Ahhh I actually really liked this! I wasn't the biggest fan of Sky in the Deep so I went into this hopeful but wary, but I really enjoyed it.

First off, this is a really speedy book, so it was perfect for me right now. I've been having trouble focusing on reading lately, but this book made it so easy to keep on reading! It was full of action (yet was easy to still follow and didn't dominate the whole book), and it was just a perfect balance of characters, plot, and description.

One of my favorite aspects of this book has to be the writing, at least the descriptive aspect of it. The scene that Young was trying to paint was always so clear in my head, and I felt like I was on the ship with Fable, or diving beneath the waves with her. I loved how the ocean was wrapped into every part of this story, and how its beauty (and danger) were described throughout the book. It felt like a perfect summer book for this reason, and was a perfect little getaway to crystal clear skies and endless, blue seas (maybe minus the pirates and scheming, of course).

I also really liked that this book actually went hard on the ocean/ship/trading/pirate stuff too. A lot of times those parts of pirate/sea trading stories are glossed over, and the story might as well take place on land with how much of ship life is actually described. But Young makes a clear distinction between the times they're sailing and when they're docked, and you can feel the difference in how things are described and the things the characters focus on. We get to see crazy boat maneuvers, watch the characters fight their way through deadly storms, and feel the sea breeze in the quiet moments. It was just really well done.

I also was overall quite invested in the story itself, and am curious to see where it goes next. The world was just big enough for it to feel like there's more going on, without feeling like too much for such a short book. There was intrigue, politics (amongst traders and guilds), a lot of plot and secrets, and a bit of romance. And while I didn't necessarily feel like this book needed a romance, it wasn't bad to be honest. It's just not why I cared for this book at all, and I would've felt the same without it being there.

Anyways, this has made me excited to try more books by Young, and I can't wait to see what happens in Namesake!