This is probably one of the most potent lines in “Daughter of the Pirate King” and summarizes the most interesting aspect of Tricia Levenseller’s Captain Alosa, protagonist and swashbuckling baddie. Without divulging too much, let’s catch you up on what this book is about.
“Daughter of the Pirate King” circles itself around 17-year-old Alosa Kalligan, a sassy young woman, who has been abducted by the nefarious pirates of the Night Farer. In fact, this is the opening scene and sets the fast paced, exciting nature of the story.
The Night Farer pirates want to ransom Alosa to her father for money and other secrets. Just your typical ransom situation on the high seas. Note: What does this even mean? Are the waves high? What is high about the seas? Is this like high noon?
One could almost predict this ransom situation would happen when the characters live in a world ruled by pirates. Yup, ruled. As in the pirates control the sea AND land… as in the king of the land pays a tribute to the king of the sea, aka the King of the Pirates, aka King Kalligan, aka Alosa’s father.
However, in a startling twist at the very start of the book, author Levenseller reveals to readers that Princess Alosa actually wants to be on the Night Farer! Right at this time you may agree with Alosa and mutter:
So what father, royalty of the entire world [technically] no less, would let his daughter be captured the entirety of the book – 99.9% of “Daughter of the Pirate King” takes place on the Night Farer? This is the kind of question Alosa does not battle with – truly she has nothing but respect and something akin to love towards her father who has trained her mercilessly into an amazing pirate. In fact, in many ways she resembles Captain Jack Sparrow…well all of Jack’s skills and none of his drunken shenanigans. Thus, when Pirate King Kalligan needed someone to infiltrate and rob the Night Farer, Alosa, his only acknowledged heir, willingly stepped up to the plate, determined to win her father’s approval and prove her worth as the future Queen of the Pirates.
This is all unfortunate for the pirate crew of the Night Farer led by Riden and Draxen, sons of Jeskor the Headbreaker. This crew had boarded Alosa’s temporary ship and abducted her all in the hopes of learning about her father’s secret hideout/headquarters in order to steal his money and stop his world ruling ways. The young pirates of the Night Farer are the age-old group sticking it to the man, except, it seems like majority of the people enjoy living under Kalligan’s rule. King Kalligan even forced the land king to host a neighborhood on port islands where pirates dock that is “law-free”. Think duty-free stores, except in this case anything can happen in this portion of the island and no laws affect the individuals, criminals, pirates, or whomever is there [probably the perfect place to commit a murder and not be responsible for it… wait is that considered a spoiler or just common sense? =D].
Regardless, we have this one group trying to get the jump on the man who has consolidated power in both land and sea, and on the other hand we have Alosa. And boy, is she a handful.
Right from the beginning of the abduction she hides her assortment of skills, using them to sneak around and take advantage of situations as she needs. She even matches wit with the Night Farer’s first mate, Riden, stealing information from conversations without him realizing. Perhaps the best quotation about her skills and determination to succeed in her mission is when Alosa is told,
Except even snakes can be charmed by the right charmer, and Riden is not someone to be easily trifled with.
In this book we learn the story of one man trying to save his bother while interrogating a beautiful but deadly princess prisoner and the story of a beautiful deadly princess playing possum to rob said interrogator.
Just whose wits and skills will succeed and how will such a showdown, destined to be marred by violence, actually play out? THIS is what you have to look forward to and what the most enthralling aspect of Tricia Levenseller’s book is.
P.S. I have found that high seas refers to… “Oceans, seas, and waters outside national jurisdiction are also referred to as the high seas or, in Latin, mare liberum (meaning free sea).” – Wikipedia
Big thanks to Maxine @The Rogue Storyteller, for recommending this book to me!
Daughter of the Pirate King
Overall
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World Building
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Character Development
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Reading Enjoyability
Summary
I gave Tricia Levenseller’s “Daughter of the Pirate King” 3 out of 5 stars because the book is worth reading if you are into pirates, young adult fictions, and just plain fun. However, this book felt very much like it was setting up for something more that never really came. We have hints and inklings of Alosa’s secret abilities but do not see much of the supernatural revealed in this book, aside from minor incidents during torture [this was actually not as dark as it sounds]. The character building was well done in many ways, but the interactions between Riden and Alosa happened very quickly and in someways seemed to be forced / pressed for time. As a romantic I can definitely excuse love at first sight, but I began to feel as though this took away from Alosa herself. She is a fierce and independent pirate captain, something she proves time and again throughout the book, but her almost weakness in Riden seemed to baffle her as much as it did myself. Perhaps she should not have been so susceptible to his charm? Their interactions made the book read more like a romance novel then necessarily a young adult action or thriller.
Despite all this, I would definitely read the second book because many of the characters were fascinating. Levenseller did a wonderful job making some despicable characters, some strange rascals, and some lovable ones. Especially intriguing is Alosa’s actual crew – I look forward to learning more about them and what abilities and skills they have. I will join Alosa on her next adventure on the high seas, but I hope it focuses a little more on the mystery of Sirens and Alosa’s amazing abilities.
Pros
- Captivating Characters
- Interesting plot twists
- Fun protagonist (Alosa)
- Interesting psuedo-antagonist (Riden) relationship
Cons
- Not enough character development
- World building was sparse, there was a lot more that could have been explored further regarding the pirate ruled world
- Reads more like a romance novel at times, than a swashbuckling young adult adventure