This is the Mask: A Book Blog

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC of Julie Gerstenblatt’s new book The Stargazer of Nantucket.

Any book associated with nineteenth century seafaring is going to catch my eye, fiction or nonfiction. Julie Gerstenblatt’s newest book had all of the elements that I feel make a good sea story: the adventure and peril of the open ocean, life on a ship, shipwrecks, mutiny, and colorful characters that give the ship her life. Add in not just one but two intelligent, strong-minded female characters, and you have a fantastic book that you won’t want to put down.

At first, I thought this might be a YA book as the main protagonist is eighteen. A headstrong, sheltered, rather spoiled eighteen, I might add. Early on I was irritated with Winnie’s behavior and hoped that she would come to see how reckless her actions were. Her character matures as the story progresses; conversely, her father becomes less and less reliable as their journey continues. My favorite character was Winnie’s mother Nell. She is clearly modeled on the real women living in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in the nineteenth century: Intelligent, educated, ready and able to manage the family’s affairs while their husbands were away at sea, often for years. The women of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard were a different kind of woman from those of the mainland. Nell is the family’s polestar on land and at sea.

The Stargazer of Nantucket is not rated as a YA book, and I don’t feel that it is, though it is a coming-of-age story. We see Winnie mature and become a strong, capable woman with her future shining before her, carried on the ocean’s waves.

The Stargazer of Nantucket is scheduled for publication on June 9, 2026.