From These Dark Depths

Aisling Sea, Book 2

By: Vanessa Rasanen

Narrated by: Caitlin Riblett

Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A desperate pirate crew. An abducted captain. Can they save him before he faces the bloodthirsty sirens, or will other dangers of the sea claim them first?

The crew of the Siren's Song race to catch up with the ruthless pirate who has captured their captain. But a sudden storm forces them to choose a perilous route. Desperate to save their captain and retrieve the enchanted dagger, the crew argues over how to survive the waters and what lies beneath.

Declan finds himself in the hands of a cruel and ambitious pirate with no desire to listen to reason or the truth. With no chance to escape, he must buy his crew time to reach him before he falls victim to his captor's deadly scheme.

In a world of myths and mystery, a captain's life hangs in the balance. But it will take more than skill and magic to save him. Can a crew come together to free their captain—or will their stubborn hearts sacrifice him instead?

©2022 Vanessa Rasanen (P)2022 Vanessa Rasanen

emotional devastation 🖤🖤🖤

I devoured OTBS and couldn't wait to get my hands on this book!! top tier pirate romantasy summer vibes 🙌🙌🙌 Vanessa does it again!! the heartache, the longing, the adventure, the danger, the magic of it all.

a high seas adventure about a pirate with a heart of gold, the woman he loves but betrayed and lied, his cinnamon roll of a best friend, three powerful fae sisters, and the formidable siren queen who holds the one item that could change everything.

if you enjoy:
enemies to lovers
slow burn
insta love
magic
betrayal
political intrigue
matriarchal society

then do yourself a favor and get this ASAP!!!

An entertaining book and performance

The story was amazing enjoyed it. Loved to see the growth of Tommy during this one and how navigates his new role. All the new secrets that were learned at the end of this one is going to set up for an interesting third book.

The performance was great. The narrator did an amazing job keeping me entertained the whole way through.

Loved it

Loved it so so much. Just loved it. So perfect. I got nothing else to say about that book.

Action packed but the romance fell flat

Book two in the series starts up following the events of the first book. Our two MCs have been separated after the reality of her sister's killer was unmasked. The crew of the sirens song set sail to rescue their kidnapped captain battled sirens and krakens along the way. Our main characters battle their own inner demons throughout this book especially when they believe themselves to be selfish for wanting happiness above duty. We have a ton of inner conflict on top of the action/adventure the characters go through.

This book brings about multiple POVs and we see new love interests emerge. However, these love interests fall in the category of "insta -love" for me. Their interests in other characters romantically comes out of nowhere. And the fact that a lot of this book follows the events of the first book which was technically only a week long, makes the love stories a bit unbelievable. Especially, the new rogue pirate. I found him to be the most unbelievable especially due to his "motivation" for joining up with Kate. This is also a book that I would rate in the YA category more so than the first book. The author likes to say this book is spicier but there's one fade to black scene and that's about it. Plus you add in the insta-love stories and I just don't buy it.

It's still a fun pirate romp with loads of action and interesting plot developments but the main story really focuses on the romantic relationships which seemed so forced and barely had time to develop. The backstory and main plotline are really well done, I just wish the romance was more believable. Even if you don't add spice, the relationships need to be nurtured rather than just thrown together because TikTok demands romance or spice. Out of the two books I liked the first one much more.

Overall
Story ⭐⭐⭐
Spice . 5/🌶️
Audio 🎧🎧🎧🎧

Meh

I tried to continue on the series but DNF’d halfway through this book. I enjoyed the idea of the story and some of the unique elements it brought since many books (and titles) feel so copy and paste. This book was just lacking in so many ways for me. The writing was fine. Perhaps I’ve just outgrown YA. While I didn’t hate it, it didn’t evoke any emotion, focus, or anything else for me.