Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
Narrator: Marisa Calin
Series: Daughter of the Pirate King #1
Published by MacMillan Audio
Published on 6 June 2017
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
Source: my local library
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RRP: $16.99

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.

I generally don’t enjoy books that dump the reader with an already super-powered, super-confident arrogant and entitled lead character with minimal room to grow. However, Alosa is remarkably different to this brand of heroine, and I couldn’t help but love her.

• Is she super-powered? Yes.
• Is she super confident? Yes.
• Is she arrogant? Sometimes, but this book also had a great sense of humour and hijinx and was generally a lot of fun. It didn’t take itself too seriously, which made her sometimes-arrogance much more palatable.
• Is she entitled? No. She likes the finer things in life and knows she’s set to inherit a great title from her father the Pirate King, however she doesn’t act entitled. She fights and loves hard, and doesn’t take anything for granted. This is what separates her from, for example, the same kind of heroine that Sarah J Maas writes.

The whole book was light and fun, and it was very enjoyable hanging out with Alosa as she outwitted a bunch of pirates, pretending to be captured over and over again and using her gender as a weapon. She knew what she wanted and went after it with both hands, murdering those who got in her way in cold blood. It didn’t make her unlikable though: her sense of humour, her relative grounded-ness and maturity for a seventeen year old pirate princess, and her unadulterated ambition made me want to root for her to achieve her goal. I wanted to be friends with her: I found her relatable, despite her obvious badassery, and I would gladly pitch in and be a member of her crew. She was cunning and often thought of contingencies in the case of her plans not going the way she wanted. She wasn’t immune from making bad mistakes, but they were not dumb mistakes.

I thought the romance was okay: I really like Riden as a character, I think he’s nuanced and his growth was very interesting to watch. I really liked how they both had duties and obligations and didn’t let their feelings get in the way… very much. Obviously it puts a dampener on the romance, but I enjoyed most of it – especially the ‘there was only one bed’ trope.

I really like the magic system: although it could have led to certain characters simply ruling the world with an iron fist, there was certain limitations in place, which I appreciated. The reveal wasn’t exactly a surprise to me, since this book’s sequel had already been released before I read the book. I really liked Levenseller’s interpretation of a this type of monster: I found that it was faithful in places with enough originality to lend a certain twist.

I loved the narrator Marisa Calin’s approach to reading this book. She changed her voice with subtle inflections when certain things happened, and I was satisfied with her male voice imitation. It was a very enjoyable listening experience with Calin at the helm.

I had so much fun with this audiobook that I borrowed the sequel from my library before I even finished it, knowing that I would want to go straight on with the story.

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