Jovial but broody ship's captain broods about grieving debutant who thinks he's very pretty.

2 POVs plus some Rafe (youngest bro) POV scenes, half ship roadtrip, half high society setting, Victorian era (1850s), low to medium spice

The brooding! We have a 28 year old saying [30% in]

"I'm too old to ever do anything else but be on the sea and I'll never leave it because I'm so old and stuck in my ways." Like a lot.

He's also [20% in]

kinda a bad flirt, (heavy handed)

which is wild for rake-type character.

We get a lot of his opinion of how women work and it does not make me think he's as... prolific as reputed.

This one has lots of fun side characters and the protagonists have plenty of bright moments, they just don't seem to move emotionally in response to conflict or points of self reflection. There's a lot of rehashing sans progress.

I don't know why he fell for her, besides "she's very pretty"- which is fair enough, but hard to get amped about bc of all the brooding.

Her hoard of brothers are very silly and excellent.

Narrator: Faye Adele's performance is very slow paced in this one. I don't usually use the speed-up options, but did for some scenes in this (1.25-1.5x)

That slowness may have colored some of the pacing issues I found in the book, but I can't tell.

Next book: debating on jumping into Book 3 immediately. If Tristan's book was about

insecure attachment making him want to leave all the time as a method of control

, Rafe seems like he's going to drop some major

toxic masculinity issues about it not being good to have feelings or cry

bc of how his 14 yo brothers left him.

Really just want these brothers to do some bonding and get some hugs.