Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books, Edelweiss, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
If you have not read the first book in this series, Curious Tides, stop here. There will more than likely be spoilers for that book below. And you'll need to read that first book to understand what happens in this one.
Curious Tides was my favorite book of 2023. I will admit, when it was sent to me I was unsure I'd really want to read it. The length was intimidating but I also judged the book by its cover and it just didn't look inviting to me. Boy was I WRONG! Not only do I now love that cover, but I am in love with all the characters and the world Lacelle has built. It's a very unique magical system and the world building was amazing.
I was super excited to jump into this one seeing as the first one pretty much ended on a cliff hanger. I needed to know what happened to all the characters! This installment of The Drowned Gods series is full of action and adventure. It delves deeper into the magical system and gives a ton of history and background world. 
This book is told from four points of view. Yep, two new POVs are added and I'm sure you can imagine that changed the story up quite a bit. Having Romie's POV really expanded how the story progressed. And we got a dip into Kai's POV at the end of the first book so I knew he was going to be included! Plus we still hear from Baz and Emory. It's great to watch the story unfold from all these characters who are complex, real, and very reliable. Do their emotions get involved? They sure do. But it brings just the right amount of drama and intrigue to pull the reader along. I loved seeing the two characters we got to know so well in book one through the eyes of their best friends. We're also introduced to a slew of new characters. One of which is the author of the story which started all the characters down the road of this story. 
The romance takes a bit of a turn in this book. We did see it somewhat towards the end of book 1 but it ramps up much more in this book. And those you thought were pining for each other turns out to be a bit different than what we first thought. It's a very slow burn so if you're expecting it to pop out and be real early on, you're in for a surprise. Expect a build until things combust.
This book introduces time travel. Lacelle does a good job with is, as well. I'm always worried that time travel books will have too many complicated things happening and make it hard to understand but that is not the case here. I will say I was surprised at what was reveled by the characters who did travel. I was worried how it would alter the other timeline. The alternating time lines were easy to understand and keep up with. We don't really see the intersection of the timelines until the end, so I'll be interested to see how it plays out in the third book of the series.
Often times the second book of a trilogy suffers from middle books syndrome where the book becomes just filler to get you to the third book that wraps the story up. This is not that book. This book absolutely lends so much to the story. Especially because it explores more worlds than what we saw in the first book. It expands the universe so well. It gives more depth to the characters, plot, and world.
I loved the mystery and intrigue in this book. I will admit it was a long one. I am very intimidated by long books. I did have to take a few breaks. And I did find myself jumping back at times to make sure I understood what was happening as it did get complicated at times. And I love that Lacelle continued using the dark academia introduced int book one in this book. She doesn't take you away from that part of the book which really is so important to the overall story.
While I wanted to love this book as much as the first, I did feel the pacing was not quite as on point with this installment as the first. I struggled at times to understand some of what was happening. There was so much new stuff introduced, such a large expansion of the universe, I sometimes had a hard time keeping it all straight. This brought my rating down. But overall, this is a great continuation of interesting and unique lore with complex characters and time lines that keep you turning the page. Once again we're left with a cliff hanger which leave me wondering just how the author is going to solve the pickle these characters have gotten themselves into! Excited for the next book already!