Welcome to my stop on TBR & Beyond Tours’ bookstagram/blog tour celebrating The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray by Christina Calella! This book was one of the most thrilling reads I’ve enjoyed in a long time, and I’m excited for other readers to get their hands on copies!
About The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray
Author: Christine Calella
Publisher: Page Street YA
Release Date: April 9th, 2024
Page Length: 384 Pages
Genres: Young Adult Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Pirates, LGBTQ+ Stories
Purchase Links: Bookshop.org, Libro.FM, Amazon, Goodreads, StoryGraph, Barnes & Noble
Synopsis of The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray
Storms and pirates are nothing compared to the evil within men’s hearts.
After a lifetime of abuse at the hands of superstitious townsfolk, Ophelia Young, a bastard child of the notorious pirate queen, is tired of paying for the sins of her mother. Despite playing by the rules her whole life, she’s earned nothing but spite and suspicion. So when a naval officer saves her from the jeering crowd at her mother’s hanging, Ophelia hatches a new hope of enlisting in the navy to escape her mother’s legacy and redeem her own reputation for good. But Ophelia soon discovers that a life at sea isn’t as honorable as she hoped.
Betsy Young is as different as she could be from her half-sister Ophelia. She’s a nervous homebody who wants to keep her family safe and longs to be in love. So naturally, she’s devastated when the son of their family’s business partner rejects her hand in marriage and her sister joins the navy. But when her father contracts a life-threatening illness as well, Betsy has to bring Ophelia home to save the family business.
Unfortunately for the Young sisters, Betsy trying to get Ophelia recalled reveals that Ophelia enlisted fraudulently under Betsy’s name, a secret which Ophelia struggles to keep from crewmates who would kill her if they knew she was the pirate queen’s daughter. To save Ophelia from the naval authorities, Betsy will have to board a ship during hurricane season and brave all the dangers of the sea to get them both home safe.
Content Warning: hanging, corporal punishments (whipping), strangulation, violence
My Review of The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray
It’s been quite a while since I’ve read a book as thrilling as The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray! Multiple nights in a row I found myself staying up late, thinking, “Just one more chapter, for real this time,” because I couldn’t stand not knowing what would happen next. There wasn’t a dull moment for Betsy and Ophelia in the story, and each chapter ended on what felt like a miniature cliff-hanger. The story was cinematic, engaging, and exactly what I was hoping for from a pirate novel!
Additionally, one of the two protagonists is asexual, which is a big part of why I decided to pick up a copy of The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray. I love that we’re starting to see asexual representation in a wider variety of book genres!
My Recommendation:
If you’re looking for a high-stakes book about pirate adventure, you need to grab a copy of The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray as soon as possible! I would especially recommend this book to fans of The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Assassins Creed: Black Flag.
About the Author
When not writing, Christine Calella spends her spare time singing showtunes in the shower, drinking more chai lattes than is strictly necessary, and either over- or under-watering an unfortunate string of houseplants named after sitcom characters. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, and she lives in New York City.
As her romance alter ego, Madeline Bell, Christine also pens adult rom-coms with a bookish twist. For more information, check out the Books section, under the “By Madeline Bell” drop-down.
Rampant Reading Reviews 
One thought on “The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray with TBR & Beyond Tours”