While heading out on his coming-of-age tour, Prince Tal (royal child four of five), finds and rescues a young man, Athlen, chained in a hull of an abandoned ship. Once freed, Athlen immediate jumps overboard into the sea. Athlen should be dead, that he isn't is just another mystery that Tal wants to uncover, but Tal has secrets of his own, which could embroiled his country in war if it were ever to get out.

I think someone sold this to me as gay YA pirates and all of that is lies except for the YA part. This story feels like the full version story of what will become mythologized as a fairytale passed down around the kingdom through the ages. There are sort of two main threads in the book the romance plot and the magic plot, and while they mesh at times, at others they take attention away from each other. I happen to think that the magic plot is stronger, more interesting, and at times I feel like the romance was sort of tacked on to make the book sellable. This imbalance might be because the middle of the book is dedicated Tal and his character arc, and the big event here, the fallout, and the impact on Tal overshadows Athlen since Athlen's past is only briefly explained and his trauma only occasionally brushed over.

Overall, I like the story of In Deeper Waters more than So This is Ever After, but feel like the romance in the later is stronger. Both books are enjoyable and I look forward to Luken's next book, Spell Bound, which comes out in 2023.