One Saved to the Sea

by Catt Kingsgrave

In the Orkney Islands, mothers tell their children of the selkies, seals who can shed their skins and dance on land. They also tell that whoever holds a selkie girl's skin can trap her for a wife. From the lighthouse where she was raised, Mairead has watched the selkie girls secretly since she was small. She longs to leave the home that has never really been hers and join them. She could never have guessed that a limping selkie girl has been watching her too, nor what wildness the shapeshifter would draw her into. Their paths collide when most of the men including Mairead's brothers have been called to war, the village idiot decides to catch himself a wife, and Mairead is the only one who can stop him.

Drawing on myth and history, Catt Kingsgrave writes a tale of the clash of the modern age with magic, of loss and searching, a tale that will sweep you away to a past that never was, and into a sapphic love story just this side of impossible.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Lesbian

84 pages, Nook

First published August 5, 2012

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be read on a stormy night…

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A precious folktale, that delivered in more ways that I had anticipated. Kingsgrave’s writing has a certain poetic quality, evoking a dreamy atmosphere that I found myself reveling in. I expected this story, that’s set on one of the tinier Scottish Orkney Islands, to focus on hazy eroticism and not be very plot-driven. But it’s such a wholesome tale instead! With a plot that captivates and weaves all details together for a thrilling climax.

One Saved by the Sea is about a tough island-born girl, Mairead, who is called an unnatural creature behind her back, because she is still unmarried and – shockingly enough – not the slightest bit interested in men. Instead, for as long as she can remember she has secretly spied on the selkies; beautiful pale and dark-haired girls, mythical creatures that shed their seal skin at night and crawl out of the gray sea to dance and make love underneath the stars. Mairead watches, loves and lusts from afar. And envies them...

They did not have to live on the island, with no escape from those smoke-dried, strangling moralities.

Now Mairead, she is not one of those spoilt city flowers who only come up to the Orkney Islands for the summer nights and Beltane fires. Smelling of kelp, rust and diesel, the taste of sea salt always on her lips, she is the Keeper of the Selkeness Light. The lighthouse’s flame a beacon during dark and stormy nights. Unfortunately, being a lighthouse keeper is considered a man’s job. And it’s only a matter of time before Mairead father, whose mind and body are consumed by illness, passes away. With her three brothers fighting in the First World War, she will be left with empty hands.

But there are more pressing matters at hand. A girl alone is an easy target. And when one day a thief steals the skin of one of the selkies, leaving the seal girl naked and trapped on the island, Mairead has to fight back for the girl that occupied her daydreams for years. And for her own future...

She couldn’t bring herself to care. Not with the memory of kisses so fierce she almost feared to end them still hovering about her lips. Not with the smell of what they’d done still haunting the back of Mairead’s throat – a lush, decadent perfume that the freshening sea wind served only to enhance. Any shame she might have expected to feel, now that her long-silenced yearnings had finally been met, simply could not make their way through the press of warm, flustered amazement.

Final thoughts: I loved how the author kept me spell-bound throughout the story, her writing style – never vulgar and cliché, mesmerizing instead – fit the magical ambiance perfectly. I especially adored how the sea played a role in every aspect of Mairead’s life, the erotic scenes included. They didn’t make me tingle with desire, but their originality and beauty was something to behold. I would almost call this old school writing and cry out: "THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE, FOLKS!"



Bumped my rating up to 5 stars because 1) it's been a while since I read something with poetic quality that's also f/f (I'm happy to reward that) and 2) this, weirdly enough, very organized buddy read with Anna, Anne, Kat and Lee was an awesome experience.

[Anna (Bananas) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I'm taken with the romance, the beautiful language, and the hint of danger in this story. Unfortunately the first half bored me a bit. There was too much set-up and not enough action, which made it feel overlong. It also seemed split in half between Mairead's lonely before-life and her altered second life with the selkie girl. I definitely preferred the latter part.


~ The romantic bits were so delicious.
Even the sound of her name was like a kiss, warm and low, sweet as milk and beautiful as butter. It was the most natural thing in the world to let the sound of it pull her down to the kiss itself, to the press of lip, the slide of tongue, the snag of tooth...with a relief so strong it nearly broke her heart, to let herself fall.

"And if I go with you?"
"I will love you. I will never force your going, nor your staying, beloved"

~ The selkie imagery was also enchanting. I loved the description of the pelts and the silky fur - and now I want my own seal. Gimme! Doesn't even have to be a selkie.


~ The hint of danger picked up towards the end when Mairead is threatened by a greedy villager. Also the selkie herself represented a threat, if only to the life Mairead had always known.

"...in the hands of a sweetly feral child who loved her just enough to burn her to the ground without a second thought"

I wish that danger had been explored a bit more.


One thing I didn't quite get and I'm having trouble finding it online. What exactly does "One spared to the sea is three spared to land" mean? I feel like I almost understand it and then it slips away. Kind of like the meaning of this story.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the first (and shortest) of the books I've read from my recent binge of lesbian fantasy. It makes a good start: it is erotica, but there is real background and feeling here as well, and Kingsgrave set up the situation carefully, weaving it into and around Selkie-lore rather than just using a convenient existing story. For all that it's short, I cared about the characters. It's well written, and the erotic scenes don't resort to cliché or crassness.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Spoilers***

I don’t usually read books like One Saved to the Sea and God knows that sea creatures are not my thing, but I really liked this story.

“If you come away with me, I will teach you to love the Sea as her daughter, her treasure, her rightful heir. I will teach you to be free.”

Mairead always knew certain things about herself, but only with the help from Umadh, the girl of her dreams, the girl from the sea, those things became real.

She always took care of her father and left her own life on hold. She’s strong, but when she’s with Umadh, you can see her fragile side.

This story reminds me how a girl feels when she falls for another girl for the first time. I loved that feeling.

“It’s just I’ve never…”
“You have. I heard you t’other night.”
“No, I mean… never with… another. Another girl. I don’t know what to do.”
“I do.”

Mairead has doubts, but she accepts what Umadh has to offer because she knows it's the right thing to do. The truth opened her eyes. And love made her find the true way home.



____________________________________________

Sep 14

Buddy read this weekend with Anna, Kat, Lee and Lo. Yay!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Saved to the Sea is the beautiful tale of Mairead, a lonely girl living in a lighthouse full of secrets with her dying father.



On the edge of a world that threatens to come crashing in at any moment, a world where she has never quite fit in and has no prospect for a happy future; Mairead finds what she has unwittingly always been searching for after the selkies come to dance in the moonlight and she saves one from a slave marriage to a human man. Here mythology eases easily into everyday life for the inhabitants of the rugged Orkney Islands, and as the story progresses it seems as though everyone is keeping the same secret.



I really enjoyed that the fairy-tale aspect of this novella didn't set the tone for the whole story. It has its dark and painful moments that anyone who has ever swam against the tide will be able to identify with. Near the end there were a few scenes of tender eroticism that fit in perfectly underneath the warm, ever-shining beacon of the lighthouse, calm and steady as a wild storm blew in from the sea and every small truth that Mairead had ever clung to came apart gently in her hands.

[Cheyenne Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a setting in the Orkney Isles of Scotland during the Second World War, "One Saved to the Sea" is the tale of Mairead, who lives with her dying father in a remote lighthouse. Since she was small, Mairead has watched the selkies, seal girls, leave the sea and their seal skins and dance and frolic on the beaches near the lighthouse. Mairead knows she is different - and as such she has trouble fitting in with the straight-laced villagers. Things come to a head when she chases a local man, Helzie, away from her land, where he was trying to steal one of the selkie's seal skins, as tradition says in doing so he will capture the selkie for a wife.

The plot of this is fairly simple, a love story between Mairead and one of the selkies, Umadh, but it's beautifully told and my joy and pleasure in reading this came from the telling and the language. There's no corny Scottish dialect, but the Scottish setting permeates every word so that the language and the setting is as much a part of the story as Mairead and her lover. The mythology is familiar to me from years of living in Ireland, but you don't need any prior knowledge. Mainly though, I love the writing. The local words and turn of phrase never feel forced, but ripple through the telling like the sea.

I love this book, the story, the language, the characters. I have a slight reservation about the ending (Mairead suddenly gains a passivity she's not shown throughout) but it's not enough to mark it down from a richly deserved 5 stars.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is by far the best sapphic selkie novella set in the Orkneys that I read in 2014.

[Sam Starbuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

One Saved To The Sea is the story of Mairead, a lighthouse keeper in the Orkneys during WWII. Technically her father is the keeper, but he's become incapable of keeping the light since his sons, Mairead's three brothers, shipped out as Royal Navy sailors to the war.

Mairead is under threat from all sides -- her father is ill and requires care, and when her father dies she won't be allowed to fill the position of keeper and will have to leave her home. She's also being stalked by Durn Helzie, a local boy whom she caught stealing a selkie's skin during one of their dances on the beach-head near the lighthouse. And, being a woman, her complaints against Helzie aren't taken as seriously as his against her. The local priest wants her to join the convent because she's unmarried and not likely to be, and the well-meaning advances of the soldiers from the nearby base aren't really her style.

It's essentially a love story between Mairead and the selkie-woman whom she rescued from Helzie; it's a well-written romance and the sex is quite hot (if you've never read a sex scene involving intimate contact with a seal skin, after this, you will have!). But there's also a depth to it that adds a lot of layers: the plight of a woman whose "unnatural tastes" are murmured about in the local village, the vulnerability of being basically alone in an isolated place with someone stalking her, the rich mythology surrounding the idea of a selkie, and the legacies of parents and children, particularly the otherness that Mairead inherited from her mother.

Final Verdict: I found it a really enjoyable read, and I'm liking the fact that with so many people coming into literature (particularly erotic lit) from fandom, we're getting much less crude, much more interesting plots and porn than we used to.

[Annabeth Leong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gripped me and wouldn't let me go until I finished it. There's deep, subtle poetry in it, and a romance that is satisfying but not easy. There's incredible atmosphere—the setting of the Orkneys felt palpable both in its physical aspects and the social milieu it created. There is a reveal toward the end that did not at all feel like a surprise to me, and it felt so obvious that I was confused about how the characters did not pick up on it sooner. However, I did not mind too much because the book was so beautifully written and the story so compelling.

Random comment: This book happens to contain the most erotic and believable scissoring scene I've ever encountered. I feel like it ought to get a special prize for that.

(Disclaimer: I write and edit for Circlet Press, which published this book, but I bought and read this book entirely on my own.)

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main complaint is that it was so short. Lovely story though if a little predictable.

[Jean Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this short novel (80 pages) refers to a saying among the characters: “One saved to the sea, three saved to the land.” Mairead, the heroine, feels landlocked in a village in the Orkneys (Scottish islands) during the First World War. She tends her dying, senile father, the lighthouse-keeper, and performs his duties after her three older brothers have gone to war. Mairead yearns for the freedom of the selkies, shapeshifting seal-women who dance under the moonlight in human form when they think no one is watching. If their pelts are stolen, they can never return to their community as seals.

When Mairead intercepts a poacher, she takes possession of a pelt which she plans to return to its owner, a selkie she has secretly watched and admired. Mairead is fascinated by the fur: “How could it be so soft when it spent so long in the harsh brine? Bespelled, she lifted it to her face, shivering as the long, heavy folds draped along her breasts and belly.” Mairead is also fascinated by the ways of the selkies: “They kissed and stroked and sported themselves without a lick of shame, and dear God how she’d watched and yearned for their ease. For the way each chose whom they wanted, whether man or maid, and no bitter old priest appeared to shame them for the joy they took together.”

Like the selkies, Mairead feels like a wild thing in a trap when she is pressured to find a husband and blamed for her independence. Then there is the mystery of the pelt. Does it really belong to the slightly-lame selkie she admires, or to someone else? And why does the selkie come looking for Mairead, if not to reclaim her own pelt?
This paranormal f/f romance blends local color, period atmosphere and vivid, realistic sex scenes in a bewitching parable about the essential wildness of women. At the end of the fast-moving plot, those who were born to toil on the land are left there, and those who crave the sensuous freedom of life in the sea have found their way home.

[Julian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book.

I've loved Catt Kingsgrave's writing for a number of years now, and "lesbian selkie historical novella" had me at "selkie". I bought it as soon as it came out, but it sat in my to-read queue for a while, because of writing and research-reading that took priority.

The lead character, Mairead, is strong and capable while still having to deal with the limitations and challenges of being a woman who's attracted to women, during World War II, in a place as isolated as Orkney. She's very sympathetic, while still having plenty of rough edges to her character.

The selkie element is handled beautifully. It's matter-of-fact without taking away the mystery or fantasy of it; it's got a similar tone to The Secret of Roan Inish. Mairead and some of the other characters don't need to believe anything but the evidence of their own eyes, but you get the sense that other characters would dismiss it as mere fancy and legend, and that, to my taste, is exactly as it should be.

The eroticism is powerful, neither too flowery or too crude, just HOT.

I spotted the... should I call it a plot twist, or a secret, or what? Anyway, I spotted it well before the overt reveal, but that didn't detract at all for me; it seemed reasonable that I, standing outside the story, could pick it up, but that Mairead wouldn't consider it until she was confronted with it. And the way she reacted felt true and right.

And the ending was just what I'd hoped.

I could wish that this was a full-length novel, but not because I feel that anything was missing. I'd just have liked to spend more time in that world.

I can tell that this is a story I'll be reading again.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could I'd give this 3 3/4 stars because although I more than liked it (after initially finding it hard to get into) I didn't like it as much as my other 4 star books.
It's a tricky beast this one. The story is predictable but in a fairy tale kind of way, which makes the predictability somehow cosily part of the experience. The sexual scenes are graphic yet delicately described. The language is beautifully poetic yet - and this is the one thing that did really jar with me - very occasionally a word or phrase jumps off the page that just doesn't fit with the flow or is totally anachronistic to the setting. This might well be intentional but it didn't work for me.
Overall though an enjoyable read.

[T.T. Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very sensuous, beautifully written retelling of Orkney Islands sea myth about the selkies, the sea girls, who play in the islands off the coast of Scotland, and a town resident, Mairead, who has always felt different from her island neighbors. The language is lyrical, the story magical. Enter this lush and rare world for a few hours, and you'll find yourself going back again and again. Highly recommended.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the story. Loved the descriptive writing and the wonderful flow of words. My only issue is having to read it in ebook format (and yes I know this is my own issue) but I would have loved to have had the pleasure of a paper book in my hands to transport me completely with this story.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A seafood stew on a stormy day. This is rich and warm and finished all too soon. Beautifully written.

[Charline Dumais · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a very picky reader and have been on the hunt for a good book for a while now. Out of the dozen books I acquired in the last few months, this is one of the rare gems that was great from beginning to end. I wish I could find more like this. The only thing could say against it was that the ending felt slightly rushed compared to the buildup. But otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised by a plot twist I did not see coming and finished this short book wanting more.

[Vervada · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed the atmosphere, Mairead was an excellent protagonist and the ending was great, but the romance was a bit of a letdown, mostly for how very short and abrupt it was. Still, it was a nice way to spend an evening and I deeply appreciated the fact that at least this selkie was saved before she could be abused.

[Ry Herman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting in the Orkney Islands provides a great atmosphere for this story, as does the portrayal of life during wartime. Ultimately, though, I think it would have benefited from a lot more development being given to the love interest.

[Brenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit coming of age. A little bit of forbidden love. And a little bit hidden secrets, all rolled up into one sweet quick story. I'd read another in this series.

[nisie draws · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 3.5 but I'm rounding up because I enjoyed the ending.

[Francis Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is astonishing for its use of language and setting. The story is set in the Orkneys during World War 2 and the protagonist Mairead is the daughter of the ailing lighthouse keeper. The author's portrayal of a barren and dangerous world, of local dialect and fishing and lighthouse keeping, are convincing enough that I was left wondering whether this was personal experience.

The sense of danger from the elements is clear - the need to be constantly vigilant (danger to Mairead's father from himself, the danger to ships in the fog and at night) - but so also the escalating personal danger to Mairead from Helzie the thief, from the policeman and some villagers who are unhappy with the violence of her self-defence, and from the uncertainty over her future once her father dies. This is a time and place where to be a woman is to belong to a man.

Mairead does not want to belong to a man. Nor do the selkies, who are seals in the sea who can cast aside their skins to dance on land, where they are beautiful and can pass for human.

Whoever possesses the skin of a selkie has the power to enslave - a powerful lure for a man in search of an obedient wife. But Mairead is determined to protect the selkies who dance on her island, even as her own life and freedom are increasingly in danger.

[Elisa Rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

2012 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)

[Vinnie Tesla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was beautiful! Vivid and heartfelt, with a powerful sense of place. Not at all my usual reading, but I'm very glad I took a chance on it.