Daughter of the Pirate King
Alosa was raised to be strong, smart, and confident. Skills that have been long mastered by her father, the feared Pirate King. After being sent on a mission, Alosa finds herself captive on the ship of her rival. Well, he thinks she’s a captive anyway. Really, she is spending her nights searching for something special, a map that will lead her father to power and riches, the likes of which the world has never seen before. Given her skill set, this should be a simple process, if it weren’t for the handsome first mate that challenges her from the very start.
If you’re looking for a fast paced, interesting, YA fantasy, then this is probably the book for you. The characters are interesting and all of their interactions lead to dynamic relationships that develop over time. Alosa is a strong young woman who prefers to use her cunning and the other skills that she has worked so hard for over the natural talents with which she was born. This fact made her even more likable because it made all of her time with the other characters feel more meaningful. The addition of Ryden, the aforementioned First Mate, and the rest of the pirate crew made for a more interesting plot because I was never certain where the characters would lead the story.
The plot itself was a typical pirate tale, unremarkable on its own; but brought to life with the crew. It was interesting to watch Alosa figure out the best way to handle each man on the ship, including what secret weakness each of them held. Some of the men were so terrible that I could feel their evil natures jump right off the page. They gave me the creeps just reading about them. Others were funny or sympathetic and made me root for them to come to some sort of happy ending. This is one of the things that made this book so engrossing, a cast (or crew) of characters that I was invested in, whether I wanted them to succeed or meet an early demise.
I’ll always love a good enemies to lovers story, and this book is no exception. Alosa and Ryden had so much chemistry. It helped that I also loved each of the characters individually. They were each allowed to grow as their own person while also helping the other grow. Neither character was perfect, but the other helped them fight off some of their weaknesses and come to terms with the tragedies and traumas of their lives.
I expected to understand where the story was going, but the little surprises kept me turning the pages long after I should have gone to bed. A few of the twists were ones that I really should have seen coming, but I was quite happy that I remained in the dark. The lightness and fun of much of the book was countered with a couple of well handled scenes of darkness. If you have any particular things that bother you, I would recommend checking the trigger warnings.
5/5 stars for a read that kept me on edge the entire time.
Daughter of the Siren Queen
Warning: This is the second book in the series and the review may contain spoilers if you have not read the first.
After spending time on an enemy ship to find her father a very special map, Alosa finally has everything she thought she wanted. Her ship and crew are safe, the man who took her captive will be punished, and she has added useful members to her crew, including the always alluring Ryden. However, her world is torn apart when she learns that her father has been keeping a horrible secret. A secret that will change the way Alosa sees the world and challenges everything she thought she knew about herself. Alosa takes it upon herself along with her ever loyal crew, to set right her father’s wrongs.
Daughter of the Siren Queen is the thrilling sequel to Daughter of the Pirate King. As with the first book, I flew through this one. The fast-paced action is a draw from the very beginning. While I don’t normally enjoy fighting scenes, in this book they were well written. I never got confused tracking the fight or felt like the action was overbearing. It blended well with the moments of raw emotion, character development, and actual storyline. The story went to some darker places than I expected, I appreciated that it added a layer of depth to the story. Who knew I would enjoy surprise monstrosities.
In the first novel, we got to see a crew made up of all men. It was a refreshing change of pace to see a novel based on Alosa’s crew, mostly made up of women. I appreciated that so many of the crew members were given their own identities beyond “gritty pirate woman”. It would have been easy for the author to have just focused on one or two of the girls and then kind of lumped the rest together. This wasn’t the case, each member that was introduced has traits that made me want to know more about her. Even the few men aboard the ship were well rounded characters.
My final opinion is going to be one that is controversial . I loved Alosa, and I loved Ryden, but I did not love them together. They were both such great characters, but their romance felt forced. They had wonderful chemistry, and it really showed in moments where they had to fight together or save one another. It was when they were alone that it felt like they needed more time to develop.
This duology made me fall in love with a world of pirates and life on the sea. Which is funny considering that I do not in any way enjoy large bodies of water or the creatures that live within the depths.
5/5 stars and a deep desire to jump aboard Alosa’s ship
The Novel Llama 