Tris's Book by Tamora Pierce

Ah yes, Tris's Book, the one with the pirates. That and Tris's cousin Aymery were the only things I really remembered before my reread. Upon reread, I realized why. Not a lot happens here, aside from the kiddos dealing with pirates and learning a bit about hooking up their magic to other mages'. That's not exactly a bad thing, but Tris's Book really does feel filler-esque.

Really, Aymery was the most obvious antagonist adjacent character. He's shifty from the start and extremely unsubtle in his single attempt to get Tris to leave Winding Circle.

All that aside, I do kind of like the slow-burn of Tris and the others learning their powers. They'd barely had any time in the last book to do much more than start training. Hardly any time has passed between Sandry's Book and Tris's Book, so the fact they're still slowly feeling out exactly what it is they can do makes sense. I also very much appreciate that, again, Tamora Pierce doesn't shy away from the realities of things like pirate-attack-aftermath. People are going to get hurt and rather brutally at that.

Overall, I think Tris's Book is a solid entry in the Circle of Magic series, despite not really being super memorable.