First Last Chance

"What you wanted, lad, was palace intrigues with poison and daggers, maybe you get to wave around your fancy little sword in a rooftop duel at the end of a long chase, hey? Turnabouts, betrayals, all that fun stuff? But here on the Ten-Thousand Seas it's mostly war. Mud, guns, and bombs by land; salt, guns, and torpedoes by sea."

The Stone Unfurled is a long, flat world surrounded by walls of golden ice, covered by the Ten-Thousand Seas, which are speckled with many islands whose inhabitants must make their way in a beautiful but harsh world. For the spoiled young governor who controls one of the tiniest islands this world has to offer, the extent of that harshness is about to be fully revealed. Thrown into a chaotic war between diverse factions, he must learn to make his way in the company of two women who are almost as frightening and dangerous as his enemies. Follow Arlo Haradin-Harkon on the first step of his slow transformation from a vain, bratty dandy to a swashbuckling hero in... First Last Chance

There's adventure, romance, humor, cool boats, a bit of sword play, strong women, violence, fatalism, and lots (and lots) of salt water.

Trigger warning: This book contains a lot of graphic violence and at one point they say the title out loud.