This series is set in a Regency England with magic – powers can manifest at different levels, and the Extraordinaries are the most powerful. Elinor Pembroke’s father has made a study of the families that have produced these powers. Elinor herself is a disappointment, having never manifested a power. Until the morning she wakes up surrounding by flames – she’s an Extraordinary Scorcher.
Her father is quick to try and arrange an advantageous marriage, which Elinor wants no part of. Instead, she joins the Royal Navy. In no time, she’s off to the Caribbean.
This story could have been incredibly anachronistic, but Elinor actually does want to maintain her good name, and there is a little bit of the tension of having a woman on board a Royal Navy ship (who is not the Captain’s wife). Of course there’s some adventure with pirates, but it works really well with the kind of person Elinor would have been raised to be. And of course there’s a romance, and I really enjoyed how that was handled. I’ll definitely check out more in this series.