Whispers Beneath Crimson Moon

Some secrets travel deeper than the sea and some dangers cannot be outrun.

Cornwall, 1800s. When Colleen's cruel cousin arrives to claim his inheritance and her along with it she makes a desperate choice. Selling her mother's jewelry for passage to Penzance, she boards the Sea Wren disguised as a cabin boy, determined to reach the safety of her family in Spain. With nothing but her wits, a borrowed name, and a pair of striking blue eyes far too honest for her own good, she knows one careless moment could expose everything.

Ean Mercer, the ship's watchful and principled first mate, uncovers her secret before the first night is out. Bound by his word and increasingly unsettled by feelings he cannot afford, he agrees to protect her though he quickly discovers that Colleen is not a woman who can be easily sheltered. She is sharp-tongued, brave to the point of recklessness, and entirely unwilling to be treated like cargo to be delivered. Every conversation between them is a collision of wills, and every collision pulls them closer to something neither dares name.

But the voyage across the sea is about to become something far more dangerous than either of them bargained for.

Something ancient stirs in the deep waters beneath the Sea Wren's hull. Strange symbols appear carved into sealed cargo that no human hand could have reached. The sea itself seems to shift with purpose watching, pressing, responding to forces that defy any sailor's logic. Silas Vane, a pale and unsettling passenger whose composure never breaks even as the ship groans under impossible assault, seems to know far more than he reveals. And when the boundary between the natural and the unknowable finally tears open, Colleen discovers that the power gathering around her is no accident and that the choices she makes in the darkest hours of the voyage may determine not just her own survival, but the fate of something far older than the world she has ever known.

Laced with tension, lush maritime atmosphere, and a slow-burning romance that never loses its sharp edge, Whispers Beneath Crimson Moon sweeps readers into a world where loyalty is tested by secrets, courage is forged under impossible pressure, and love refuses to be either convenient or safe. Denise Renon Gholson crafts a tale that is at once a gripping adventure on the open sea, a gothic mystery of ancient and terrifying forces, and a deeply human story about what it truly means to claim your own destiny when the sea and something far beyond it has already written other plans.

As the Sea Wren limps at last into the port of Cadiz, battle-scarred and forever changed, both Colleen and Ean step onto solid ground transformed by what they have endured. But the shadow that slipped through the fracture in the deep has not vanished. It has followed them to shore. In the narrow, sun-warmed streets of a city waking to an ordinary morning, something watches from between the light and the dark. Something waits. And something has already begun to learn.

The world has not been saved. It has been changed. And what comes next will not belong to the silence alone.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Historical nautical romance with a dark and gripping supernatural twist
• Strong, resilient heroines who refuse to surrender their fate to anyone
• Slow-burn romance charged with wit, tension, and undeniable chemistry
• Gothic mystery woven seamlessly into high-seas historical adventure
• Richly atmospheric prose and unforgettable, morally complex characters

Whispers Beneath Crimson Moon is the breathtaking first installment in a gripping series that will leave you watching the horizon long after you turn the final page. Set sail and dare to discover what waits beneath.