Pirates, Pirates, Pirates. 

Give me more books about pirates, please (especially Female ones)!

The blurb on this book promised me a ‘Lady Jack Sparrow’ and I was ready.

But…to call Alosa’s humor Jack Sparrow quality is an insult to Johnny Depp and to liken the romance between her and Riden to Elizabeth and William is like saying Bella and Edward are similar to Harry and Ginny. It’s not even a contest.

The banter-filled, angsty, enemies-to-lovers romance I thought was going to be in this book turned out to have the tension of a broken guitar string. It was limp, starting almost immediately at the beginning of the story and progressing way too quickly. It featured moments that I absolutely hate, where a character seems completely flummoxed as to why they are doing things when it’s clear to them and us and damn near everyone that they have feelings (‘Why on earth did I do that when I never do stuff like that? Don’t think about it, couldn’t be because he’s got abs’… and that sort of thing 🙄). 

“Everyone has something dark in their past. I suppose it’s our job to overcome it. And if we can’t overcome it, then all we can do is make the most of it.” 

Even if I liked Riden at times (which I did, he seemed a fine romantic interest), I found Alosa deplorable. She’s that tropey, typical YA heroine that’s so unbelievably good that readers literally can’t believe it. She’s narcissistic and egotistical but apparently so skilled that it’s warranted. She reminds us over and over that she’s capable of doing seemingly anything she pleases…but we have to take her word for it because she has to pretend that she can’t so people underestimate her. To truly take her seriously you’ll have to ignore the fact that she very frequently makes incredibly stupid mistakes that someone of her apparent skill level would just.not.make. Luckily, her enemies also make a bunch of unbelievably stupid mistakes despite also supposedly being formidable matches for her incredible prowess, so they end up being well-matched after all.

“Lass, you’ve the face of an angel but the tongue of a snake.”

The writing style is fine but often falls into that big no-no territory of too tell and not enough show. Characters very frequently spill their entire backstory/motives/secrets to their supposed enemies for no other reason than to move the plot forward. In the grand scheme of the book, it’s clear that this is a way to explain away some of the many plot holes that arise. 

“Oh, the ridiculous things one has to do when one is a pirate.”

Honestly, I didn’t expect a lot from this book going into it. Which was good…because there wasn’t much in it.

You may think, after all that criticism, that I hated this book, but I actually enjoyed it. It’s what I like to call guilty pleasure YA where I realize it’s incredibly flawed but in the right mood (which I happened to be in) it’s fun and somewhat mindless to breeze through, almost palate-cleansing at times between deeper and more complex fiction. If you suspend your belief enough, the twists and turns of the plot are surprising and enjoyable…just don’t expect anything profound to come from it.

I rated Daughter of the Pirate King 3 out of 5 stars and probably won’t continue with the second in the duology. However, those who love Celaena in the Throne of Glass series will probably like Alosa too.