I flip-flopped a lot with Deepwater King. I came in hot off the heels of finishing Monstrous Heart and was hoping to find my feet right away. I didn't. Like Monstrous Heart, there's not enough world building/background for me to feel fully invested. There's a small excerpt at the beginning of the book with some history, admittedly, but it fails to fill in the blanks. We're then reliant on snippets of conversation between characters for information and explanation of terminology only used in this universe. Unfortunately as a result I still didn't feel fully immersed like I was hoping I would.

The concept behind the Monstrous Heart trilogy is unique to me and does hold a lot of potential. I would love to know more about Lyonne and it's history. McKenna's writing style is eloquent and consistent throughout. There's no denying she has a love of language.

I think the strongest part of the 2 instalments I've read so far are the characters. Chalice is arguably my favourite character; I would love to see her star in a novella of her own at some point - snippets of her life as a Lion perhaps. Her dialogue is brilliant and her friendship with Arden is complex and believable. Arden herself doesn't quite meet the mark for me this time around however; she is constantly finding herself in danger and being rescued at just the right moment by characters who just so happen to be around. I tended to favour the chapters where she was not the focus.

The mythology and lore surrounding the Deepwater Folk and their religion also intrigues me - we get to see more of this this time around and it did scratch an itch I had since reading Monstrous Heart, so that's a definite plus!

For me this is a 3 star read overall. I'm still curious to see how the series concludes but I'm wary all the same.