Daughter of the Pirate King (Daughter of the Pirate King #1) – Tricia Levenseller

Title: Daughter of the Pirate King (Daughter of the Pirate King #1) by Tricia Levenseller
Publishing Info: February 28, 2017 by Macmillan
Source: Audible, Owlcrate
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: http://December%2020,%202017

Sent on a mission to retrieve an ancient hidden map—the key to a legendary treasure trove—seventeen-year-old pirate captain Alosa deliberately allows herself to be captured by her enemies, giving her the perfect opportunity to search their ship.

More than a match for the ruthless pirate crew, Alosa has only one thing standing between her and the map: her captor, the unexpectedly clever and unfairly attractive first mate, Riden. But not to worry, for Alosa has a few tricks up her sleeve, and no lone pirate can stop the Daughter of the Pirate King.

I was told how much I’d love DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING since it’s full of banter (which it was – woo!) and I definitely did enjoy that aspect of the book, but I just didn’t seem to connect with it like I had hoped. My biggest hang-up was that I felt like there was very little plot. I absolutely love character-driven books and I don’t need a book to be full of action and while the characters were fun, they weren’t enough to carry my momentum through the whole book.

Alosa is fierce, clever, and skilled and she uses everything she’s learned at every opportunity. I really enjoyed watching her in action because piracy is cons on the open seas so naturally, I love it. Riden is a little broody and dishes the sass right back to Alosa, but I felt like his character was less consistent. Sometimes he was super broody, other times he was super sassy, and then other times, he was just a jumble of things in between. Humans are quite the kaleidoscope of emotions but it just really didn’t feel cohesive when it came to Riden’s character and he felt like a few different pieces instead of one round, whole person.

It’s true, the two do have great banter but it felt very choppy. They’d be dishing it out to each other and then pull back, and there was something that just didn’t quite feel natural about it. I think it felt like this book lack transitions in many ways, mostly in character consistency and in dialogue. It was a little jumpy and didn’t really flow.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading too many epic adult fantasy novels that are over 1000 pages long, but this book felt like it was the first part of a book, not the first part of a series. The plot didn’t really progress much. We do find out more about Alosa that brings another element to the book and sets up the next but that element didn’t grab me like it should have. Even the romance didn’t really feel like it had the substance there. The banter added to the meat of it but aside from that, I didn’t really feel like Alosa and Riden really clicked. The banter added to the chemistry but something else needed to seal the deal and I wasn’t feeling it.

This book was cute and fun, but it almost felt too cute and that there just wasn’t enough on the pages to really suck me in. The characters were enjoyable and I LOVED the atmosphere but I’m not sure if that’s enough for me to really want to keep reading, BUT it’s only a duet so I might as well see how it ends! It was enjoyable enough to invest my time in reading another book but if it was more than that, I’m not sure I would have continued.

Kept Me Hooked On: Pirates! I feel like we just need more books about pirates.
Left Me Wanting More: Plot. The book was fun but I expected a whole lot more from it, to be honest.

Addiction Rating
Try it

The book was fun but it didn’t wow me like I thought it was going to. Everything just seemed to fall a liiiittle bit short.

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