The only disappointing thing about this book is that it's the last one. Not just because I would've liked to read much more, but because the ending proposed the beginning of a whole new story so perfectly that I'm sad we won't be able to read about it. Emily Skrutskie is already working on another badass-looking book, though, so I guess I'll survive.

You could say I had very high expectations for this book, and the biggest ones were in regards to the romance. TASU was all about Cas and Swift waiting until they were on "equal footing", which I absolutely loved — power imbalances are so not my thing, especially considering how young they were, so to see them acknowledge that and actively wait for better circumstances was refreshing. And they did reach that point in the first book, but then everything went to hell again, and my worry was that they'd be too distant for most of this book because of that. Early on, though, I already knew I shouldn't have worried.

Things between them were complicated as hell and I appreciate that the author respected that complexity and invested on it instead of maybe trying to solve everything too quickly. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that Cas and Swift's dynamic when they're on equal footing the entire time was pretty damn wonderful to read. Don't get me started on how much I loved all the hard, emotional moments as much as the endless teasing that's been a constant aspect of their dynamic since they met.

The main issues that they face in this book are a lot bigger in scale, and consequently, so is Cas's existencial crisis. Poor girl blames herself for so much that I just wanted to scream at her to stop carrying the weight of the entire ocean on her shoulders. In TASU we saw her life completely change as she was forced to take a better look at a world she couldn't see properly from the shore, and in the end she decided to stay, so TEOTA is all about the consequences of that. Cas is dealing with plenty of guilt and concerns about where to go from there. Just a regular 18-year-old stressing about her future except she's a pirate trainee and also a trainer of bio-engineered sea monsters.

With these two books, she and Swift managed to become two of my favorite characters. I was blown away by a certain revelation about Swift's character, and in the end it just made her a lot more interesting and original. I also paid more attention to the other trainees, whereas in the first book I'll admit I mixed them up quite a few times. Varma shined in most of the funniest scenes as well as in one of my favorite quote-worthy, serious moments. And Santa Elena. God, what a character. In between learning more about her past and seeing her getting chummy with Cas, I found myself appreciating her even more than I did in the first book.

In short, Emily Skrutskie said this one's got more monsters, more pirates and way more "equal footing", and she wasn't kidding. It was everything I could've asked for.

I thought the first book was wonderful, if formulaic, so I was deeply disappointed in this one. While the tension and pacing are excellent, the conclusion is predictable and pretty racist, and there's an unfortunate lack of character development after the first chapter.