Fated Winds and Promising Seas is a queer dark fantasy novel, written by Rose Black, and published by Hodderscape. A story that heavily features themes such as healing from trauma, found family, neurodivergence, and queer romance, in a bittersweet setting with characters that you will totally want to hug and assure that things will improve.

After 10 years imprisoned for a crime he doesn't remember committing, Lucky takes the chance of escaping when a leviathan attacks his prison; thrown into the sea, he's rescued by the Dreamer, a ship of leviathan chasers, and taken as part of his crew, quickly befriending Gabriel, a young man with his own set of problems. However, Lucky is still being chased by a murderous church, and fate will soon prove to not be so easy to avoid, taking Lucky into a tortuous path that will be accompanied by learning much about himself and his past.

The story is told divided into three parts entirely from Lucky's perspective, our main character. A person that is deeply hurt, struggling with possibly agoraphobia after 10 years imprisoned; a voice that is reflexive and that slowly gets into his freedom. Gabriel will form a great pair with Lucky, as both have their own set of struggles that are hurting them, but if something is constant in this story is how they support each other, even in those parts that are less obvious; a support that makes a friendship evolve into a romance.
The rest of the cast is less developed, as clearly Black intends to focus on the duo, but still we can get those hints of the found family in the motley crew that are part of the Dreamer, while the church plays a nice role as the antagonists to our ship and, in extension, to the culture and religion they come from.

Despite this is a novel focused on the characters, and especially, on how trauma can be healed through enough support, there are still hints of a rich world; not we only have the nautical theme, but we can also see glimpses of an organised religion in a setting that could be inspired by the Caribbean Seas.
The pacing is relatively slow, in line with what you would expect from a cozy novel (even if calling this novel cozy is a bit of a stretch), letting space to reflection and introspection.

Fated Winds and Promising Seas is a bittersweet novel, an excellent piece that manages to build a compelling story about people who are trying to heal, and how they support each other. A dark but cozy story, and which definitely shows Black's ability to create fantastic tales with a focus on the characters.