Inspired by the True Story of an American Legend
Ellen Prentiss can navigate a ship through blinding fog and treacherous shoals using nothing but mathematics and the stars. In 1841, that makes her indispensable to any captain—and utterly unacceptable to a world that believes women belong in parlors, not on quarterdecks.
With the death of her captain father, Ellen’s lost her mentor, ship, and purpose, and faces the suffocating prospect of a future trapped on land—until her childhood friend returns as Captain Perkins Creesy, commander of a tea trader bound for China.
Perk desperately needs a navigator skilled enough to shave precious weeks off the route to Canton—and Ellen needs passage back to the life that defines her. But their shared past holds a betrayal that nearly destroyed them both, and the sea offers no safe harbor for the secrets between them.
From the fog-shrouded shoals of Cape Henlopen to the cutthroat docks of New York, Ellen must chart a course between the world’s expectations and her own fierce ambitions. The Navigator is the story of a woman who dared to command the stars themselves—and refused to let anyone else determine her destiny.
The Navigator is the prequel novella of The Navigator Series, a women’s historical fiction series set during the golden age of sail. If you love Outlander, The Whalebone Theatre, or Lessons in Chemistry, you’ll love this emotionally rich adventure of a woman ahead of her time.