Daughter of the Siren Queen

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Title: Daughter of the Siren Queen

Author: Tricia Levenseller

Series: Daughter of the Pirate King, #2

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Release Date: February 27th 2018

Rating:

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.

In Daughter of the Siren Queen, Tricia Levenseller brings together the perfect mix of thrilling action, tense battle scenes, and a heart-pounding romance.

– Blurb courtesy of goodreads.com

My Thoughts On…

…The Plot

“The sound of my knife slitting across a throat feels much to loud in the darkness.
I catch the pirate before his corpse hits the ground and gently lower him the rest of the way. He is only the first of Theris’s – no, Vordan’s, I remind myself – crew who will die tonight.”

After what he did to her and Riden, Alosa is desperate to see Vordan pay for his crimes, and with his piece of the map added to the two her father already has the Kalligan’s people are preparing to sail to the legendary siren island. However when Alosa seeks out Vordan one last time he reveals something about her father she can’t ignore. She wants to find out if it’s true, if her life has been controlled by him since her birth, but what she finds instead is much worse.

Daughter of the Siren Queen jumps right into the heart of the action as Alosa prepares to put her plan to capture Vordan into action after months of hunting him, but whereas in the first book it felt like we were jumping right into the story in this one it felt like a chunk from the beginning had been missed out. While it wasn’t hard to get into the story, and the rest of the book definitely picked up from there, it was a little disconcerting to feel like there was something I was missing.

“It’s not a question of if you’ll win, I continue. The only question is whether you will choose to fight. Will you fight for your queen? Will you fight for your waters and treasure? Will you fight for your little ones?”

Fleeing from the pirate king’s keep with something he would kill even his own daughter to get back again Alosa’s only hope is to reach the siren island before he does, and take enough of their treasure to buy the pirates loyalty. But her father is already close behind, and quickly gaining on them, and the further Alosa and her crew travel into never-explored seas the more dangers they discover ahead of them.

There was a lot more at stake in this book, and a lot more action. In Daughter of the Pirate King everything Alosa did was part of a plan she had prepared for, but in Daughter of the Siren Queen she didn’t have that plan to fall back on. There was a lot more desperation in her journey as she hoped to outrun her father long enough to reach the sirens island.

…The Characters

“I may not have been born in the sea, but I was born to rule it.
I am the daughter of the siren queen.”

Alosa has always been her father’s daughter, but in this book she finally sees him for what he really is and it shakes her enough to turn her against him. Without a solid plan other than to stay one step ahead of Kalligan Alosa seems less confident and sure of herself, she’s still a capable captain and her crew clearly respect her but she seems more uncertain in her decisions and that feeling only increases when the only hope her crew have is the siren Alosa has never been able to control.

“Every time I’ve managed to keep myself in control of the siren, Riden has been there. Somehow, he keeps me human. I don’t know why. I don’t know how, but I need him if I’m to do this.”

Riden on the other hand seems a lot more sure of himself in this book. No longer having to face the conflict between his loyalty to his brother and his feelings for Alosa he naturally falls into place among Alosa’s crew, choosing to stand by them even with Kalligan hunting them down. Like Alosa Riden fears the siren side of her, and his fear of the siren wars against his trust of and feelings for her, but he’s willing to help her try and control it for the good of the crew.

Without any secrets between them the relationship between Alosa and Riden develops a lot more in this book. However while Riden is prepared to reach out to Alosa, making himself vulnerable, she isn’t willing to meet him half way. There’s always something stopping her and even though she knows what she feels for him she pushes those feelings down and tries to deny them, not ready to reach out the same way with just ends up pushing Riden away.

“I have twenty-eight excellent girls aboard this ship, and their pasts have shaped them. Just as yours has shaped you. And every single one of them, down to little Roslyn, deserves your respect.”

While we didn’t get to see Alosa’s crew much in the first book they’re very present in the second, and instead of just reading about their dynamic from Alosa’s thoughts we get to see it play out. They’re all people Alosa has hand-picked herself to sail with her on the Ava-lee, all of them have something in their past they’ve struggled to overcome, and all of them are fiercely loyal to Alosa and each other. Meeting Alosa’s crew and learning more about them was probably my favourite part of this book.

…The Setting

Kearan ignored Enwen’s outbursts, keeping his eyes on the map. He points to a few different land masses between her and the Isla de Canta. “These aren’t carted on any map I’ve seen. To think there are more islands in Maneria yet to be discovered.”

In Daughter of the Pirate King, as much as I loved the concept behind the world this duology is set in, I was disappointed we didn’t see more of it. However that all changes in this book. There was so much more to discover; we see the keep of the pirate king, where ships from all over the world are docked and where they begin their preparations to sail to the siren island, and we see places that have never been explored before because the map to them was torn into three pieces. We also learn much more about the sirens as Alosa explores that aspect of her heritage and realises some of the myths she has been told were just that, myths.

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Daughter of the Siren Queen is one of those rare books that I ended up rating higher after I looked back and realised how much I enjoyed it. There was more to play for and more at stake for Alosa, the character development was just as strong as it was in the first book and the world building had massively improved. If it hadn’t been for the beginning, this would have been a perfect read for me.

What did you think of Daughter of the Pirate King? Was it a favourite of yours or could you just not get into the story? Let me know.

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