Daughter of the Siren Queen (Daughter of the Pirate King #2) by Tricia Levenseller

Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller
Narrator: Marisa Calin
Series: Daughter of the Pirate King #2
Published by MacMillan Audio
Published on 1 March 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
Source: my local library
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RRP: $17.99

The capable, confident, and occasionally ruthless heroine of Daughter of the Pirate King is back in this action-packed sequel that promises rousing high seas adventures and the perfect dash of magic.
Alosa's mission is finally complete. Not only has she recovered all three pieces of the map to a legendary hidden treasure, but the pirates who originally took her captive are now prisoners on her ship. Still unfairly attractive and unexpectedly loyal, first mate Riden is a constant distraction, but now he's under her orders. And she takes great comfort in knowing that the villainous Vordan will soon be facing her father's justice.
When Vordan exposes a secret her father has kept for years, Alosa and her crew find themselves in a deadly race with the feared Pirate King. Despite the danger, Alosa knows they will recover the treasure first . . . after all, she is the daughter of the Siren Queen.

I really enjoyed the first book of this duology, Daughter of the Pirate King, and I’m lucky enough that my local library has both of these books available to borrow on audio. I borrowed Siren Queen before I even finished Pirate King, because I knew I wanted to dive (get it? DIVE? lol) right into it.

I still think Alosa is pretty awesome. She’s sassy and brilliant and I love how much she cares about her all-female crew. I loved so much that she was so powerful and capable, and yet her love and loyalty for her crew, her chosen family, was her major weakness. It made for a very interesting read, because when she could have run away from everything and just saved herself, she felt obligated to find a way out to save her crew.

I felt like the plot wasn’t as tight as the previous one, and I also felt that this book was so much darker than its predecessor. While the pirates in Pirate King were borderline teddy bears, in Siren Queen, even the peripheral characters were darker, bloodier, more ruthless. Alosa’s father was a pretty disgusting, horrible figure, and his actions were also despicable. It made it so much easier to root for Alosa to gain her independence.

I felt like the romance with Riden carried on pretty much as before, but with his allegiance now switched to Alosa, I found him even more adorable. He was just so gorgeous! Who doesn’t want a hunky rugged shirtless bearded man with100% loyalty? You definitely got me there. I liked seeing his relationship with Alosa growing and deepening, though I did feel like the tension was drawn out a bit much. For a book that got really dark and included torture, rape, sexual assault and dismembering limbs, we couldn’t have a fade to black with Alosa and Riden? I guess I was just ready for them to take it to the next level and they had the opportunity, so maybe that was only a little bit disappointing.

Definitely the best part of this book that stands out from the first one was Alosa’s all-girl (nearly) crew. We got to know so many amazing, diverse, strong, practical, brave warrior women. Each of them had their own backstory as to why they joined a pirate ship when pirating is in this world notoriously a man’s role. I felt like they all had Alosa’s back, and loved and trusted her, and I really loved seeing Alosa work hard to keep their trust and be worthy of being their captain.

The audiobook in particular was a lot of fun to listen to since the narrator, Marisa Calin, did some incredibly nuanced and subtle voice work, as well as being able to rapidly switch up accents and do a decent impersonation of dialogue in a man’s voice.

Overall I had a rollicking good time with Alosa over this duology, and it has certainly cemented Levenseller as one of my favourite authors.

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