I really enjoyed The Drowned Woods, so I was confident I would like this and I wasn't wrong. I think I might have liked The Drowned Woods a little better, just because it spent a little more time with more characters while this one is very heavily focused on the main two and their adventure. I do kind of wish neither book had a romance, but it's not because the romances were bad at all. I just think I wasn't in the mood for a romance element, but the romance is fairly minimal anyway. I highly recommend either of these books if you like T. Kingfisher's writing, and visa versa. Both authors do fantasy stories and character journeys in a way that is satisfying but also easy to digest. I also recommend any audiobooks narrated by Moira Quirk, she's excellent.