Hell hath no fury like a selkie separated from his true love.
The gate to the sea creature realm is finally open. Yara wants to bask in the glow of her budding relationship with Treygan and explore Medusa’s world, but as the new leader of Rathe her powers are needed to save a sea creature she’s never met.
Rownan assumes the worst is behind him when he returns home to be reunited with his wife, Vienna, only to discover she’s gone. She traveled to the evil realm of Harte to find another gateway to Earth and was never heard from again. Rownan claimed he would go through hell to be with her, and now he must prove it.
Rownan, Yara, and Treygan will put their lives and souls at risk by traveling to the most dangerous realm of all. Love is supposed to conquer all, but no one has ever conquered Harte.
If you haven’t read the first novel in the Sea Monster Memoirs, check out my 5 Bard review of Tangled Tides if you need any convincing to pick up a copy!
Well, I can say that I was waiting anxiously for this novel as soon as I finished Tangled Tides, and I couldn’t wait to be back with Yara, Treygan, and Rownan for another adventure. Hooper did not disappoint. For those who have read the first novel you are in for a huge heart attack inducing storyline that kept me desperate to keep reading regardless of my lunch hours ending and being tired on the treadmill.
Things that I loved: EVERYTHING. No okay, not everything, but I did like most everything that Hooper did in this novel. Not only do we get to see the consequences or rather, the difference, in Yara’s abilities and talents since her change into a blend of all things sea monster (Selkie, Siren, Mermaid, Gorgon, Nimph…). The reader also gets to kind of witness how the balance in Rathe has changed since Yara’s transformation as well, and see her strained relationship with her sister Gorgons and her guardian Siren, Nixie.
Now, I don’t remember if Harte was even mentioned in Tangled Tides, but I think that the mythology within the text was definitely strong enough to support the addition of a hell-like world to juxtapose the heaven on Earth description of Rathe. To piggy back off of that, I think that Hooper did a great job creating the challenges that the characters experienced when they were in Harte, although I do wish that the description of the creatures that were able to morph into human replicas was a little more detailed and that we got a little more of an idea as to what they were.
The one thing that I didn’t particularly like this time was all of the point of view switching. I honestly just wish we could have had just Yara telling us the story, but I understand the importance of switching when the characters were separated. However, I wish that the tone of voice and vocabulary had differed a little between each chapter as to separate the change a little bit more obvious.
The ending felt super sudden, and there is a major character death that I feel like didn’t get a super amount of mourning time, but the very end of the novel kind of explains that. YES, there will be a third novel, and I can only hope that it will be as satisfying and intense as Dangerous Depths.
4.5 Bards
Karen has been making up stories for as long as she can remember. Due to her strong Disney upbringing, she still believes in fairy tales and will forever sprinkle magic throughout all of her novels.
Moving! 
Thanks so much for reading and writing a review, Jess! I'm glad you enjoyed it. 🙂