I enjoyed this story a lot. Sorinda is a very sympathetic protagonist, and I really enjoyed watching her slowly losing her protective shell and blossoming as she learns to love and that she is worthy of love. And of course there was plenty of swashbuckling pirate action. Rosalind is adorable, and I loved Sorinda's interactions with her and the way she takes her under her wing and protects her. And of course the romance with Kearan was executed beautifully. It's not strictly an enemies to lovers - more an annoyance to lovers, but it does have that flavor.

Tricia Levenseller's writing leans just a little bit on the younger YA side and is a little simpler than my usual taste. I still enjoy it, but it doesn't become my favorite book ever.

The audiobook was very well done, and the narrator voiced each character believably. It was clear form the voices and accents who was who. The pacing of the narration was just right as was the emphasis and infections of the narrator.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Pushkin Children's Books, and Macmillan Audio for providing an early copy and early audio copy for review.

Tricia Levensellers books are so fun to read. I couldn’t wait to read this because I loved the first two books and I was excited to find out that Sorinda gets a voice in this installment. I absolutely flew through this story.

Sorinda is Alosa’s quiet, loyal assassin. She’s given a task to carry out with Kearen (who has cleaned up his act since previous installments) and she deals with feelings of unworthiness with her new responsibilities and leadership.

I love that Tricia writes smart, capable, female characters. I also think she writes well in general. This is a book in which readers will find themselves fully immersed. I did this as an audiobook and just like the first two, the delivery from the narrator was perfection and gives exactly the right voice to Sorinda.

Most of the action happens during the second half of this book, but the beginning is still entertaining and important because it reunites readers with the lovable cast of characters from the first books and allows us to get a sense of Sorinda and how she sees the world. The villain in this story actually almost pulled one over on me. Sorinda’s intuition and observation helped me understand motives I didn’t notice at first.

This story, like the others are full of adventure but there is also a romantic element as well (PG-13). True to her personality, Sorinda is reluctant to open up to Kearen (you even get the sense that she is closed off to you as a reader). As much as this book is about her growing and being able to accept love, it’s also about her accepting herself.

Tricia Levenseller’s stand-alone spinoff set in the <i>Daughter of the Pirate King</i> world is billed as <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> meets <i>The Mummy</i> and, boy, does it deliver!

This book follows Sorinda, famed pirate assassin and the close friend and right hand of Alosa (yes, that one), queen of the pirates.

I have to say, as someone who only read <i>Daughter of the Pirate King</i> many years ago, this was an interesting world to dip my toes back into. I remember the piracy fun and the girl power, and that was all present here too. However, because I didn’t read book two in that duo (and it had been many years since book one besides), a lot of the characters aside from Alosa were completely unknown to me.

Levenseller said in her review that this book would be more enjoyable for fans of the original duology, but that you could read it without those books for context. I would somewhat agree. I do feel that I was missing a lot of characterization by jumping headfirst into this one without brushing up on the first two novels. Levenseller gives us small morsels of Sorinda and Kearan’s history together, but struggles to give us the full picture of how these two characters exist in their world. At one point, a side character proclaims that Sorinda is THE famed Sorinda, pirate assassin for the Pirate Queen, and I did a double take because…since when??? How does one get to be a famed assassin, anyway? Isn’t the point of an assassination the stealth and discretion that comes with it so one doesn’t get arrested? I needed more elaboration here.

As for Kearan, he is the most qualified and competent helmsman for their mission, which is why he gets the job. However, Kearan is 20 at the start of the novel. How did he climb the ranks to that level of prestige at his young age? The same goes for Sorinda, who just recently turned 18 and yet is an infamous pirate assassin. I needed to understand these characters’ places in this world, so more grounding was necessary on Levenseller’s part to ward off my suspension of disbelief.

To be fair, perhaps some of this groundwork was done in the original duology, so I can’t completely hold it against Levenseller that I didn’t do my own homework on the series first. Still, if you’re going to market this as a stand-alone and say it’s enjoyable for those who haven’t read the original series, I think these are still reasonable points to make.

Moving onto the plot, this was quite an adventure that completely lives up to the <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> and <i>The Mummy</i> comps. Sorinda, Kearan, and her crew embark on a quest to save missing pirates under Queen Alosa’s orders. Along their hunt, they encounter a massive, deadly sea creature and, ultimately, awaken an ancient immortal who sets his army of the undead upon them. Reading this book really felt like watching one of those movies. It was fast-paced and filled with the underhanded piracy and sea battles of the POTC franchise, as well as the creepy death magic and mystique of <i>The Mummy</i> franchise.

While I had a rip-roaring time with the plot, however, I want to launch into my biggest issue with the novel: the protagonist. Don’t get me wrong; I loved Sorinda. I was hooked from the moment she committed mass murder in chapter one. However, I must confess that I went into this book with only the vaguest notion of the plot (having skimmed the first couple lines of the synopsis because I like going into books blindly). Because of this, when I was introduced to a protagonist that is a <i>pirate assassin</i> (god, how cool is that???), and we got that first chapter filled with stealthy mass murder, my expectations were set in the wrong direction.

The problem with the protagonist of this novel is that it literally could have been anyone. Sorinda’s life as a pirate assassin has very little to do with the plot because Alosa specifically tasked her to do something out of her element—step out of the shadows and captain a ship. While the second mass murder sequence toward the end of the book was fun too, I can still imagine several workarounds where a non-assassin could have slotted into this role just as well. Ultimately, this just didn’t feel like a story meant for <i>Sorinda</i>. It felt like a really cool plot idea that Levenseller threw Sorinda into because she had unfinished business with her. And while I loved to see Sorinda’s growth as she conquered the demons of her childhood, I would have liked a plot more tailor-made for a pirate assassin.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one! The romance was sweet and didn’t overpower the story, Sorinda’s growth was a joy to behold, and the comps were comping.


<b>AUDIOBOOK REVIEW</b>

Krissi Bohn’s performance was fantastic! Her voice and accent are both so soothing to listen to, and her acting for each of the characters had me totally absorbed and transported.


<b>Overall Rating:</b> 4 stars.


<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

This book was a fun pirate story filled with paranormal elements. Much of this reminded me of <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> especially with the curse and an inexperienced leader. I did wish that it had more of Alosha. She was one of the best parts in the first two books of the trilogy. Levenseller always writes a good story and this is no different. If you read the first and loved the <i>Pirates</i> movies than you should check it out.