The Pirate of Fathoms Deep

4.5 stars for a very enjoyable read and a nice followup to The High King's Golden Tongue.

Shemal and Lesto are both appealing characters, and I'm glad that this book, like the first in the series, has alternating points of view. There's a lot of difference between how they each perceive themselves and how they perceive each other, so it's very satisfying when they finally work everything out between them. Their connection is easy to see, for the reader, even if Shemal spends nearly the whole book baffled about what makes him so important to Lesto. There are hints early on in the story that Lesto wants Shemal to be part of his family, an idea which always makes me melt in romance novels.

I love Megan Derr's work; it's always great to slip into these fantasy worlds in which it's just a normal, everyday thing to be of any orientation (including asexuality, which gets mentioned a few times offhandedly) and any gender identity. As always her worldbuilding is great. The plot is intriguing, although it's definitely secondary to the romance here.

However, there were odd choices in this book, like when Shemal suddenly woke up in the palace; it took me a few pages to realize they weren't in the garrison anymore. Also, I was slightly disappointed that the confrontation between Shemal and one of Lesto's suitors was not shown from Shemal's point of view.

Relatedly, I had hopes that Lord Tara would have a greater presence in this book. I feel it was a missed opportunity, not actually showing Shemal, Allen, and Tara hanging out and being friends. I know that Tara and Rene's story will be told in a future book, though. I'm also looking forward to reading about Jader and Kamir, after seeing both of them briefly in this story.

I hovered between 4 and 5 stars for my rating, but overall, I very much liked Shemal and Lesto's relationship, which is why I was reading the book. There are great sex scenes and a lot of emotional moments between them. The HEA was really solid, too, and very funny.

I was vacillating between three stars and four for this book - but the banter won out in the end and pushed it that extra bit. I like the characters and I'm very interested in the world that's been created here - and would love to find out more about it - but this isn't the book I was expecting it to be. You see, I thought it was going to be like the first one which was very definitely a fantasy with romance, but this book is a romance set in a fantasy world. For me, that was a little disappointing, because it wasn't quite what I wanted at the time.

3.5 stars