Natasha Bowen Books in Order

If you want mythic mermaid fantasy: Skin of the Sea → Soul of the Deep
If you want dragons and big quest stakes: Call of the Dragon
If you want the clearest intro to her world-building: Skin of the Sea → Call of the Dragon

Natasha Bowen was born in Cambridge, England, to a Welsh mother and a Nigerian Yoruba father, and Cambridge is still home. She grew up with books close at hand. Bowen has spoken about how much that mattered, especially because her mother, who was dyslexic, made sure stories were part of everyday life.

For Bowen, reading came first.

She has said that writing followed naturally from that early love of books. As a child she was drawn to adventure and fantasy, and one story that stayed with her was The Little Mermaid, which she first read at six. She also loved the pace and drama of series fiction like Nancy Drew. The common thread is easy to spot now: danger, movement, mystery, and girls at the center of the story.

At university, she studied English and creative writing at Bath Spa University. After graduating, she moved to East London and taught for nearly ten years. That day job mattered. Bowen wrote her debut while teaching full-time, fitting pages around school hours, family life, and whatever pockets of quiet she could find.

The book that broke through was Skin of the Sea. Bowen built it from several things she cared about at once: mermaids, West African history, Yoruba belief, and the question of what fantasy looks like when it starts from a different cultural center. She has said she wanted to write the kind of story she had wanted to read, one with Black mermaids and West African traditions at its heart.

Research was a big part of that process. Bowen has described digging into African history, mythology, and the changing stories around Yemoja, the deity some traditions connect with the souls of enslaved Africans lost at sea. Just as important, she has said she wanted to show that Black history does not begin with slavery. That is a big part of why her books spend so much time on belief, beauty, knowledge, family, and the fullness of the worlds her characters come from.

Skin of the Sea became a New York Times bestseller, and readers responded to the mix Bowen keeps returning to: myth, romance, danger, and big emotional choices. Its sequel, Soul of the Deep, widens Simi's world and pushes harder on sacrifice, duty, and what freedom really costs. Bowen's books are full of gods and monsters, but they are just as interested in girls who are tired of being told what their role should be.

She likes fantasy with roots.

That continues in Call of the Dragon, a new series opener built around dragon gods, a threatened kingdom, and a heroine named Moremi who is pulled into a crisis far larger than herself. Across Bowen's work, certain patterns keep showing up: young women under pressure, love and loyalty pulling in different directions, and worlds where history and belief have real weight. Even when the scale is epic, the stories stay close to the feelings of the person at the center.

Bowen now lives in Cambridge with her family. She is a mother of three, taught for years before publishing novels, and still sounds like someone who genuinely loves the making of books, not just the finished object. She is also fond of Japanese and German stationery, keeps plenty of notebooks around, and when she is not writing she is usually reading, with her cat and dog, Milk and Honey, nearby.