Tress of the Emerald Sea

 Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, 483 pages.

Tress is a very normal girl who lives on an inhospitable island in the Emerald Sea. The Emerald Sea is made of spores which, when exposed to the least bit of water, explodes instantly into vines. She washes windows, makes pies, cultivates her cup collection, and spends time talking with Charlie (who is definitely not the local lord's son Charles in an extremely bad gardener disguise). Tress thinks she would be content enough to live here forever, even though most people think the island is so terrible that there's a law that says nobody can leave. But when Charlie is taken hostage by the evil Sorceress Tress decides that if nobody else is going to do anything about it she is simply going to have to, and sets out to sail the Emerald Sea (and other, more dangerous, spore seas besides) and bring him back. Soon Tress is doing things she never believed herself capable of, including becoming a pirate in the crew of a monstrous captain, and also asking questions that could be considered impolite.

This novel was initially written in secret as a gift to the author's wife, and is at least partially a response to The Princess Bride, which he says is a great movie, but in which the titular character doesn't get to do much. This is a really fun adventure story that also manages to be very emotionally resonant. It takes place in the same extended universe as many of Sanderson's other books and is told by Hoid, a worldhopper who manages to make it onto every planet and every story. His narrative voice is insightful, engaging, and extremely funny, and it also lends itself well to the slightly fairytale tone the novel has (although his asides might be confusing to people who haven't read more Cosmere books). I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially fans of The Princess Bride or pirate stories