Review: Shipwrecked: Being a Tale of True Love, Magic, and Goats by Juniper Butterworth

Title: Shipwrecked

Series: Sea Goblins: Book One

Author: Juniper Butterworth

Length: 161 Pages

Category: Fantasy

Rating: 4 Stars

At a Glance: If you’re looking for something a little wacky and smilesome, filled with whimsy and doesn’t take itself at all too seriously, there are goblins and goats afoot to the rescue.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: The quiet daily routine of the sea goblin village is upended by the wreck of a pirate ship in the harbor. Tellop, who wrangles magical goats, rushes down to help the hapless crew, only to be instantly smitten with the dashing Captain Heron.

Heron has been navigating one disaster after another since her twin sister, Haven, gave birth to a rare goblin baby two years ago, and now she just wants to get her ship patched up so she can get back to raiding dreamstone caves for enchanted dishes. Heron has no intention of a pleasurable nighttime encounter with Tellop becoming anything more than a temporary liaison. But when the captain’s niece is kidnapped by goats and taken to a magical pocket world, the two goblins must work together to rescue the baby from learning the worst manners possible.

Can a pirate captain and a magical goat whisperer ever find lasting love?

Review: And now for something completely different . . .

Juniper Butterworth’s Shipwrecked: Being a Tale of True Love, Magic, and Goats is easily one of the most delightfully absurd books I’ve read in quite some time, if not ever. It’s full of chuckles and warmth and adventure, all wrapped up in a world inhabited by goblins, gnomes, and magical goats.

There is not a hefty amount of world-building herein, but enough to determine this is a matriarchal society, being Principle Goatherd is a distinguished position, and Tellop can produce large amounts of cheese on short notice. She is, in fact, quite the negotiator and there’s not a tale she won’t happily tell. When a pirate ship runs aground off the coast of her island village, Tellop gets a bit more than she bargained for in the form of the ship’s captain, Heron.

Heron is not the only member of her family aboard ship. Her sister, Haven, and Haven’s baby girl are amongst the crew as well. Haven is simply exhausted and overwhelmed, and her daughter plays a key role in the journey in which a goat-demon figures into a rescue. This folly, helped along with a little lust, brings Heron and Tellop closer together. That doesn’t mean smooth sailing to their happy ending, though.

If you’re looking for something a little wacky and smilesome, filled with whimsy and doesn’t take itself at all too seriously, there are goblins and goats afoot to the rescue.

You can buy Shipwrecked here: