Sea of Charms - Outside of a Dog

English language

Published July 21, 2026 by Bramble.

Marin is a supply runner with her own boat that she sails from island to island, delivering whatever anyone will pay her to deliver: letters, flour, even the occasional enchanted lemur. It’s a lonely life, but it’s hers, and she wouldn’t trade the freedom of the sea for anything. Her only companion is a sea serpent, Perri, whom she saved from a fisherfolk’s net.

One day, she sails to Alyssium and discovers the city is on fire. There’s been a revolution, and the empire has fallen. Marin, with Perri, begins transporting refugees, finding them new homes where they can start over. One such refugee is Dax, a composer who refuses to leave behind his instruments, no matter how much she tries to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, and his charming smile, Marin discovers perhaps she isn’t saving him — maybe …

Marin is a supply runner with her own boat that she sails from island to island, delivering whatever anyone will pay her to deliver: letters, flour, even the occasional enchanted lemur. It’s a lonely life, but it’s hers, and she wouldn’t trade the freedom of the sea for anything. Her only companion is a sea serpent, Perri, whom she saved from a fisherfolk’s net.

One day, she sails to Alyssium and discovers the city is on fire. There’s been a revolution, and the empire has fallen. Marin, with Perri, begins transporting refugees, finding them new homes where they can start over. One such refugee is Dax, a composer who refuses to leave behind his instruments, no matter how much she tries to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, and his charming smile, Marin discovers perhaps she isn’t saving him — maybe it’s the other way around.

2 editions

Soh Kam Yung reviewed Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (Spellshop, #3)

The adventures of a sailor and a handsome musician on a charming sea

4 stars

A charming book on the adventures of Marin, a sailor who runs supplies from island to island with an enchanted ship and a sea serpent as a companion. With ties to the previous books in the series, this one has Marin sailing to Alyssium to discover it in the midst of an unrest.

At the start, the Head Librarian asks her to deliver an enchanted wooden statue to an island (the setting for "The Enchanted Greenhouse"). Upon her return, the city is on fire, and she has to rush to the Music Conservatory to rescue some musicians, including her handsome friend Dax. After dropping them off on another island, Dax decides to sail with her, for he has seen little of the world and wants to see explore it.

As for Marin, she enjoys his company but is not ready for a relationship, having just escaped from one …

A charming book on the adventures of Marin, a sailor who runs supplies from island to island with an enchanted ship and a sea serpent as a companion. With ties to the previous books in the series, this one has Marin sailing to Alyssium to discover it in the midst of an unrest.

At the start, the Head Librarian asks her to deliver an enchanted wooden statue to an island (the setting for "The Enchanted Greenhouse"). Upon her return, the city is on fire, and she has to rush to the Music Conservatory to rescue some musicians, including her handsome friend Dax. After dropping them off on another island, Dax decides to sail with her, for he has seen little of the world and wants to see explore it.

As for Marin, she enjoys his company but is not ready for a relationship, having just escaped from one person who had been gaslighting her, and caused her parents to become deep in debt, which she is now working to pay off. But as time passes, she finds herself drawn to him and to the music which he produces.

The events in this book run parallel to those in "The Enchanted Greenhouse" and there are occasional tie-ins as Marin makes trips to that island. Marin also discovers an opportunity to pay off her debt, but makes the decision to let it go to save another. But it would work out in the end as Marin and Dax find a way to make a life together, despite their different lives at the beginning.

Another cosy and romantic fantasy that shows a world that is full of people, and creatures, willing to live and work together despite their differences.