Pirates of Aletharia Review — Is It Worth Reading?

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Verdict: A 534-page sapphic pirate epic with a Goldie Award, a devoted following and genuinely great banter — undercut by dialogue that circles the same ground until a good number of readers stop believing the rating. Best for: Readers who want adventure fantasy with real weight and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance inside it, and who will forgive repetition for atmosphere and voice. Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — explicit open door) Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.1/5 — a 4.36 Goodreads average across 3,367 ratings, with an editing complaint that recurs too often to ignore) Tropes: Enemies to lovers, pirates, dragons, revenge, found family, forced proximity, tortured heroine, gifted heroine, dangerous women, high fantasy. Pirates of Aletharia by Britney Jackson is the first book of the Lesbians, Pirates, and Dragons series, a small-press sapphic high fantasy published by Noctem in December 2021, in which Emilia Drakon — the last of the dragon sorcerers after a betrayal by the woman she loved — sets out for vengeance and ends up tricked aboard the ship of Captain Maria Welles, who is every bit as bloodthirsty as the stories say. It has a 4.36 average across 3,367 Goodreads ratings, a 4.15 across 890 StoryGraph reviews, and the 2022 Goldie Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy from the Golden Crown Literary Society. It is also the book most likely on this site to have readers writing reviews specifically to argue with that average. Both of those things are worth understanding.

What Is Pirates of Aletharia About?

This is high fantasy first and romance second, which is the reverse of most books in the spicy sapphic fantasy conversation. StoryGraph readers mark it 97% adventurous — the highest figure I have recorded for any book reviewed here — with 22% tense and 11% dark, and half of them call it character-driven. At 534 pages it is a commitment, and the pacing reflects that: 60% call it medium-paced and nearly one in five calls it slow. Emilia arrives carrying grief and a vendetta. She was the youngest and kindest of her order before Catherine, the woman she loved, betrayed her and left her the last of her kind — and what she wants now is the person responsible. Maria Welles wants something of her own and is willing to lie to get Emilia aboard the Wicked Fate to help her get it. The romance grows inside a working pirate crew with its own politics, which is exactly why it takes as long as it does.

What Makes This Sapphic Pirate Fantasy Work

• The banter: the single most-praised element by a distance. Readers quote the exchanges between Emilia and Maria back at each other, and it is the reason the slow burn holds across 534 pages.
• Judith: the supporting cast is not decoration, and one crew member in particular gets named in review after review as the reason people stayed. That is rare in a romance this long.
• The fantasy is load-bearing: dragon sorcery, crew politics, a vendetta plot and a genuinely realised world. Only 3% of StoryGraph readers call it plot-driven, but 97% call it adventurous — the world is doing work even when the plot idles.
• Real institutional recognition: the 2022 Goldie Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy, verified against the Golden Crown Literary Society’s own winners list. Small-press sapphic fantasy rarely collects credentials like that.
• Two independent blog reviews, both strongly positive: The Lesbian Review praises the gritty worldbuilding; the Lesbrary called it one of their favourite books of the year.

Book Synopsis

Emilia Drakon was the gentlest of the dragon sorcerers, in the days when there were others. Then Catherine — the woman she trusted most — betrayed her, and the order died with everyone in it but her. What remains is a woman with terrible power, no people, and one clear intention. Captain Maria Welles has a reputation that arrives before she does: treacherous, violent, entirely without scruple. She also has a vendetta of her own, and she needs a dragon sorcerer to see it through. So she lies, and Emilia finds herself aboard the Wicked Fate among a crew who have every reason not to trust her and one very good reason to keep her alive. What Emilia expects is a means to an end. What she finds is a captain who is not the monster the stories describe, a crew that starts to feel uncomfortably like people she would miss, and a vengeance that gets harder to want the longer she is away from it. The question the book runs on is not whether these two women will stop hating each other. It is what Emilia will have left to become if she finally catches the person she has been chasing.

My Review

The voice is why this book has the following it has. Jackson writes two women who are genuinely funny at each other, and the banter between Emilia and Maria carries stretches where nothing much is happening — which, across 534 pages, is a considerable amount of load for dialogue to bear. The supporting crew gets the same care. Judith in particular is the kind of secondary character readers name in reviews years later, and the found-family texture around the Wicked Fate is the book’s warmest achievement. The fantasy earns its space too, which separates this from most of the sapphic romantasy shelf. There is a real vendetta plot, a functioning magic system with a cost attached, crew politics, and a world that reviewers describe as gritty rather than decorative. StoryGraph’s 97% adventurous rating is the highest I have recorded for any book on this site, and the content warnings — torture, blood, gore — tell you this is not a cosy pirate fantasy. Where it struggles is repetition, and this is the dominant criticism by a wide margin. Six or seven independent reviewers describe the dialogue as circular — the same emotional beat between Emilia and Maria relitigated over and over — and it is the specific complaint that produces this book’s strangest review pattern: at least four reviewers write primarily to say they cannot understand the 4.36 average. That is unusual. Readers rarely bother to argue with a rating unless the gap between their experience and the consensus felt personal. Around it sit the related notes: several readers say the enemies-to-lovers setup is never properly motivated — the hostility arrives on contact without an explicable cause — and both Goodreads and Amazon reviewers independently reach for the same phrase about needing a firmer editor. The dragons deserve their own warning. The series is called Lesbians, Pirates, and Dragons, and roughly five reviewers flag that the third noun is underserved — one calls it a “severe lack of dragons.” Emilia’s sorcery is dragon-derived rather than dragon-populated. If you came for creatures, calibrate. One expectation to reset: the platform spread is stark and worth naming. Goodreads shows 4.36 with only about 5% of ratings at one or two stars. When a book has no critical reviews on one platform and a vocal contingent on another, the honest read is that the people who bought it deliberately loved it and the broader audience was more divided. My honest note: A genuinely good adventure fantasy with a romance worth the wait, at least eighty pages longer than its dialogue can sustain. If you read long books for voice and crew and atmosphere, this is a keeper; if repetition wears you down, the middle will.

Element	In Pirates of Aletharia
Central relationship	Emilia Drakon & Captain Maria Welles — last dragon sorcerer and feared pirate captain, enemies to lovers
Core tropes	Enemies to lovers, revenge, found family, forced proximity, tortured heroine, gifted heroine, pirates
Setting	The high seas of Aletharia, aboard the pirate ship Wicked Fate, in a world of dragon sorcery and witches
Heat level	4/5 — explicit open door, arriving late after a long slow burn
Series	Lesbians, Pirates, and Dragons book 1 of 2 — book two, Goddess of the Sea, published 2024; no book three announced
Content notes	Graphic violence, sexual content and injury detail; torture, blood and gore; slavery, sexual harassment and misogyny in the background

How Spicy Is Pirates of Aletharia?

A 4/5. romance.io rates the steam level “explicit open door” — one band below its top rating — and that is the right call: the sex is on the page and unambiguous when it arrives, but it arrives late, after a slow burn that occupies most of the book. StoryGraph’s crowd warnings list sexual content under “graphic,” which corroborates the rating rather than the alternative. Worth flagging one disagreement: at least one third-party heat aggregator rates this book much lower, at 2/5. Having weighed romance.io’s rating against StoryGraph’s graphic content flag and the reader reports, I think 4/5 is correct and the outlier is wrong — but you should know the sources differ. If you want this heat band with the payoff arriving sooner, Her Spell That Binds Me and Dragon Queens both sit a band higher and get there faster.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want fantasy that takes itself seriously with a romance inside it, you read slow burn for the burn rather than the payoff, you love a well-drawn secondary cast, and 534 pages reads as generous rather than daunting. You may want to skip it if: repetitive dialogue wears you down, you need the hostility in enemies-to-lovers to have a stated cause, you came for dragons in quantity, or you want the explicit content before the eighty per cent mark. In short: an award-winning pirate epic with a real world and a real romance, carrying about a hundred pages of circling it never edited out.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)

Nearly five years on, this book occupies an unusual position: institutionally decorated, well loved by a devoted core, and almost entirely absent from the places books get argued about. The Goldie Award is real — verified against the Golden Crown Literary Society’s own 2022 winners list, Science Fiction and Fantasy category — and small-press sapphic fantasy rarely collects one. Two independent genre blogs reviewed it warmly: The Lesbian Review praised the gritty worldbuilding while flagging the violence, and the Lesbrary called it one of their favourite books of that year while noting a rushed opening chapter. There is no Kirkus and no Publishers Weekly, which is expected for Noctem. Reddit has no dedicated thread anywhere — the book surfaces only inside automated romance.io tagging round-ups and one genuine r/LesbianBookClub post where a reader names it as a comfort-reread archetype, which is a small but telling data point about who keeps it. BookTok activity exists and reads as organic — fan art, stick-figure comics, “LESBIAN PIRATES” videos from unaffiliated accounts pulling tens of thousands of plays — with no author account visible to have seeded it. The Tantor Audio edition, narrated by Lindsey Dorcus across sixteen hours and forty-six minutes, is how a lot of readers now arrive. Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The banter, first and most consistently — it is the thing quoted, screenshotted and recommended. Then the supporting cast, with Judith named specifically often enough to be a phenomenon rather than a coincidence. The worldbuilding draws real praise for feeling lived-in and genuinely dangerous rather than aesthetic. The slow burn is defended by its fans precisely because it is slow: readers who love this book describe the wait as the point. And the found-family texture aboard the Wicked Fate is what readers say brings them back for rereads. What readers argue about and complain about: Repetition, above everything. Six or seven independent reviewers describe circular dialogue that relitigates the same beat between the leads, and one puts it as ninety per cent of the book being the two of them going back and forth. Unusually, this produces a second-order pattern: at least four reviewers write primarily to express disbelief at the 4.36 average, which is a form of criticism you rarely see unless the gap felt personal. Second: the enemies-to-lovers premise, which several readers say is never motivated — the animosity is instant and unexplained. Third: the dragons, or their scarcity, raised by around five readers against a series title that promises them. Editing comes up on both Goodreads and Amazon independently, with reviewers reaching for the same phrasing about needing a firmer hand. Two name the ending specifically as a letdown. And one two-star reviewer contradicts the majority entirely, praising the worldbuilding and crew while blaming only Emilia’s characterisation — worth knowing, because it suggests the flaw is narrower than the loudest reviews claim. The series question worth asking first: the romance between Emilia and Maria resolves within book one, but the wider story does not — The Lesbian Review characterises the book as closing on an unresolved cliffhanger at the series level, while plot summaries describe a satisfying HEA for the couple. Both are true at different scales, and which one matters depends on you. Book two, Goddess of the Sea, published in 2024 and is rated higher than book one at 4.43 across 1,099 ratings. No book three has been announced, and readers have been asking on the author’s own site without a clear answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

How spicy is Pirates of Aletharia?

A 4/5. romance.io rates it “explicit open door,” one band below its top level. The explicit content is unambiguous but arrives late, after a slow burn occupying most of the 534 pages.

Does Pirates of Aletharia end on a cliffhanger?

Depends on the scale. The romance between Emilia and Maria resolves within book one, but the wider series plot does not — The Lesbian Review describes it as an unresolved cliffhanger at the series level. Book two continues the story.

Is the Lesbians, Pirates, and Dragons series finished?

Not confirmed. Book two, Goddess of the Sea, published in 2024 and is rated higher than book one at 4.43. No book three has been announced, and reader questions about one on the author’s own site remain unanswered.

Are there actually dragons in Pirates of Aletharia?

Fewer than the series title implies, and this is a recurring reader complaint — around five reviewers raise it, one calling it a severe lack of dragons. The magic is dragon-derived sorcery through Emilia rather than dragons as a populated presence.

Is there an audiobook of Pirates of Aletharia?

Yes — narrated by Lindsey Dorcus for Tantor Audio, running about sixteen hours and forty-six minutes, released in November 2022.

If You Loved Pirates of Aletharia, Read These Next

If the adventure-with-romance-inside-it balance is what worked, A Game of Hearts and Heists runs a tighter heist version of the same idea at a higher heat level across a completed series. If it was the dark magic and the rivalry, Her Spell That Binds Me is the dark-academia equivalent. And for the same dragons-and-women premise at a fraction of the length and twice the spice, Dragon Queens does in 315 pages what this does in 534. For more in this register, browse our guide to sapphic romantasy books or the full Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

Pirates of Aletharia is the most substantial fantasy on this site’s sapphic romantasy shelf and the one with the most devoted following. The banter is genuinely funny, the crew is genuinely loved, the world is genuinely dangerous, and a Goldie Award says the genre’s own institutions agree. It is also repetitive in a way its fans forgive and its critics cannot, built on an animosity the book never explains, and lighter on dragons than its own series title promises. If you read long fantasy for voice and company rather than momentum, this is worth every one of its 534 pages. Check Pirates of Aletharia on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Pirates of Aletharia ranks as an award-winning small-press sapphic adventure fantasy — richly built, warmly voiced and genuinely beloved, held back by repetition its editor should have caught, and best approached for the crew and the banter rather than for the dragons.

The Evidence Scorecard

Overall ★★★★☆ 4.1/5

• ✓ 4.36 average across 3,367 Goodreads ratings
• ✓ 2022 Goldie Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy
• ✓ Two independent blog reviews, both positive
• ✓ Repetition draws reviews arguing with the rating

Romance ★★★★☆ 4/5

• ✓ Banter carries 534 pages of slow burn
• ✓ Enemies-to-lovers survives the hostile phase
• ✓ Payoff earns the wait for its defenders
• ✓ Initial animosity never actually motivated

Characters ★★★★☆ 4.2/5

• ✓ 51% of readers call it character-driven
• ✓ Judith named by reviewers years later
• ✓ Emilia carries real grief and cost
• ✓ Emilia divides readers as a narrator

Writing ★★★★☆ 3.5/5

• ✓ Dialogue genuinely funny at its best
• ✓ Worldbuilding reads gritty, not decorative
• ✓ 97% of readers mark it adventurous
• ✓ Circular dialogue is the dominant complaint

Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 4/5

• ✓ Betrayal and genocide give real stakes
• ✓ Found family aboard the ship lands
• ✓ 36% of readers mark it emotional
• ✓ Repetition blunts the emotional beats

Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5

• ✓ romance.io rates it explicit open door
• ✓ On the page and unambiguous
• ✓ StoryGraph flags sexual content as graphic
• ✓ Arrives late after a very long burn

Ending ★★★★☆ 3.7/5

• ✓ Romance resolves within book one
• ✓ Book two continues and rates higher
• ✓ Vendetta arc reaches a real turn
• ✓ Series-level cliffhanger, book three unannounced

Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 4/5

• ✓ Named as a comfort reread by readers
• ✓ Crew and banter reward a second pass
• ✓ Sixteen-hour audiobook is a strong revisit
• ✓ 534 pages discourage a quick return

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