Review: Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller

Title: Daughter of the Pirate King
Author: Tricia Levenseller
Release Date and Publisher: February 2017, Feiwel & Friends

Date Finished: April 26, 2017

Star Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis:

There will be plenty of time for me to beat him soundly once I’ve gotten what I came for.

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.

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My Review:

[Review of this book can also be found in my Goodreads]

I received an ebook copy of this book as a giveaway from Read With Tessa

This is actually one of the rather interesting debut novels I’ve been eyeing ever since 2017 came, and I’m so glad I finally read it!

I have never read any book about pirates, aside from the brief tour in the pirate world in The Assassin’s Blade, and all my knowledge on pirates were mostly from The Pirates of the Carribean movie franchise, and Peter Pan. So obviously, I don’t know a lot of thing about them, but the book’s title alone was enough to spark my interest. This is probably the first YA book I encountered that featured pirates.

The title basically says what the book is about. Alosa is the daughter of their world’s infamous Pirate King, and she’s considered as the princess and heir of all the pirates. She goes on a task to retrieve a missing piece of a map for her father, and to do this, she has to get herself captured by an enemy pirate. Here she meets a crazy assortment of pirates, and she goes on a hunt to look for the 1/3 piece of the mysterious map. It tackles a lot about pirating, pillaging, and scheming (which is so typical of pirates), but it’s also describes the mystery of the sirens and Alosa’s connection to them.

I’ve listed down below the things I loved the most about this book.

1. Alosa, ’nuff said. Alosa’s freaking amazing! She’s like a mixture of Disney’s Merida (with all her fiery red hair), Captain Jack Sparrow, and Celaena Sardothien all rolled into one. She’s beautiful, witty, sarcastic, smart, brave, determined. She’s a pirate who runs her own crew, kills enemies, goes on quests for hidden treasures and so on, but she’s also a lady who enjoys the pleasures of clothes and other pretty things. I admire how much of a feminist she is, since she made up her own crew mostly composed of females who she took based on their talents and skills, rather than take men who are thieves, killers, and rapists like other pirate captains do. She also has a couple of men in her crew, but they were mostly for the brute strength and so that her skills could affect them.

2. The setting and world-building. For a debut novel, this book is beautifully written. I could easily imagine every scenario and place they went to with great detail. It was written just right, leaving nothing out but also not putting too much in it. I just wished we had a map included so that we could all picture the layout of the seas and lands more vividly.

3. The fast-paced action. If you’re looking for a really easy but fast-paced novel, this one is for you. There were definitely no dull moments, and the story just consumes you with each turn of the page. You wouldn’t even realize that you’ve read a huge chunk of it already because you have been laughing and keeping up with Alosa’s antics and schemes.

4. The plot-twist. It’s actually not much of a plot-twist, but I’ll consider it as one. About near half of the book, I was already able to tell that there was something brewing with Alosa, and how the mystery of the sirens revolved around her life. But it was still a very interesting twist in her character!

I would love to see more of the other characters, especially Riden and Alosa’s crew in Ave-lee. All characters are unique and never dull, even the most hideous ones in Draxton’s crew were something to watch out for. I also would want to read more on Ride and Alosa’s relationship, since both of them were hot-and-cold with each other, bickering like cats and dogs, and making out like nobody’s business. They’re both adorable, but there were times where I just wanted to smack them both for being too stubborn with each other.

The YA world should give more notice to pirates, since I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of YA books about them. And this is a really great read to pick up if you’re in love with sea-faring pirates!