Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
From New York Times bestselling author Karina Halle comes Ocean of Sin and Starlight, a dark-fantasy romance with morally grey pirates and monstrous sirens, a standalone spinoff of A Ship of Bones and Teeth.
I wasn’t always a monster.
Once upon a time I had a family, a home, dreams.
Until it was taken away from me and I was turned into a creature only the Devil could love, cursed with bloodlust and immortality.
I spent a century in an isolated monastery for other heathens like me, learning to control my most monstrous impulses, becoming a man of faith so I could put my sins behind me.
I was doing so well.
I was almost…human.
Until I met her.
Larimar, the tempting siren who made me forget my vows, who promised herself to me before she escaped my clutches.
Now I’m obsessed with tracking Larimar down, joining an infamous pirate crew on their ship the Nightwind as we search the high seas for any sign of her.
I don’t know what I’ll do when I find her.
But I know she belongs to me.
And I’ll become a monster once more.
NOTE TO READER: This book can be read as a standalone. HOWEVER, if you were planning on reading A Ship of Bones and Teeth, then I would read that first before you read OOSAS. ALSO...please head the content warnings inside of the book.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Playlist
“Grace” – (+++) Crosses
“Mermaids” - Hans Zimmer
“Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete” – (+++) Crosses
“Last Rites” – (+++) Crosses
“Holier” – (+++) Crosses
“Thholyghst” – (+++) Crosses
“Bitches Brew” – (+++) Crosses
“Cross” – (+++) Crosses
“Death Bell” – (+++) Crosses
“The Line Begins to Blur” – NIN
“Discipline” – NIN
“Right Where it Belongs” – NIN
“The Hand That Feeds” – NIN
“Various Methods of Escape” – NIN
“Find My Way” - NIN
“God Given” – NIN
“Capital G” – NIN
“Sanctified” – NIN
“Sin” – NIN
“Heresy” – NIN
“La Mer” – NIN
“Help Me I Am in Hell” – NIN
“The Albatross” – Taylor Swift
“Guilty as Sin?” – Taylor Swift
“Judas” – Banks
“Ocean Eyes” – Billie Eilish
“Hostage” – Billie Eilish
“No Time to Die” – Billie Eilish
“Should Be Higher” – Depeche Mode
“Heaven” – Depeche Mode
“Before We Drown” – Depeche Mode
“The Sinner in Me” – Depeche Mode
“Mercy in You” – Depeche Mode
“In Chains” – Depeche Mode
“Halo” – Depeche Mode
“Last Cup of Sorrow” – FNM
“Ashes to Ashes” – FNM
“King for a Day” – FNM
“The Tradition” – Halsey
“Bells in Santa Fe” – Halsey
“Devil in Me” – Halsey
“Way down We Go” – Kaleo
“Hallowed Ground” – How to Destroy Angels
“A Drowning” – How to Destroy Angels
“Going to Heaven” – The Kills
“Kingdom Come” – The Kills
“God Games” – The Kills
“Still Don’t Know My Name” – Labrinth
“Babel” – Massive Attack
“Angel” – Massive Attack
“Nocturne” – Mark Lanegan
“Spell” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Messiah Ward” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Lovely Creature” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Do You Love Me?” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“I Let Love In” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Loverman” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“The Vampyre of Time and Memory” – QOTSA
“I Appear Missing” – QOTSA
“Someone’s in the Wolf” – QOTSA
“Un-Reborn Again” – QOTSA
“Fortress” – QOTSA
“Villains of Circumstance” – QOTSA
“God Hates a Coward” – Tomahawk
“Somebody’s Sins” – Tricky
“Nothing Matters” – Tricky (feat. Nneka)
“Atlantic” – Sleep Token
“High Water” – Sleep Token
“The Night Does Not Belong to God” – Sleep Token
“Dark Signs” – Sleep Token
“Gods” – Sleep Token
“The Summoning” – Sleep Token
“Aqua Regia” – Sleep Token
“Take Me to Church” – Hozier
“Son of Nyx” – Hozier
“Foreigner’s God” – Hozier
“First Light” – Hozier
(Come find me on Spotify!)
Part One
Prologue
THE MONSTER
The creature had been subdued by heavy rusted chains and tied up for weeks by the time the doctor found him. The villagers had said it had killed several of their own, while it had taken a dozen of them to finally restrain him.
The doctor wanted to reward them for their bravery but there wasn't a soul in sight at this point, just deep grooves in the dried mud where the villager's heels must have dug in, savage marks around the trunk of the nearby oak, the bark having been shaved clean off by the chains, and the splashes of blood here and there, adding color to the scene.
There was only the doctor and the creature in the middle of this yellow flower speckled field, on this warm summer morning, the dew already evaporated.
Of course, the creature was indeed a man. The doctor took a tentative step toward him, peering down at the tormented-looking figure. He was curled up in the fetal position, eyes closed, matted hair around his face, his naked body caked in mud, but despite his fragile state, he was tall and broad-shouldered, built like an ox. He had the sleek muscles that so many other creatures had, but there was a roughness to him, as if the muscles had been earned doing hard labor and not given to him naturally.
There's nothing natural about this, the doctor thought, pushing his long red hair behind his ears and adjusting his hat against the sun that was slowly becoming stronger with the day. There's nothing natural about these monsters.
It made him sad to learn about instances like this, these monsters who were created to be mad men, but this was the nature of his work lately. He had grown fascinated by these abominations, that were so like him in many ways, and yet so different. He wanted to study them up close and personal. He wanted to prove that their humanity could be uncovered.
But it was a long road ahead for both of them. The doctor could barely be described as a man sometimes, and the beast even less so.
The doctor sighed and crouched down beside the creature, noting how little it breathed. The poor monster could not die, but it no doubt wished it could. Even if it had been chained to this tree for centuries, without a single drop of food, it still would not die.
And barring his head being torn off, the doctor wouldn't die either. So he didn't have much fear when he reached over and gently brushed back the creature's hair off its face.
It was a strong face, and a handsome one. If the creature wasn't so large and brawny, if that chin wasn't so strong, he could be called beautiful, a delicate kind of grace in long black lashes, a straight nose, full lips. Most of the doctor's kind had their own kind of magnetism that was supernatural, but he could tell the creature, back when it was a man and before it had transformed, had been blessed by God.