Sunday, January 19, 2020

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller - Book Review


Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
Publication date: February 28, 2017
My rating: 4 stars


Oh, the ridiculous things one has to do when one is a pirate.

YES YES YES and YES.

My faith has been restored.
Oh sorry, I should probably explain: After reading 5 books in a row that were just really "meh", and DNF a bunch of others, I was starting to get really concerned about my reading life in 2020. Nothing just seemed to work. I tried adult, I tried YA, I tried both fantasy and contemporary, I tried recommendations, nothing worked out.

AND THEN.
Then I read this book, and my faith was restored.

I mean, this book was just so awesome! And what made it so awesome was the protagonist, Alosa. This is the type of brilliance I'm talking about, this is the type of capable protagonist I absolutely LOVE reading about.


Right off the start, I was in awe to Alosa. The girl killed two men without blinking, fearlessly bargained for her crew’s life, and then insisted her wardrobe will have to come with her to the enemy’s ship because she’s a princess and will be treated as such.
Just… WOW. YES GIRL.

Alosa was just. so. good.
And I don't mean morally, the girl hardly has any hardship killing (and she kills a lot), I mean she was such a great pirate.
And while she did come off as a bit apathetic at times, it was still okay because I understood where it was coming from, how she came to be, and it made sense for a character like her to be this way.

I really liked Riden too, and I loved their banter/conversations. While it wasn't as hilarious as I wanted, it was still amusing and made me all giddy and excited. It's obvious Riden has some character development to go through, and I hope I can see that in the next book.

All in all, this was so much fun! Pirates, a protagonist who is both super clever and super strong (both physically and mentally) and yet is still a girl and doesn't have to pretend she's anything other than she is, kidnapping, and romance that I want to see more of in the next book.

Now off I go to read Daughter of the Siren Queen.







"I am me because I choose to be me. I am what I want. Some people say you have to find yourself. Not I. I believe we create ourselves to be what we want." 

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Angel's Wolf by Nalini Singh - (Short) Book Review



Angel's Wolf by Nalini Singh (a short Guild Hunter's Novella)
Publication date: December 13, 2012
My rating: 2 stars

“I think you have never been polite and civilized. Stop making the effort—it’s ridiculous.”

Well, this was rather... disappointing.

Now don't get me wrong, I did enjoy reading this as a short story to the Guild Hunter books, and I would recommend it to anyone out there who read all of Nalini Singh's books and is looking for something extra by her to read, just... it didn't really manage to engage my interest. Not like how I usually feel with Nalini's books.

I felt like there was a lot tell not show in this one, the characters not really holding to what is told about them vs. what is shown, not to mention it was rather heavy on the descriptions too, in my opinion. So overall I was rather... bored? It managed to engage me enough to want to finish the story to see how it ends for Noel and Nimra (not to mention for the "mystery" in the story too), but not enough for me to really like it.

That being said, I'm a huge fan of Nalini Singh's books, and I'm basically reading all of the short stories and other books I missed by her as I await her next books in the Psy Changeling/Guilt Hunter worlds ;) 

If you are reading this review and have yet to pick up any of Nalini's books, I highly highly recommend that you do because she's absolutely a fantastic author. I love her books, her characters, and her world so much. 





"Something about me seems to make women want to want knives."