Inspired by the true story of an American legend.

Circling the Sun meets Master and Commander in this emotionally rich historical novel of ambition, second chances, and the woman destined to set the ocean on fire.

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“The pages nearly turned themselves”

—Patti W

Marblehead, 1841.

26-year-old Ellen can chart a course better than any man twice her age. Raised on her father’s schooner, she spent years guiding his ship past every ledge and tide-rip of the Eastern Seaboard, certain the sea would always be hers. Then her father dies, and the only life she was built for runs hard aground.

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No ship will sign a woman. Nothing waits ashore but a soul-crushing marriage to a cabbage farmer and a lifetime of watching the tide go out without her. Until the harbor delivers the last man she expected to see again—Josiah Perkins Creesy. Perk, her childhood ally, now captain of a tea ship in desperate need of a navigator.

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He can give her back the sea only as his wife.

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A loveless match to a stranger, Ellen might have borne. But Perk is neither stranger nor safe—the childhood love she betrayed with a single lie, the one man alive who knows exactly who she is, and the one she’s never quite managed to stop wanting. Binding herself to him is another matter entirely.

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The sea would belong to her again, but she would forever belong to him.

From the narrow lanes of Marblehead to the cutthroat wharves of New York, Ellen must decide how much of herself she’s willing to lose—and how much she’s brave enough to risk—to become the woman she was born to be.

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The Navigator is the first book of The Navigator Series, a sweeping maritime saga inspired by Eleanor “Ellen” Creesy, the real woman whose navigation of the clipper ship Flying Cloud set a record that stood for 135 years. For readers of Paula McLain, Marie Benedict, and Kate Quinn.

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“A powerful, emotional, and truly inspiring story that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading.”

—Liudmyla K

Why readers are raving

A second-chance love story with a decade of wreckage between them—the childhood sweetheart she betrayed, the lie she’d give anything to take back, and the slow burn neither of them can outrun.

A potential marriage of convenience with everything to lose—the only way back to the sea costs Ellen the one thing she swore she’d never surrender: herself.

A heroine who’s the most capable person on deck—and a world determined not to let her prove it. For everyone who’s been underestimated and refused to stay small.

Inspired by a true story you won’t believe isn’t myth—the real woman whose navigation set a record that stood for 135 years.

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“I made it to p42 before I had tears in my eyes.”

—Mose R

About the author.

Cheyenne Richards is an award-winning historical fiction author who writes sweeping novels about the women who claimed the sea—drawn from true stories, deep waters, and the lives history nearly forgot. She lives and writes aboard her sailboat Pristine, currently working her way around the world.

Reader Favorite

Amazon: 4.8 Stars

Bestselling Book

Amazon: Historical Biographical Fiction

Award-winning Author

IRDA: 2022 Historical Fiction

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