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Sea and Stars
Some songs are worth hearing, no matter the cost.
The Isle of Skye, 1847.
When Arabella Porter, a lonely healer gifted with fairy magic, receives a mysterious letter from the past, she journeys to Mystic, Connecticut in search of the father she has never known. There she crosses paths with James Alden, a handsome shipbuilder whose shadowy history hides secrets of its own.
Both thrown together and kept apart by circumstances beyond their control, James and Arabella must reconcile their forbidden desires for each other with their loyalty to their families, their longing for choice, and their need for freedom. When Arabella’s independence stirs town gossip and suspicion, James must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice to protect her from a past far more dangerous than it seems.
Filled with Gothic imagery and Celtic folklore, Sea and Stars is a slow burn but sensual Beauty and the Beast retelling set in the real world. It is for all those who believe in the transformative power of true love.
The Isle of Skye, 1847.
When Arabella Porter, a lonely healer gifted with fairy magic, receives a mysterious letter from the past, she journeys to Mystic, Connecticut in search of the father she has never known. There she crosses paths with James Alden, a handsome shipbuilder whose shadowy history hides secrets of its own.
Both thrown together and kept apart by circumstances beyond their control, James and Arabella must reconcile their forbidden desires for each other with their loyalty to their families, their longing for choice, and their need for freedom. When Arabella’s independence stirs town gossip and suspicion, James must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice to protect her from a past far more dangerous than it seems.
Filled with Gothic imagery and Celtic folklore, Sea and Stars is a slow burn but sensual Beauty and the Beast retelling set in the real world. It is for all those who believe in the transformative power of true love.
446 pages, Paperback
Published January 19, 2026
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April 26, 2026
Sea and Stars by Kelly Jarvis is a story that lingers long after the final page. It reveals the quiet magic woven into everyday life, while beautifully capturing the tradition of generational craft. The art learned over a lifetime and passed down through the women of the Porter family. This legacy binds Arabella Porter to her island and shapes the choices that led her mother to leave her behind.
When Arabella uncovers the truth about her father’s whereabouts and her mother’s feelings for him, she sets out on a journey for answers.
Thrown into a world far different from her own, Arabella remains grounded by her fiery spirit and unwavering convictions, even as everything she believes is challenged.
Her father’s debts pull her into a new kind of quest, one that tests not only her strength, but her heart. James’s temper meets its match in Arabella’s matriarchal roots, and the two know exactly how to provoke one another. Yet with every clash, a spark ignites into something deeper. Can Arabella mend a broken man without breaking herself in the process?
Step into the pages of this story, and you’ll discover just how strong the Porter women truly are.
When Arabella uncovers the truth about her father’s whereabouts and her mother’s feelings for him, she sets out on a journey for answers.
Thrown into a world far different from her own, Arabella remains grounded by her fiery spirit and unwavering convictions, even as everything she believes is challenged.
Her father’s debts pull her into a new kind of quest, one that tests not only her strength, but her heart. James’s temper meets its match in Arabella’s matriarchal roots, and the two know exactly how to provoke one another. Yet with every clash, a spark ignites into something deeper. Can Arabella mend a broken man without breaking herself in the process?
Step into the pages of this story, and you’ll discover just how strong the Porter women truly are.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Some books transport you.
This one transported me both backward and inward at once, to places that hold real magic in my own life — the Isle of Skye, where I went on a soul pilgrimage last year, to the seafaring New England frame of mind I came to know during the many years I lived on Cape Cod, and the immigrant experience that shapes how a person lives in two countries at once. Kelly Jarvis wove together a constellation of places and atmospheres that resonated deeply with me, bridging my past and present. I'm walking away from this book with a feeling that will linger for a while, as my body and soul slowly metabolize the magic in it.
The magic feeling of this book arrived early for me, as I found myself tethered to the story, like a ship navigating the night seas, and yet anchored to shore. It felt like a longing for it as I went about my day, even as I navigated its pages. My mind felt inhabited by the characters, the place, and the Celtic knotted rhythm of the world Jarvis built, so that pausing to read still left me partly there. This is not something I feel often, so when it happens, I take notice, because I know something deeper is being alchemized inside.
There are many thematic doors into this story: sisterhood; mother-daughter wounds carried across generations; the painful realism of fathers who never become the men their daughters hoped for; and the slow, intricate work of letting go of such an idealization. Each of these threads could carry a whole essay, but the door I felt compelled to walk through, perhaps because of what I am watching unfold in our culture and thinking about in my own work, was the one that opened onto the great severing between men and women that this patriarchal culture has inflicted upon us for millennia.
I felt this sharply, as an eureka moment while reading a scene in James Alden's past, him as a young man on a whaling ship choosing mercy over the kill, and being publicly punished for the tenderness in him. That scene tugged at my heart so hard my eyes welled up. I felt that shameful wound that James suffered, in my own body, as if I had been there. This isn't the only wound he carries; of course, there are others, layered through his upbringing and his losses.
But that scene held something that tugged at me, and as I turned it over and over in between reading, I felt that visceral a-ha moment: patriarchy whips the sensitivity out of men; it makes monsters of them in the eyes of others. It does it early, it does it publicly, and it does it so thoroughly that what remains is often anger or silence dressed as strength. James is mistaken for, and feared as, a monster: the town misreads his isolation and his taciturn nature, and he protects not just himself but what is left of his sensibilities, his unalchemized emotions, behind his overwork. They don't know anything about this man who plays the harp, who tells stories with the presence of a bard, and who carries a sensitivity his world has taught him to keep buried.
It's through Arabella that he begins to tell stories he hasn't told anyone, and as their attraction blossoms into feelings they can no longer hide, he stumbles and wounds her along the way because he hasn't been taught how to express the depth and complexity of those feelings. Thus, their misunderstandings reveal how painful and slow a lesson he has to learn to give voice to his passion in a way that isn't through impatient and volatile anger: the only language many men have to articulate the depth of their feelings.
Arabella comes from a matrilineal line of Skye healers who solved the wound of patriarchy by withdrawing from it entirely: never marrying, raising daughters alone, withholding from those daughters even the knowledge of who their fathers were. Reading her, I kept feeling that her lineage's fierce independence was a healing half-done. Not wrong, not lesser, but protective in a way that kept the masculine permanently outside.
As a healer, Arabella's magic may seem small and even discreet: healing herbs, listening to her environment, and noticing when the threshold veil grows thin, but yet it functions as a catalyst to all who come into contact with her, even if at times she doesn't seem to notice how her quiet presence is undoing long woven threads that will lead to changes beyond anyone's imagining. Her presence is grounded in her awareness of and respect for her power, and she's adamant that, while she may desire, she refuses to belong to a man. Yet, her stubborn refusal to belong made her blind to a third way through, so to me her lineage stood for another example of the same patriarchal severing that runs deep within the culture.
What I kept running through my mind as I immersed myself in this story is how the systems that wound us also script our defensive postures. Men whose tenderness gets beaten underground. Women whose passion gets policed through surveillance dressed as protection. Both lose sovereignty of body and behavior. Both armor up. And the work of finding each other, really finding each other, requires not just sovereignty of self and of choice, though that is the starting point, but the much harder work of letting two sovereignties meet and find a third way of being together that honors both. That is the labor at the heart of this book for me, and what made it so resonant has as much to do with what I am watching now as with what is unfolding in 1847.
By the end of the story, what is born of this union is to me the heart of the whole story. It's not just two people choosing each other across the great severance imposed by the culture with its challenges, wounds, and proud assumptions. But what arrives, this third element, this third way, is something neither armored approaches could have produced on its own. This third thing is made of both, and yet it uniquely belongs to itself. This third is the alchemical answer to the severance wound of patriarchy, and the result of the sacred union, not as theory, but as a new lineage that leads to new possibilities.
I loved this book, and I feel I will be carrying its magic with me for a long while.
This one transported me both backward and inward at once, to places that hold real magic in my own life — the Isle of Skye, where I went on a soul pilgrimage last year, to the seafaring New England frame of mind I came to know during the many years I lived on Cape Cod, and the immigrant experience that shapes how a person lives in two countries at once. Kelly Jarvis wove together a constellation of places and atmospheres that resonated deeply with me, bridging my past and present. I'm walking away from this book with a feeling that will linger for a while, as my body and soul slowly metabolize the magic in it.
The magic feeling of this book arrived early for me, as I found myself tethered to the story, like a ship navigating the night seas, and yet anchored to shore. It felt like a longing for it as I went about my day, even as I navigated its pages. My mind felt inhabited by the characters, the place, and the Celtic knotted rhythm of the world Jarvis built, so that pausing to read still left me partly there. This is not something I feel often, so when it happens, I take notice, because I know something deeper is being alchemized inside.
There are many thematic doors into this story: sisterhood; mother-daughter wounds carried across generations; the painful realism of fathers who never become the men their daughters hoped for; and the slow, intricate work of letting go of such an idealization. Each of these threads could carry a whole essay, but the door I felt compelled to walk through, perhaps because of what I am watching unfold in our culture and thinking about in my own work, was the one that opened onto the great severing between men and women that this patriarchal culture has inflicted upon us for millennia.
I felt this sharply, as an eureka moment while reading a scene in James Alden's past, him as a young man on a whaling ship choosing mercy over the kill, and being publicly punished for the tenderness in him. That scene tugged at my heart so hard my eyes welled up. I felt that shameful wound that James suffered, in my own body, as if I had been there. This isn't the only wound he carries; of course, there are others, layered through his upbringing and his losses.
But that scene held something that tugged at me, and as I turned it over and over in between reading, I felt that visceral a-ha moment: patriarchy whips the sensitivity out of men; it makes monsters of them in the eyes of others. It does it early, it does it publicly, and it does it so thoroughly that what remains is often anger or silence dressed as strength. James is mistaken for, and feared as, a monster: the town misreads his isolation and his taciturn nature, and he protects not just himself but what is left of his sensibilities, his unalchemized emotions, behind his overwork. They don't know anything about this man who plays the harp, who tells stories with the presence of a bard, and who carries a sensitivity his world has taught him to keep buried.
It's through Arabella that he begins to tell stories he hasn't told anyone, and as their attraction blossoms into feelings they can no longer hide, he stumbles and wounds her along the way because he hasn't been taught how to express the depth and complexity of those feelings. Thus, their misunderstandings reveal how painful and slow a lesson he has to learn to give voice to his passion in a way that isn't through impatient and volatile anger: the only language many men have to articulate the depth of their feelings.
Arabella comes from a matrilineal line of Skye healers who solved the wound of patriarchy by withdrawing from it entirely: never marrying, raising daughters alone, withholding from those daughters even the knowledge of who their fathers were. Reading her, I kept feeling that her lineage's fierce independence was a healing half-done. Not wrong, not lesser, but protective in a way that kept the masculine permanently outside.
As a healer, Arabella's magic may seem small and even discreet: healing herbs, listening to her environment, and noticing when the threshold veil grows thin, but yet it functions as a catalyst to all who come into contact with her, even if at times she doesn't seem to notice how her quiet presence is undoing long woven threads that will lead to changes beyond anyone's imagining. Her presence is grounded in her awareness of and respect for her power, and she's adamant that, while she may desire, she refuses to belong to a man. Yet, her stubborn refusal to belong made her blind to a third way through, so to me her lineage stood for another example of the same patriarchal severing that runs deep within the culture.
What I kept running through my mind as I immersed myself in this story is how the systems that wound us also script our defensive postures. Men whose tenderness gets beaten underground. Women whose passion gets policed through surveillance dressed as protection. Both lose sovereignty of body and behavior. Both armor up. And the work of finding each other, really finding each other, requires not just sovereignty of self and of choice, though that is the starting point, but the much harder work of letting two sovereignties meet and find a third way of being together that honors both. That is the labor at the heart of this book for me, and what made it so resonant has as much to do with what I am watching now as with what is unfolding in 1847.
By the end of the story, what is born of this union is to me the heart of the whole story. It's not just two people choosing each other across the great severance imposed by the culture with its challenges, wounds, and proud assumptions. But what arrives, this third element, this third way, is something neither armored approaches could have produced on its own. This third thing is made of both, and yet it uniquely belongs to itself. This third is the alchemical answer to the severance wound of patriarchy, and the result of the sacred union, not as theory, but as a new lineage that leads to new possibilities.
I loved this book, and I feel I will be carrying its magic with me for a long while.
May 5, 2026
Sea and Stars follows Arabella Porter, a healer from the Isle of Skye whose life is split open by a letter from her dead mother, Catherine, naming William Stafford of Mystic, Connecticut as her father. Arabella leaves the moors, the old Porter magic, and the ghostly shelter of her grandmother’s teachings to cross the Atlantic, only to find that America holds not the family romance she imagined, but a harsher inheritance: a cold half-sister, a self-serving father, the buried truth of Catherine’s life, and James Alden, a wounded shipbuilder whose guarded heart becomes one of the book’s deepest mysteries. The novel moves through folklore, historical romance, Gothic unease, and female lineage with a steady fascination for thresholds: between Scotland and America, life and death, duty and desire, enchantment and ordinary courage.
Author Kelly Jarvis writes landscape as if it’s alive. The Isle of Skye isn’t just a setting; it breathes around Arabella, all sea mist, thistle, moor wind, and starlight. I felt the tenderness of the early chapters especially, when Arabella’s healing practice is rendered through small, tactile acts: tea, salves, candles, herbs gathered from difficult ground. The prose can be lavish, but it’s rarely an empty ornament. Its richness suits a story about women who have been taught to read the world symbolically, to find meaning in weather, flowers, wounds, and dreams. I also loved how the book lets magic remain intimate rather than flashy. The healer’s cloak, Catherine’s letters, the solstice ritual, and the veil between worlds all feel less like spectacle than inheritance.
Arabella’s journey begins as a search for a father, but the book is wiser than that premise first suggests. William Stafford’s name promises identity, then curdles into disillusionment, and that reversal gives the novel its moral weight. I was moved by the way Arabella slowly understands that blood alone doesn’t make a home, and that love without accountability can become another kind of prison. Her relationships with Anne, Catherine, Elinor, and James are all shaped by incomplete knowledge, which makes the book feel emotionally true. People inherit stories before they inherit facts. The novel’s strongest passages, for me, are the ones where Arabella stops trying to be claimed by someone else and begins claiming her own power, especially when she becomes the Wise Woman in her mother’s cottage and turns exile into vocation.
Sea and Stars felt to me like a lush, earnest, and feminine novel about choosing which traditions to keep and which ones to cut loose. I found its emotional generosity persuasive. Its conclusion brings the story full circle in a way that feels both romantic and spiritually grounded. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy historical romance with folklore in its bones, Gothic family secrets, strong heroines, sea-haunted settings, and stories about women learning that home can be inherited, built, and bravely reimagined.
Author Kelly Jarvis writes landscape as if it’s alive. The Isle of Skye isn’t just a setting; it breathes around Arabella, all sea mist, thistle, moor wind, and starlight. I felt the tenderness of the early chapters especially, when Arabella’s healing practice is rendered through small, tactile acts: tea, salves, candles, herbs gathered from difficult ground. The prose can be lavish, but it’s rarely an empty ornament. Its richness suits a story about women who have been taught to read the world symbolically, to find meaning in weather, flowers, wounds, and dreams. I also loved how the book lets magic remain intimate rather than flashy. The healer’s cloak, Catherine’s letters, the solstice ritual, and the veil between worlds all feel less like spectacle than inheritance.
Arabella’s journey begins as a search for a father, but the book is wiser than that premise first suggests. William Stafford’s name promises identity, then curdles into disillusionment, and that reversal gives the novel its moral weight. I was moved by the way Arabella slowly understands that blood alone doesn’t make a home, and that love without accountability can become another kind of prison. Her relationships with Anne, Catherine, Elinor, and James are all shaped by incomplete knowledge, which makes the book feel emotionally true. People inherit stories before they inherit facts. The novel’s strongest passages, for me, are the ones where Arabella stops trying to be claimed by someone else and begins claiming her own power, especially when she becomes the Wise Woman in her mother’s cottage and turns exile into vocation.
Sea and Stars felt to me like a lush, earnest, and feminine novel about choosing which traditions to keep and which ones to cut loose. I found its emotional generosity persuasive. Its conclusion brings the story full circle in a way that feels both romantic and spiritually grounded. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy historical romance with folklore in its bones, Gothic family secrets, strong heroines, sea-haunted settings, and stories about women learning that home can be inherited, built, and bravely reimagined.
April 13, 2026
There are books that sweep you away—and then there are books that haunt you long after the final page. This slow-burn historical romance set between the windswept Isle of Skye and the shadowed shores of Mystic, Connecticut, does both with breathtaking ease.
From the very first chapter, the story drips with a gothic seaside atmosphere—crashing waves, mist-laced moors, and grand, timeworn estates hiding more than just age. The dual settings feel alive, bound together by threads of family secrets that unravel at a deliciously agonizing pace. Every revelation feels earned, every mystery layered with just enough magic to keep you questioning what is real and what belongs to the old Celtic whispers that echo through the narrative.
At its heart, this is a Beauty and the Beast-inspired romance—but don’t expect anything predictable. The hero is not simply brooding; he is deeply scarred, shaped by betrayal and legacy, while the heroine is far more than a gentle beauty—she is fierce, perceptive, and unwilling to be tamed by circumstance or expectation. Their relationship begins in sharp-edged conflict, leaning fully into enemies-to-lovers tension that crackles in every interaction. The slow burn is exquisite—glances linger, words cut deep, and when the walls finally begin to crumble, the emotional payoff is as powerful as it is satisfying.
The romance is undeniably steamy, but what makes it compelling is the emotional intensity behind it. Every touch, every moment of closeness feels charged with history, resistance, and longing. It’s not just passion—it’s transformation.
Beyond the central love story, the novel shines in its exploration of found family. Bonds are forged in unlikely places, and the supporting cast adds richness, warmth, and occasional heartbreak. These relationships ground the story, balancing its darker, more gothic elements with moments of genuine connection and hope.
And then there’s the magic—subtle, enchanting, and never overwhelming. A touch of fairy lore and Celtic mysticism weaves through the plot like seafoam, enhancing the sense that something ancient and powerful is guiding these characters toward their fate.
This is more than a romance—it’s an atmospheric, emotional journey filled with forbidden love, buried truths, and the kind of storytelling that wraps around you like a storm. If you love gothic settings, slow-burning tension, and romances that feel both timeless and electric, this is absolutely a must-read.
From the very first chapter, the story drips with a gothic seaside atmosphere—crashing waves, mist-laced moors, and grand, timeworn estates hiding more than just age. The dual settings feel alive, bound together by threads of family secrets that unravel at a deliciously agonizing pace. Every revelation feels earned, every mystery layered with just enough magic to keep you questioning what is real and what belongs to the old Celtic whispers that echo through the narrative.
At its heart, this is a Beauty and the Beast-inspired romance—but don’t expect anything predictable. The hero is not simply brooding; he is deeply scarred, shaped by betrayal and legacy, while the heroine is far more than a gentle beauty—she is fierce, perceptive, and unwilling to be tamed by circumstance or expectation. Their relationship begins in sharp-edged conflict, leaning fully into enemies-to-lovers tension that crackles in every interaction. The slow burn is exquisite—glances linger, words cut deep, and when the walls finally begin to crumble, the emotional payoff is as powerful as it is satisfying.
The romance is undeniably steamy, but what makes it compelling is the emotional intensity behind it. Every touch, every moment of closeness feels charged with history, resistance, and longing. It’s not just passion—it’s transformation.
Beyond the central love story, the novel shines in its exploration of found family. Bonds are forged in unlikely places, and the supporting cast adds richness, warmth, and occasional heartbreak. These relationships ground the story, balancing its darker, more gothic elements with moments of genuine connection and hope.
And then there’s the magic—subtle, enchanting, and never overwhelming. A touch of fairy lore and Celtic mysticism weaves through the plot like seafoam, enhancing the sense that something ancient and powerful is guiding these characters toward their fate.
This is more than a romance—it’s an atmospheric, emotional journey filled with forbidden love, buried truths, and the kind of storytelling that wraps around you like a storm. If you love gothic settings, slow-burning tension, and romances that feel both timeless and electric, this is absolutely a must-read.
April 12, 2026
Sea and Stars, Kelly Jarvis’s new novel. transports the reader from the windswept moors of the Isle of Skye to the riverside village of Mystic, Connecticut, through lush and lyrical storytelling demonstrating alchemic artistry on every page. It is a mesmerizing tale of secrets harbored and exposed, old magic and new love, betrayal and redemption, imaginatively crafted and wonderfully interwoven with literary, folkloric, and geographic references, pure enchantment from beginning to end.
The Porter family’s matriarchal legacy of healing, second sight, and fairy gifts makes its way from the Isle of Skye to New England in the person of the beautiful Arabella Porter, last of her line, on a pilgrimage to unearth her past, unaware of how it will chart her future. On her sea voyage to America, she meets a friend who cautions her that expectations for a single woman in New England are different than those she knew in her homeland.
In Mystic, she encounters prejudice against the practices she has been taught by her grandmother and aunts since girlhood. There she meets James Alden, a sailor and a shipbuilder, and a man with a grief-burdened past and secrets of his own. Due to complicated circumstances, Arabella comes to nurse James’ ailing grandmother in their family home. Even as they live together in a state of mistrust and tension, their attraction to one another becomes undeniable.
As James and Arabella’s fiery natures collide and Arabella uncovers the truth of her past, the weight of their family interconnection and buried grievances threaten to shatter lives beyond even the healing power of the Porter women.
Sea and Stars is tale of the complications and force of family relationships, of matriarchal strength, of political ideologies, of the power of practices and beliefs, of the longing for home, of friendship, of passion and promise, and of romance and love. Powerful storytelling, beautifully crafted, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Thank you, Kelly for the ARC.
The Porter family’s matriarchal legacy of healing, second sight, and fairy gifts makes its way from the Isle of Skye to New England in the person of the beautiful Arabella Porter, last of her line, on a pilgrimage to unearth her past, unaware of how it will chart her future. On her sea voyage to America, she meets a friend who cautions her that expectations for a single woman in New England are different than those she knew in her homeland.
In Mystic, she encounters prejudice against the practices she has been taught by her grandmother and aunts since girlhood. There she meets James Alden, a sailor and a shipbuilder, and a man with a grief-burdened past and secrets of his own. Due to complicated circumstances, Arabella comes to nurse James’ ailing grandmother in their family home. Even as they live together in a state of mistrust and tension, their attraction to one another becomes undeniable.
As James and Arabella’s fiery natures collide and Arabella uncovers the truth of her past, the weight of their family interconnection and buried grievances threaten to shatter lives beyond even the healing power of the Porter women.
Sea and Stars is tale of the complications and force of family relationships, of matriarchal strength, of political ideologies, of the power of practices and beliefs, of the longing for home, of friendship, of passion and promise, and of romance and love. Powerful storytelling, beautifully crafted, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Thank you, Kelly for the ARC.
September 11, 2026
Wow. There are certain books that grab you from the very beginning and simply won’t let go—and this was one of them.
And once I stepped into this story, I was completely there. I loved the wild, windswept atmosphere of the Isle of Skye and how that feeling follows the story across the ocean to Mystic, Connecticut. There was just something about this world that pulled me in.
But what really kept me there were the characters. I absolutely loved our heroine. She is fiercely independent, especially for a woman in 1840s, but underneath that strength is a vulnerability and gentleness I found so endearing. I love a strong woman who doesn’t have to lose her softness in order to be strong. ❤️
And then there is Mr. Alden. Oh, sir. 👀 This is industrial-strength yearning. 😂 He loves her, we KNOW he loves her, but because of who she is and the societal expectations of the time, he refuses to allow himself to believe he can marry her.
So naturally, he fights his feelings with everything he has. It does not go well. And you know he was questioning his life choices when he says this line that absolutely wrecked me:
“I don’t know how to lose her, Jonathan.” 😭
Oh. My. Heart. Sir, I was doing perfectly fine until you decided to say THAT. There are certain lines in books that just reach into your chest and twist—and apparently Kelly Jarvis woke up that morning and chose emotional violence. 😂
I also loved the family story, particularly the unexpected and tender relationship between our heroine and her half sister. I’m so glad the author didn’t take the predictable route there.
I was completely immersed in this book and genuinely did not want it to end. Beautiful writing, complicated family relationships, a heroine who is both strong and gentle…and a man who loves her completely while believing that the world they live in will never allow him to make her his wife.
And really, is there anything more devastating than loving someone and believing you’re not allowed to choose them?
Yeah. This one got me. ❤️
And once I stepped into this story, I was completely there. I loved the wild, windswept atmosphere of the Isle of Skye and how that feeling follows the story across the ocean to Mystic, Connecticut. There was just something about this world that pulled me in.
But what really kept me there were the characters. I absolutely loved our heroine. She is fiercely independent, especially for a woman in 1840s, but underneath that strength is a vulnerability and gentleness I found so endearing. I love a strong woman who doesn’t have to lose her softness in order to be strong. ❤️
And then there is Mr. Alden. Oh, sir. 👀 This is industrial-strength yearning. 😂 He loves her, we KNOW he loves her, but because of who she is and the societal expectations of the time, he refuses to allow himself to believe he can marry her.
So naturally, he fights his feelings with everything he has. It does not go well. And you know he was questioning his life choices when he says this line that absolutely wrecked me:
“I don’t know how to lose her, Jonathan.” 😭
Oh. My. Heart. Sir, I was doing perfectly fine until you decided to say THAT. There are certain lines in books that just reach into your chest and twist—and apparently Kelly Jarvis woke up that morning and chose emotional violence. 😂
I also loved the family story, particularly the unexpected and tender relationship between our heroine and her half sister. I’m so glad the author didn’t take the predictable route there.
I was completely immersed in this book and genuinely did not want it to end. Beautiful writing, complicated family relationships, a heroine who is both strong and gentle…and a man who loves her completely while believing that the world they live in will never allow him to make her his wife.
And really, is there anything more devastating than loving someone and believing you’re not allowed to choose them?
Yeah. This one got me. ❤️
April 14, 2026
Having transported us to Orkney in her debut novella, Kelly Jarvis now carries us first to Skye and then to post-Revolutionary Connecticut, or more specifically the aptly named port of Mystic for this historical romance with a magical element. Arabella, a wise woman and healer on Skye and the last in the line of such wise women, is stirred to seek her father in America when she learns about the deep love her mother bore for him. Her journey across the Atlantic, however, doesn’t throw her into the arms of a loving father - instead, she finds herself traded to James, sailor turned ship builder, as servant, in return for her father’s debts being written off.
If this sounds like a Beauty and the Beast framework, yes, it’s deliberate, and yes, there are lots of roses! James hasn’t been enchanted to be a literal beast, but he has a rough sailor’s temper and a good deal of resentment towards Arabella’s father, while Arabella has been raised to be independent and strong, so they are bound to clash - especially when she disobeys his command to never enter his office (Bluebeard homage).
Sparks fly from both tempers and attraction, and slowly they come together and find love in each others’ arms. But the old enmity between Arabella’s father and James is still unresolved, and the secret in James’s office is about to implode, and it’s only a matter of time before the lovers are thrown into a conflict that seems impossible to resolve.
If you love…enemies to lovers with lots of steam, beautiful settings depicted in luscious prose, ancient Celtic magic and adventures in historical New England, this book is for you!
Thank you, Kelly, for the ARC.
If this sounds like a Beauty and the Beast framework, yes, it’s deliberate, and yes, there are lots of roses! James hasn’t been enchanted to be a literal beast, but he has a rough sailor’s temper and a good deal of resentment towards Arabella’s father, while Arabella has been raised to be independent and strong, so they are bound to clash - especially when she disobeys his command to never enter his office (Bluebeard homage).
Sparks fly from both tempers and attraction, and slowly they come together and find love in each others’ arms. But the old enmity between Arabella’s father and James is still unresolved, and the secret in James’s office is about to implode, and it’s only a matter of time before the lovers are thrown into a conflict that seems impossible to resolve.
If you love…enemies to lovers with lots of steam, beautiful settings depicted in luscious prose, ancient Celtic magic and adventures in historical New England, this book is for you!
Thank you, Kelly, for the ARC.
May 18, 2026
Combine the ingredients--a story of adventure, a romance, a quest…with a delightful protagonist … well-researched historical details of the Scottish Isle of Skye and of mid-19th-c Mystic, CT….and whispers of folklore--and you’ll have a powerful concoction: the book Sea and Stars by Kelly Jarvis. Her readers will enjoy identifying whispers of folklore: Beauty and the Beast, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
As soon as the book begins, readers are drawn to the protagonist, Arabella Porter: her quest, her journey to locate her father, and the people she finds at her voyage’s end. She shows herself to be a determinedly independent woman, a skilled and practical healer, and a visionary romantic. Jarvis’ lush physical descriptions bring alive the setting and characters, from Scotland's northern isle to a terrifying storm at sea to the seaport of Mystic in 1847; from James Alden’s demeanor—menacing? intriguing?—to the heroine’s enchanting appearance.
Rich elements the author wove into the book make Sea and Stars compelling reading. Readers’ engagement begins with caring about Arabella; it burgeons with the story’s building tensions—trust vs secrecy; Old World pagan customs vs the New World Christian strictures; the worlds of the physical vs the unseen; social constraints and a neighborhood feud vs the blossoming physical attraction between Arabella and James. Their romance is sexy without being graphic, discreet without being coy.
Readers who want strong characters, fast-paced adventure and romance in a historical setting, and suspense about the outcome till the last few pages will love Sea and Stars.
As soon as the book begins, readers are drawn to the protagonist, Arabella Porter: her quest, her journey to locate her father, and the people she finds at her voyage’s end. She shows herself to be a determinedly independent woman, a skilled and practical healer, and a visionary romantic. Jarvis’ lush physical descriptions bring alive the setting and characters, from Scotland's northern isle to a terrifying storm at sea to the seaport of Mystic in 1847; from James Alden’s demeanor—menacing? intriguing?—to the heroine’s enchanting appearance.
Rich elements the author wove into the book make Sea and Stars compelling reading. Readers’ engagement begins with caring about Arabella; it burgeons with the story’s building tensions—trust vs secrecy; Old World pagan customs vs the New World Christian strictures; the worlds of the physical vs the unseen; social constraints and a neighborhood feud vs the blossoming physical attraction between Arabella and James. Their romance is sexy without being graphic, discreet without being coy.
Readers who want strong characters, fast-paced adventure and romance in a historical setting, and suspense about the outcome till the last few pages will love Sea and Stars.
July 9, 2026
It is 1847, and Arabella lives on the Isle of Skye. Having been raised by her grandmother Catriona, Arabella has learned the ways of being a healer and what it means to be a strong, independent woman. Upon the death of her grandmother, Arabella receives a mysterious letter that sheds light on her past. Hoping to find the father she’s never met, she soon finds herself on a ship heading towards Mystic, Connecticut.
In Mystic, she meets young shipbuilder named James Alden who is harboring his own secret. The soulful connection between the two is complicated because although they want their independence, they are also deeply connected to the values that have been instilled in them. The people of Mystic grow suspicious of her and her healing ways from Scotland, leading to a rising conflict between the two.
Kelly Jarvis crafted an atmospheric historical novel that was well researched. I was honestly fascinated as I learned parts of Mystic’s history that I didn’t previously know. Although a slow burn, Jarvis’s beautiful prose kept me turning the pages. I especially loved the parallels that ran between both Arabella and James as well as the similar motifs that were threaded throughout the novel. The wise words of both Arabella’s grandmother Caitriona and James’s grandmother Elinor helped both characters stay grounded in their own beliefs while being open to understanding. This propels the ideas of independence balanced with codependence. This novel will appeal to those who enjoy a historical love story, especially since there is a subtle retelling of Beauty and the Beast within its pages.
In Mystic, she meets young shipbuilder named James Alden who is harboring his own secret. The soulful connection between the two is complicated because although they want their independence, they are also deeply connected to the values that have been instilled in them. The people of Mystic grow suspicious of her and her healing ways from Scotland, leading to a rising conflict between the two.
Kelly Jarvis crafted an atmospheric historical novel that was well researched. I was honestly fascinated as I learned parts of Mystic’s history that I didn’t previously know. Although a slow burn, Jarvis’s beautiful prose kept me turning the pages. I especially loved the parallels that ran between both Arabella and James as well as the similar motifs that were threaded throughout the novel. The wise words of both Arabella’s grandmother Caitriona and James’s grandmother Elinor helped both characters stay grounded in their own beliefs while being open to understanding. This propels the ideas of independence balanced with codependence. This novel will appeal to those who enjoy a historical love story, especially since there is a subtle retelling of Beauty and the Beast within its pages.
Review of advance copy received from Author
If you are looking for a stoty that is filled with exciting historical imagery and has the vibes of Beauty and the Beast then Sea and Stars is the story for you! I was absolutely estatic when Kelly reached out to me when Kelly reached out to me and asked if she could send me a early copy of this novel to read! This magical story takes place between the ancient and mysterious Isle of Skye in Scotland and across the sea in the new world of Mystic Connecticut. There is enough mystery, romance, and adventure to keep a reader happy from beginning to end!
We are introduced to Arabella who has never really known much about her actual father. However, a hidden letter from her deceased mother changes that and she soon finds herself on the adventure of the lifetime. But that thrill of adventure soon ends when she discovers that her new family isn't at all that interested in her. Despite the discouraging circumstances Arabella does her best to make the situation positive one of those things includes discovering romance with the mysterious James. But like all great adventures they must come to an end at some point and will this brief dalliance have the ability withstand the hands of time?
We are introduced to Arabella who has never really known much about her actual father. However, a hidden letter from her deceased mother changes that and she soon finds herself on the adventure of the lifetime. But that thrill of adventure soon ends when she discovers that her new family isn't at all that interested in her. Despite the discouraging circumstances Arabella does her best to make the situation positive one of those things includes discovering romance with the mysterious James. But like all great adventures they must come to an end at some point and will this brief dalliance have the ability withstand the hands of time?
September 18, 2026
This beauty and the beast reimagining with a Scottish witchy spin that I completely infatuated with. Laced with magic and celtic folklore that is passed down through the women of each generation, an emotional slow burn historical romance with tension and forbidden love, set in 1847 in the Isle of Skye, gothic atmosphere vibes, a journey across the sea as well as within, a tatted wealthy shipbuilder MC who fights his feelings and an FMC who learns that the truths hidden from her can not only break her but heal her heart.
Beautiful writing that was easy to read and with enchanting descriptors that make you feel the breeze off the sea blowing through your hair. The atmosphere in this story is something that mesmerizes you (in the best of ways) while it showcases the magic of the Scottish Highlands with its beautiful shores, captivating ridgeline and where your soul feels at home. After my visit to Scotland, I have been yearning to get back after I felt like a part of me stayed behind, and this book really helped me feel as if my soul was whole again.
Beautiful writing that was easy to read and with enchanting descriptors that make you feel the breeze off the sea blowing through your hair. The atmosphere in this story is something that mesmerizes you (in the best of ways) while it showcases the magic of the Scottish Highlands with its beautiful shores, captivating ridgeline and where your soul feels at home. After my visit to Scotland, I have been yearning to get back after I felt like a part of me stayed behind, and this book really helped me feel as if my soul was whole again.
April 14, 2026
Absolutely captivating- truly the best novel I’ve read in YEARS. I love the attention to enchanting detail, I love the mystical settings of the Isle of Skye and Mystic, I love the main character Arabella and her strength balanced with openness to love (such a rare mix in a female protagonist but the author absolutely nailed it!)- and the gentle hints of Beauty & the Beast… I can’t imagine a better book. And of course I love James… wow! A bewitching whole-sensory story with hints of fiery passion- absolutely everything I love in a book! Kelly Jarvis has written a one of a kind, exquisite story that will stay in my heart forever… one I will easily re-read again and again!
May 14, 2026
I cannot recommend this book enough. Once I was able to settle down my life enough to read it, I stayed up late nearly every night to finish it. It's heart-warming, endearing, and truly beautiful. If you enjoy historical romances, particularly with a dose of fairy magic, this is one you need to pick up. I'm going to be thinking about it for weeks to come.
May 24, 2026
Sea And Stars enchanted me from the first sentence. Kelly Jarvis' writing is poetic as she creates fantasy worlds set in real ones
Arabella's love story is beautiful yet her inner strength is what bewitched me.
Jarvis has penned a magical tale that combines the chaos of love with the potency of feminism twirled into a captivating read.
Yes - I stayed up way past my bedtime with this one.
Peace.
Arabella's love story is beautiful yet her inner strength is what bewitched me.
Jarvis has penned a magical tale that combines the chaos of love with the potency of feminism twirled into a captivating read.
Yes - I stayed up way past my bedtime with this one.
Peace.
June 6, 2026
Sea and Stars is an engaging novel that combines compelling storytelling with memorable characters and emotional depth.
Kelly Jarvis creates a reading experience that draws readers into the narrative while exploring themes that resonate long after the final page.
Overall, it’s a rewarding read for fiction lovers looking for an immersive and heartfelt story.
Kelly Jarvis creates a reading experience that draws readers into the narrative while exploring themes that resonate long after the final page.
Overall, it’s a rewarding read for fiction lovers looking for an immersive and heartfelt story.
June 22, 2026
Enchanting, engaging, captivating.
I loved this book so much. It is so beautifully written. Do you know how some books you read slower than others because you devour every single word and don’t want it to end? That is this book for me! It’s such a great story and I love the characters.
Looking forward to more from this author.
I loved this book so much. It is so beautifully written. Do you know how some books you read slower than others because you devour every single word and don’t want it to end? That is this book for me! It’s such a great story and I love the characters.
Looking forward to more from this author.
July 27, 2026
Each time I picked up this book, I felt like I was traveling right alongside Arabella.
Beautiful Storytelling
Beautiful Storytelling
Review of advance copy received from Author
Set in the mid-1800’s, young fiery witch and healer Arabella Porter discovers a letter written to her from her long-departed mother. On the basis of this letter, found tucked between the pages of her recently deceased grandmother’s grimoire, she boards ship from the Scottish Isle of Skye to find her father, never known, in Mystic Connecticut.
This is the first of many bold choices she makes, from genrations of women who live life on their own terms. Soon after her arrival in Mystic, she meets and agrees to nurse the grandmother of the brooding and sometimes violent shipyard owner and captain, James Alden, a man who’d left home and lived rough before assuming the responsibilities of wealth.
James is magnetic and mysterious, savage and sensual, and Arabella is immensely attracted; their two natures struggle to balance being enmeshed with maintaining independence. This romance story, borrowing from tropes and symbols from Beauty and the Beast, goes several steps deeper, looking into freedom, dysfunctional family relationships, heritage, and respect, while presenting well-researched history about whaling, shipping, geography, and the town of Mystic itself, relayed in the very real voices of the story’s characters.
The sex is spicy, and for some there’s one scene that might trigger, but within the context of Beauty and the Beast (how else would one expect their forever connection to happen?), it makes perfect sense and invites discussion about the very nature of love and consent in a non-Disney world.
I really loved this and highly recommend. The prose is lush, beautiful, and clear, and I could not put it down; Sea and Stars gave me a lot to think about.
This is the first of many bold choices she makes, from genrations of women who live life on their own terms. Soon after her arrival in Mystic, she meets and agrees to nurse the grandmother of the brooding and sometimes violent shipyard owner and captain, James Alden, a man who’d left home and lived rough before assuming the responsibilities of wealth.
James is magnetic and mysterious, savage and sensual, and Arabella is immensely attracted; their two natures struggle to balance being enmeshed with maintaining independence. This romance story, borrowing from tropes and symbols from Beauty and the Beast, goes several steps deeper, looking into freedom, dysfunctional family relationships, heritage, and respect, while presenting well-researched history about whaling, shipping, geography, and the town of Mystic itself, relayed in the very real voices of the story’s characters.
The sex is spicy, and for some there’s one scene that might trigger, but within the context of Beauty and the Beast (how else would one expect their forever connection to happen?), it makes perfect sense and invites discussion about the very nature of love and consent in a non-Disney world.
I really loved this and highly recommend. The prose is lush, beautiful, and clear, and I could not put it down; Sea and Stars gave me a lot to think about.
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