seriously.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Sofie Tamsin]

I'm soooooo sad, because of how truly excited I was for this book. I thought it was going to be a gayer Amina Al-Sirafi- and was expecting it to be another of my all-time-favorites, just like Amina. Unfortunately, I really hate the writing and I just can't enjoy Pasha's perspective. About 50% of her supposed "badassery" is actually just her being kind of a sexual predator? That plus the (20-30yr?) age gap between her Atle really put me off. I understand that Atle is the one who kidnapped her and all that, but I am personally much less comfortable reading about sexual violence than I am other kinds, especially when I am supposed to like the perpetrator as a character. I don't think this is a 100% bad book, I think someone could absolutely love it. At the end of the day, it's a pirate story. It just really was not for me.

[Franny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very slow paced for me and I had to pause multiple times. I loved the fact that Pasha is an older main character at 59 years old, which I appreciate because I haven’t read a lot with older main characters. I did like that it’s LGBTQ+ and it had its own pronouns, but there were times where I was very confused when it came to Minister Atle and some of the other characters. There are multiple POVs throughout the book. Even though Alyssa Bresnahan did a great job narrating this, there were too many times I was lost as to which character was speaking or which POV I was in.

I was intrigued because it was different than dragons and shifters, but this was a 2.5/5 stars for me.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for this ALC.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is brimming with wonderful diversity, and for that alone I’d give it five stars! Our protagonist is older, queer, funny, strong, clever, and so many other things! It’s wonderful to see this in a fantasy, and the plot here was good, touching upon different challenges related to the premise (e.g., colonization) while being ripe with adventure. I always love a good pirate story, but wondered if we could have gotten some of the info via scenes vs. exposition and perhaps (IMO) a tad less spice. That said, I’m glad I won a finished hardback copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway and was happy to see Pasha confront her demons out on the sea (and in her heart!). A cool magic system also helped elevate this read for me!

[tillie hellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked but didn’t love this, enjoyed but don’t feel that impacted by it. it had interesting and original worldbuilding, tho i wanted more in some ways. mostly funny, sometimes the jokes didn’t hit tho. a little too horny and the largest age gap i’ve ever read (a 24 yr old and a 60 yr old!), tho i did mostly enjoy their dynamic and it was hot. def filling a sapphic pirate need and also felt very much like a, this is a novel early in an author’s career and i bet the next one will be even better! like there’s a lot of good stuff going on but maybe it needs to be pulled together a little more? loved the crazy fucked up women tho, except i felt like there was like an excessiveeeee amount of misogyny from the other characters. like sooooo many anti women slurs being thrown around

[Marthe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pasha is a rough-and-tumble kind of gal, with more lewd comments and obscenities than you can imagine. Her playfulness in moments of sheer danger is unmatched with anything I have read before. Yet that’s the reason this book wasn’t my jam. It almost felt like a caricature. I missed depth in her character. The other characters had some more depth to them. There were four perspectives throughout the book, it was a bit much for me. There was a lot of world building, at the end of each chapter, I read it all but it did not click for me what the added value was. It seemed like random information. The story itself is what the book promised: political intrigue, ships and swashbuckling, and a tiny bit of spicy romance.

[Friday Strout · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

Easily my favorite book of the year. I read this over the span of a few weeks and I found myself drawn back to its siren call whenever I had a quiet moment in my schedule. This book is charming, funny, and exciting.

The magic is incredibly interesting. There are so many elements of the worldbuilding that I loved and I felt like I continuously wanted to know more. The POV characters are all interesting in their own ways. It's just a perfect fantasy read to me and I am really hoping Lin writes a sequel.

This is the type of book I'm gonna tell all of my friends about.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

** I won a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. **

I.... 'liked' this book. I loved the diversity and the characters and the magic system and the pirate angle. I extremely disliked the little inserts. So much I ended up skipping them. They didn't really add anything to the story (my opinion obviously). And there was so much... telling and description and while some of it worked perfectly, some of it just dragged me out of the story. I think if it had been a bit shorter and some of the needless details removed (along with those inserts), I would have really loved this book. However, I did enjoy it just enough to check out what else this author might write in the future.