Fantastit sequel which continues the fabulous adventures of Flick (and Jonathan). I love the concept of travelling to other worlds through suitcases and the adventures they have in this book do not disappoint. Lots of great new characters, issues handled delicately and lots of representation. Great stuff.

Honestly this series is SO good i can’t even articulate how much I love it. Definitely one to pick up for any friends or family who read middle grade! This is a great addition to the series and just what I wanted :) 5 stars.

I adored the first Strangeworlds Travel Agency book and was really looking forward to reading the sequel. I wasn't disappointed. All of the things I loved about the first book - the vivid descriptions of the worlds the suitcases transport them to, the tension and eerieness, and the characters of Flick and Jonathan and their relationship - were found here too. A thrilling sequel and, as with the ending of the first book, I was left desperate for more.

(Short review due to requesting and reading the book was a long time ago before personal issues prevented me from fulfilling my reviews promptly and prior to publication. Apologies.)

After enjoying the first title in this series, I was keen to get to this one. Ashamed to say it took a little longer than anticipated, but it was wonderful! After saving the magical city of Five Lights, Flick and Jonathan receive a summons from the Pirate Queen Nyfe. Nyfe's world is shrinking and she is sure that the Strangeworld's society members can help with. This was a fast-paced adventure building on the magical worlds created in the first book. I'm now looking forward to reading the third book.

Huge fan of Flick & Jonathan from earlier books, I just can't enough of Strangeworlds adventures . Cleverly written with a humour and wit not easily achieved at the right level in MG novels, Lapinski again manages to feature LGBTQ+ characters and relationships in an authentic, respectful way. Brilliant fantastical plot with quirky characters, I'd love to see this on screen!

Flick returns, still earning back her parents' trust after their last adventure; can she and Jonathan save the world of The Break and be back in time for curfew? With well drawn settings and a whole host of characters old and new, Lapinski has produced another hugely readable tale. Taken purely as a standard middle-grade fantasy it would be impressive enough but it's more than that. A subtle but clear same-sex crush and a trans character presented in a matter-of-fact way provide great representation without being the sole focus or motivation of the character. While the other characters' discussion of the relationship between Flick and Jonathan is really uncomfortable given their respective ages, it's clear Flick's interests lie elsewhere. A great read from start to finish.

I liked this one but it isn't a new favourite unfortunately. I find the relationship between Flick and Jonathan uncomfortable, I know that this is discussed on page, but a 12 year old hanging out with an 18 year old is just a bit odd. I feel that this story would have worked just as well as a YA and then you could age Flick up. Her character is more like a 15 year old anyway. (Honestly- who's parents let a 12 year old get a part time job at a travel agents?!) There is a scene where Avery says 'I thought you were about to kiss then!' Which just highlighted the uncomfortableness for me.
However, I really enjoy the adventure and I will read more, I liked how we had a touch of exploring sexuality in here, and I'm looking forward to seeing this explored further.

CAWPILE 7.14 4*
Characters: 7- I like Flick, Jonathan is a bit 2D but I also like Avery so I'm excited to see more
Atmosphere: 8- it was exciting and gripping
Writing: 6- It would have been an 8 but I dropped down because of how uncomfortable I felt
Plot:7- I love the concept of suitcases holding new worlds- its a metaphor that speaks to my travellers soul
Intrigue: 7- I was excited to see how they would get out of the escapade, however I didn't feel that it tied in that well to the events of book 1
Logic: 8- everything pretty much made sense in the world
Enjoyment: 7- I liked the story, but I couldn't score it higher I'm afraid.

Flick and Jonathan are back for more suitcase travels and adventures! This sequel is as breathtaking and adventurous as book one and I was so pleased to be back with this brilliant double act! In this adventure, the duo are summoned by the pirate queen and she needs their help to save her world, it is perilously close to the edge of the ocean.
Another phenomenal book of world building, amazing characters and exciting adventures- this is a series not to be missed!! With more planned, I cannot wait to see where we head next!

O wow I was so excited to read this book!
I read the first one so quick I enjoyed it so much I read it twice.
So when I saw this one I couldn’t wait and I was not disappointed.
I loved the characters more as I got to know them and the plot was so adventurous I really wish I could get into my suitcase and go places.
A great summer read for children.

Another amazing story again @ldlapinski . I really feel we are getting to know more about Flick and Jonathan and the Strange World. That ending was brilliant and I can’t wait for book 3. Big adventures, humour and Flick out to save the day again. My class are going to love it. It now sits on the shelf in my class in what I like to describe as my own strange world book case ready for others to leave this world and venture out into their own worlds of imagination.

Following the events of the first book, Flick has become a fully fledged member of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency and soon heads off, through a suitcase to a new world. Pirate Queen Nyfe has urgently summoned them and Jonathan and Flick must help Nyfe with the predicament she is facing. The Break is beginning to fall apart and the edge of the world is coming closer and closer, collapsing before their very eyes.

The first Strangeworlds from last year was truly phenomenal and so I jumped at the chance to read the second. I loved every minute of the first story, a refreshingly original portal story travelling through different worlds, and the second was no exception. I always enjoy stories involving pirates and The Edge of the Ocean is a fantastic sea-faring adventure story filled with magic and edge of the seat peril! As well as the excellent and fast paced plot, LD Lapinski continues to write a diverse world enabling children to broaden their perceptions of the world, or to see themselves in a story.

Flick is a likeable protagonist – she’s fierce and stands up for herself throughout the story. I enjoyed the development of her character, especially some of the key spoilery moments towards the end of the novel! (Don’t worry I won’t give anything away). Similarly, Jonathan continues to delight with his bookish charm and I particularly enjoyed seeing him so flustered near the beginning of the story. LD delves into his grief and anguish around the loss of his father and writes this so sensitively. He’s a truly well rounded character. New addition cousin Avery is dynamic and feisty and a fun way to round off the main trio in this story.

A magical swashbuckling tale that is completely unputdownable. This sequel deserves 5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Children’s books for providing an e-book review copy.

This is a wonderful sequel to one of my favourite books from last year. It manages the tricky second book challenge of really exploring the characters further while keeping everything I loved from the first one, all without feeling like the set up to a trilogy. Johnathan and Flick continue to have adventures in the magical lands reached through a suitcase, but it feels more personal this time - Johnathan is dealing with his grief at having lost his father, and both characters are dealing with nascent crushes. This probably puts this book as more suitable for 9 or 10 year olds, whereas I recommended the first novel to any confident readers aged 7+. Lapinski has written a bang up to date story (it is nonchalantly dropped in that Jonathan wears a binder, and that Flick is crushing on another girl), that still fits within the pantheon of classic children's adventure stories and magical lands. Pirates, peril and parent problems all combine into a rip-roaring read that will leave any reader desperate for the third novel.

This is a rip roaring, thrill a minute Strangeworlds swashbuckling adventure. I was thrilled to receive an advance review copy having been enthralled by the first book in the series. We pick up the story where the last book left off and immediately find ourselves immersed in the multiverse world of Jonathan and Flick, surrounded by a new cast of characters including pirates and merpeople.

I was particularly captivated not just by the thrilling descriptions which appeal to both adults and young people, but also by the fact that some of the narrative strands which were teased in the first story are fulfilled in this wonderful sequel (no spoilers: Jonathan's dad's mysterious disappearance as well as the significance of the enigmatic pharmacist are more fully explained).

All that now remains is to wait for the third book to brighten up our lives and stoke our imaginations. In the meantime, a sincere thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance review copy.

I was eagerly awaiting the second Strangeworlds instalment and it did not disappoint.

Flick is not in her parents' good books after her last stint at the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, but a chance encounter with Jonathan at the supermarket leads to her mother allowing her to take a summer job there. As soon as she is back at Strangeworlds, Flick is confronted with Jonathan's cousin, Avery, which she is not best pleased about. However, she doesn't have much time to dwell on this before they are summoned to The Break - a nautical world where pirates and merfolk rule. Pirate Queen Nyfe needs the Strangeworlds Society's help as the edges of their world are breaking away and time is running out. Can Jonathan, Flick and Avery work out how to help The Break's inhabitants before their whole world falls apart?

I really enjoyed the addition of Avery and seeing Flick and Jonathan's characters develop further. L.D Lapinski's world building is excellent yet again; this book will certainly transport you to another world and is perfect escapism. I have been recommending this wonderful book to all the pupils I teach (age 9+) and am looking forward to the next book already!

An edge-of-the-seat edge of the ocean adventure with proper pirates, magical merfolk and an ending that made me gasp out loud! I need everyone to read this so we can talk about it! Love L.D. Lapinksi's writing and anything they write is an instant preorder for me.

Jonathan and Flick are back and this time their adventures are full of pirates, mer-people, a shrinking world and magic. With an ending that will make you audibly gasp & leave you wanting more, this is a must-read!

Just finished reading #TheStrangeworldsTravelAgencyTheEdgeoftheOcean by @ldlapinski & think it was even better than the 1st book! Absolutely thrilling adventure & fab characters. Pratchett would have wholeheartedly approved of my reading choice on his birthday #GNUTerryPratchett https://t.co/nxkWFmuIBa

Any bookseller will tell you that the Holy Grail for children's fiction is the book that's challenging in its language and themes, but appropriate in its content for advanced younger readers. Bookshops are awash with precocious readers whose young age prevents them from advancing to YA fiction, but who crave something that doesn't patronise them. Luckily, The Strangeworlds Travel Agency is perfect for this category of customers, with a thrilling plot and believable (not patronising) characters wrapped in vocabulary that will stretch readers while not alienating sensitive youngsters (or their parents). Perfect for fans of fantasy fiction age 9+.

Jonathan and Flick are back together again in the brilliant sequel to The Strange Worlds Travel Agency – The Edge of the Ocean. This series is based on such a fun and unique idea. Readers are able to travel to a whole host of exciting worlds through portals in suitcases!
Flick is desperate to return to her adventures at the travel agency. This time, it’s a message from a pirate queen that leads them into a world that’s falling apart. In a magical, piratey land, they must solve the mystery and save the inhabitants before it’s too late.
Both of these stories are wonderful for children age 9+ who are looking for something really different.

One of the very few positives that I could find during the first lockdown was that for a few short months I had a much better work-life balance. Before live online teaching and with no travelling back and forth to school, I had considerably more time for reading. A little under a year ago – unable to visit a bricks and mortar bookshop – I ordered several titles to be delivered from Waterstones, including the first in this series about which I knew very little – other than that it was being shouted about very loudly as one that was a brilliantly written and exciting story and one that I would be missing out on if I didn’t read it.

And so, I found myself transported metaphorically not just into another world, but other worlds – parts of the multiverse that I had never even dreamed of, in a debut book that was fresh, original and – above all else – unputdownable. The story of Flick and Jonathan’s adventures stayed with me and when we entered lockdown again at the start of this year, I decided that they would provide the perfect distraction to share with my class bubble – more for my benefit than for theirs, possibly – and so, together, for a few minutes each day we explored those other worlds and left the classroom behind us.

Having reread the story, and enjoying it even more a second time, I have – like so many others – been desperate to read this sequel, so when I finally settled down with it, it was with a great sense of expectation and also a slight niggle of worry – would this be as good as the first? Well, let me tell you that it is not as good: it is better – and having finished it, I am now keenly waiting for book 3, because I need to know what happens next and you will too.

It is towards the end of the summer holidays that we reencounter Flick – holidays that she had envisaged spending at the Travel Agency but, following the shenanigans of Book 1, to which she is unable to return – having been grounded by her parents. This restriction does not apply to accompanying her mother and little brother Freddy to the supermarket, where her main job is to keep him entertained. While doing so, Flick bumps into Jonathan and they catch up on what has been happening in the time they have not seen one another. Jonathan charms Flick’s mother and manages to gain permission for Flick to come back to the Travel Agency, after telling her mother that she has just started a job there for the summer and is much needed.

Thrilled to be going back, Flick is less delighted when she walks into the shop only to be faced with a new face: Avery – Jonathan’s cousin towards whom Flick instantly feels a deep resentment and jealousy. Jonathan tries to smooth things out between the two girls, but all is forgotten when a magical message arrives from Nyfe Shaban – a pirate queen – requesting assistance from the Travel Agency to solve the problem of large parts of her world, The Break, disappearing – something which threatens its very existence.

After a few, brief preparations the three of them travel through the necessary suitcase and find themselves standing on a skinny jetty which is in a state of poor repair and set off to find somebody who will let Nyfe know that they have arrived. When they meet Adam Quillmaster, he is asleep and is not best pleased to be woken up but tells them that as he is heading to meet the Pirate Queen anyway, he will take them with him. Setting out in his small boat, it is not long before they encounter merfolk who not only overturn the boat but steal the suitcase, rendering the Strangeworlders unable to travel back home.

Fortunately, Quillmaster and the others manage to get back into the now-righted boat and head off to meet Nyfe who explains that the inhabitants of The Break need to leave their world if they are to survive – and soon. With no way of leaving the world themselves now, Jonathan, Flick and Avery must first of all retrieve their suitcase before attempting to save everyone. As they do so, they will encounter other pirates and merfolk and have to decide who can be trusted. Will they be able to return to their own world? Can they find a suitable new home for those from The Break? And just how will they be able to fit everyone being rescued through one small suitcase?

Although this story picks up from soon after the conclusion of book 1, and refers back to it at various points throughout, it is easily accessible to anyone who has yet to succumb to the temptation of the original and works well as a standalone title. Having taken most of that read for Jonathan and Flick to realise that they have much in common and, more importantly, for them to become friends, the introduction of Avery into the Strangeworlds Society initially threatens to throws the dynamics of the society out of kilter. Having now established her importance to both the Society and to Jonathan, the thought of having to share both with Avery makes Flick intensely jealous. Avery brings her own unique talents with her to the Society and it is clear that as Flick gets her know her, and sees her as less of a threat, her feelings for Jonathan’s cousin are very different at the end of the story than at first.

As well as those reading it because they loved the first book, I am sure that there will be many teachers reading this because the title is one flagged as one containing LGBTQ+ characters and they are wishing to diversify the reads available to their classes. Where the references to Jonathan being trans in the first book are quite subtle – to the point where none of my children twigged that this was case when I read it to them – it is far more explicit here and I think that this is a very positive move. The children I teach vary enormously in their perception of what is normal, with one of them recently telling me that I had made a mistake in one of my Talk for Writing texts because the female protagonist could not win the hand of the king’s daughter and another, who corrected said child, creating a non-binary character in a piece of their own writing.

For most of my class, even if their own family does not fit the stereotypical mother, father and two children set-up, this is often what they are brought up to expect in a family and it is probably only in school that this view is not only challenged but – perhaps just as importantly – discussed freely. By the time children reach me in Year 5, not only do those children who are starting to realise that they do not conform to what has traditionally been seen as normal need more than ever to see themselves reflected in the books available to them, but so do their peers. This book will go a long way towards starting those conversations in school and showing its readers that everyone of either gender – or none – and sexual orientation is most emphatically normal.

Above all else though, this is a great book – one which is worthy of reading simply because it is a fabulous story. Perhaps in a few years’ time, when as a society we are more accepting, and more books reflect our diverse population, that will be its readers’ only reason for picking it up. I do hope so. Huge thanks to Hachette Children’s Group and Net Galley for allowing me to read this to coincide with its publication on April 15th. A wonderful 5 out of 5 stars.