The Strangeworlds Travel Agency: The Edge of the Ocean: the sequel we wish all sequels were like!

“Flick is now a badge-wearing member of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency so when an urgent summons arrives at Strangeworlds from Pirate Queen Nyfe, she and Strangeworlds Society guardian Jonathon immediately pack their bags for an adventure to Queen Nyfe’s world: The Break, a place of magic and piracy. Nyfe’s world is falling apart. The Break is used to having ships vanish without a trace, but there has been a sudden increase that can’t be explained by giant squid or mer-people. The edge of their flat world is coming ever closer to them and they need to escape before it collapses entirely. But how do you sail a ship through a suitcase? How do you fit a mer-queen the size of a whale into something small enough to carry in your hand? Will Flick and Jonathan be able to find a way to transport the inhabitants of the Break to another world before theirs disappears forever?“

In ‘TEOTO’ (let’s call it that because it’s easier for me to type), our beloved characters from the first book, Flick and Jonathan, are back and up to saving worlds from the no good as ever. They’ve been summoned to The Brink, a magical and nautical land of the sea, by an infamous character. Pirate Queen Nyfe and all of the inhabitants of The Brink are in grave danger of their world disappearing and it’s up to Flick and Jonathan to do everything they can to save the world… (aka bring it back from the brink!).

If you’re anything like me, you love a pirate story (I don’t know why, there’s just something dangerous, perilous and a bit scary about them without being TERRIFYING) and a story on the wide open seas is sure to bring out a lot of character quirks! What you get in this is a pirate story with heart, with new characters, old faces, some unanswered questions and some really bloody big secrets. You meet a new world in this multiverse that is bloody well written, it’s interesting and it’s one I’d love to visit (provided I wasn’t at risk). There’s swords, men overboard and danger at bay.

Flick and Jonathan continue to be their brilliant selves. You see a lot more of them in this book. You get some vulnerability from them and more of their gorgeous humour from the first book. They’re the kind of duo that I know I could read about for book after book without getting bored (and let’s be real, there could be so many books of this series because of the genius of the suitcases!).

So these new characters eh? Oh, there’s so many in this book to fall in love with. I just wanna dedicate a paragraph to one of them… Avery. Because she is Jonathan’s cousin, she brings a new level of understanding about Jonathan that we didn’t get in book one. She’s a character who at first you have one opinion on, but by the end that is totally flipped on its head. Avery ends up joining out main characters on their adventure and she brings a gorgeous newness to the story that I didn’t expect. I can’t go into too much without having to put SPOILERS everywhere. Just know that I love Avery and what she adds to the story.

There’s SO MANY pirate characters that I could talk about… but I will just say that all of the different pirates made me fall in love with them in one way or another (although I think Burnish might be my favourite!) I’d love to see more of some of the pirates somehow!

We all know as well as magic, I love a twisty turny book (I just like to be surprised and kept on my toes tbh). And there’s SO MANY in this book. I actually had SO MANY moments of OMG as I read this that at one point I had to just have a moment to myself. The END of the story left me absolutely shook – a BIG REVELATION IS COMING GUYS. Poor LD had to put up with a barrage of DMs and questions from me as I read/when I finished.

It’s not often a sequel comes along that I think I loved more than the first one (let’s be real, book 2s are quite often not the best), but here, LD Lapinski has written a sequel that is ARGUABLY better than the first… and I think that needs some kind of mad props. This book is toughness and softness rolled into one – you go from pirates sword fighting to some incredibly touching conversations between our main characters that it gave me such life.

My Goodreads review:

OMG. I absolutely adored my second trip in the suitcases of Strangeworlds. This is jam packed with pirate goodness, new friends, old friends, some gorgeous rep and A MASSIVE BOATLOAD OF SECRETS. I’ve not read anything in almost 2 months and just devoured this in 2 sittings. LD is an absolute master story weaver. This has absolutely everything you could want and I DO NOT want to wait a whole year for the next book because THAT ENDING.

Phew! Thank you for bearing with me through that mammoth review! A massive thank you to the publishers for sending me a proof copy: I absolutely adored it (and I hope this review shows that!)

Have you read The Strangeworlds Travel Agency?
Where would you like LD Lapinski to take us next?
Are you excited for The Edge of the Ocean?

Please please please let’s shout about this book and get it preordered!

S x