Pirates aren't quite as mainstream as they used to be, are they? Kind of a shame, if I'm being honest. Swashbuckling knaves and cutthroats make much better reading material than sparkly vampires and hoards of flesh-eating zombies, in my opinion. So, when a pirate book came out only last year, I was curious. Was this story what the pirate genre needed to get back into the limelight? Let's find out.
Alosa, the pirate princess, is given a mission by her ruthless father, the Pirate King, Kalligan. In the hands of two pirate rivals are pieces to an ancient map which leads to the Isla de Canta, an island where sirens have hidden all the treasure they've stolen from hapless pirates that dared to cross their path. In other words, more treasure than even the Pirate King could imagine. And so Alosa, with Kalligan's trust and high expectations to motivate her, must infiltrate one of the rival ships as a prisoner and find their piece of the map without getting caught. But things turn out much more difficult when the handsome first mate seems determined to get in her way.
So, let's start with our title character, shall we? Alosa was actually a lot of fun to read about. She had great personality and, for a story written in first person, I didn't mind being in her head the whole time. Much like the Throne of Glass main character, they manage to make Alosa a delicate balance of masculine and feminine and pull it off just right. She'll kill a man without a thought but, heaven forbid, she get blood on her favorite outfit. She'll endure torture and pain to get what she wants, but heaven forbid someone try to cut her precious hair. She's got a great attitude and I appreciated that about her, even if I thought some of her decisions were a little silly (that part I mentioned about the haircut, specifically).
The big downside about this story is actually pretty simple. For this strong, capable woman who sails the sea and is captain of her own crew and all that...she spends about 98% of this book as a prisoner. Mind you, she gets captured intentionally but that's still the vast majority of this story spent stuck with her in a brig or a cage or at the mercy of other pirates. While she handles it well and manages to make things work to her advantage, the story is just not as fun as it could have been. For heaven's sake, it's pirates! I wanna see this cool character going on adventures and fighting krakens and finding treasure and...anything other than being stuck inside a brig all day! It just feels like a waste of the character's potential being stuck inside this tiny environment when she's capable of much more. Either quit getting captured, intentionally or not, or get a career change, hon.
With the whole story taking place on the same, crowded ship, there's not a lot of room for adventure and so the plot can be a bit slow. They try and make some of the enemy pirates intimidating but not a lot of them leave an impact. The only one the story really wants you to care about is Ridan, our potential love interest, and...he's pretty bland. Ridan is handsome, clean, respectful, kind, clever, charming, who doesn't like alcohol or go off with prostitutes and...all the things you really wouldn't expect from a pirate. I'm sorry but he's too perfect, and I mean that in a bad way. There's just nothing realistic about him and the relationship between the two just feels too cheesy for a pirate story. Your YA arm-candy man can have flaws, y'know. They make him more compelling.
Final Verdict
This story had some potential for fun but suffered from trying to follow too many YA tropes. Still, the lead was okay and the tone was well done. I might be willing to read the sequel...if it doesn't involve the lead getting captured again. If you like pirates and strong lead characters, then you'll probably like this book fine...but I'd wait for it on paperback.
Have you read the book? What did you think? Comment below and share your thoughts. Please make sure to Follow Midnight Readings for instant updates. Have a book you'd like me to read or would like to make a recommendation? Contact me on goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/65448711-michelle-beer
Next Time: Time is money is life....literally.
No comments:
Post a Comment