On the Lesbrary’s list of favorite 2025 releases, I named The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri as both my most anticipated 2025 release and my favorite sapphic read of the year. As said in that post, the author’s clear yet lyrical writing delivers an aching star-crossed romance, a high-stakes adventure, and ever-relevant anti-colonial commentary.
In this reimagined England, the land is kept alive by tales: fables repeated over many lifetimes by figures known as incarnates. Vina and Simran are better known respectively as the knight and the witch, reincarnations of figures destined to love and destroy each other. Neither is exactly looking forward to playing their role, though Simran, who was not born on the isle, is more resistant to it than Vina, who was raised in the queen’s court as her loyal vassal. When an assassin starts killing incarnates, ending not only their lives but also their tales and the land sustained by them, Vina and Simran wind up with new problems to solve before their time runs out.
Throughout the story, forces pull them together and push them apart beyond just the machinations of their tale, and they must choose whether to fight their way back to each other. Though Simran resents the fate thrust upon her and initially wants nothing to do with the woman destined to kill her, Vina wants to show Simran kindness while she has the chance—not for the sake of initiating their love story, but simply because she still can. Both of these characters recognize the shared chains around them and thus the shared humanity that is theirs to acknowledge. The story gives glimpses of the pair’s past incarnations, highlighting Vina and Simran as their own distinct individuals. Even in a life where not all of their choices are their own, they decide what and who to care for.
The original knight and witch were a white man and woman, and the fact that Vina and Simran are two women of color with heritage from “elsewhere,” as people on the isle refer to all other countries, causes others to view them as an aberration and thus a threat. Whenever they act according to their own wants and ideals, they are subject to even more scrutiny, but assimilation doesn’t save them, either. They are not just victims of fate, but of an oppressive colonial system that seeks to erase all opposing narratives.
For me, this book struck a perfect balance of its elements, with a constant sense of danger both to the protagonists and their world, a swoon-worthy developing romance, and an engaging ensemble cast that includes a queer found family. In the book’s final arc, there is a major shift in the story’s status quo that I quite enjoyed. If you’re a fan of romantic fantasy who wants a gripping read that plays with Arthurian folklore, I highly recommend this one.
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