I stumbled across this series by chance, as you do, and noticed it has assassins and pirates and magic, and there’s just physically no way I could pass that up.
I mean, I’m only human … ish. Mostly. Sometimes. Point is, I’m a major sucker for both assassins and pirates, and having them both in one place seems efficient.
The books were short, quick reads, but they were so hard to rate, because while I never considered DNFing them and they were enjoyable books, they weren’t particularly satisfying books.
And if that makes sense to you … we should be friends. Also, you should be concerned, because understanding my brain is not exactly something to be proud of.
When all is said and done, I did finish the books, but I really didn’t have strong feelings about them either way. They were great mind-numbing entertainment, but nothing ground-breaking and nothing that made a major impression on me. Fun reads, but ultimately forgettable for me, personally. It’d probably make for a good summer read, when you’re looking for something that’s just light and entertaining.
Title: The Assassin’s Curse (The Assassin’s Curse #1)
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Format: Paperback
❧ As far as strong female characters go, Ananna is a little bit of everything.
Girl can fight with a sword, hold her own against male pirates, and takes a page straight from Merida’s playbook: when her parents try to arrange a marriage, she runs off like, “Nah, thanks, I’m good.” She even saves an assassin purely on instinct. Because she leaps into action when there’s a threat. Oops. Admirable, maybe, but not always convenient. She also routinely saves Naji, so a damsel in distress, she is not.
❧ I’m a big fan of enemies being forced to cooperate, because oh, the drama!
This wasn’t quite on the level I was hoping for, but you know what? It was pretty entertaining, all the same. Neither character was thrilled about the arrangement, but I sure enjoyed it.
❧ I’m a real sucker for the brooding male archetype with a mysterious background who needs to be coaxed out of the shell he hides in, and Naji had all of that going on.
He was maybe a little too mysterious, since I still don’t feel like I know him, even after the book is over, but I did get enough of a sense that there’s more going on than he lets on. I definitely want to know more about him, but I like how secretive he is. I mean, he’s an assassin. Sort of part of the job description. But he’s got all these tattoos (let’s be honest, tattoos can be really sexy) and blood magic and random knowledge of the world. He’s not a bad person. He just does a lot of bad things, okay?
❧ Pineapple in French is “ananas,” and it sounds a whole lot like how I pronounced Ananna in my head, which was … confusing.
I would also like to point out that after five freaking years of French, I still can’t pronounce this right, because my mouth apparently likes N’s and doesn’t feel the need to stop. For normal people, this won’t be an issue, but it drove me insane. I ended up just calling her Anna in my head.
❧ For anyone with the paperback (which happens to be my copy), the blurb on the back is incorrect. The second paragraph actually happens in book two, not this book.
Which means that surprisingly less than you would imagine actually does happen in this book. This doesn’t really impact my review so much (except that my expectations were wildly exaggerated due to that), but it’s just a PSA. The Goodreads blurb, at least, is accurate.
❧ I’m not actually sure who the target audience for this book is.
Ananna is supposed to be 17, though I would say she acts more like 13, in my opinion. The writing definitely felt more lower end of YA, though, in the character actions/thoughts and that there just wasn’t the sort of depth one might expect from upper YA. There’s also a heck of a lot of cursing, so I was a bit surprised by that. Not that I should have been, I guess, because pirates, but more than I expected from YA.
❧ The story is written in what I would consider stereotypical “pirate” dialect, which might be fine if you’re into that, but the grammar made me twitchy.
I don’t mind it in dialogue so much, because after you’ve read so many pirate stories, you kind of just come to expect it. But a whole story, narrative included, that way? It just made me twitchy. It’s one of my biiiig pet peeves, so this was really more of a personal thing, but it drove me crazy.
❧ Okay, pirates and assassins and curses and magic sound like they’d make for a really great story, but it actually ended up being almost too much?
Yeah, I know, I feel icky just for thinking it, let alone saying it. But by having so many separate aspects of the world/plot, I felt like none of them were really fully developed. You know what they say: Jack of all trades, master of none. There were so many things going on and so many different groups that the story seemed to be stretched thin, which resulted in me not really getting to know any of them. Which brings me to …
❧ There was a marked lack of world-building, which leaves me really confused about the overall world.
There are so many aspects that sound interesting on the surface, but they’re not really explored in depth. Threads of plot or world-building are picked up when convenient and then just abandoned without returning to them later. I can’t actually tell you how the magic system works, because … I have no idea. I can’t even really tell you what it means to be a pirate, let alone an assassin, in this world. There are some brief descriptions of both, but it feels like it’s just scratching the surface.
❧ There’s no real antagonist here, and Ananna herself doesn’t actually have any real goals, so the story felt a little … untethered.
Sure, Naji has a goal: break the curse. But Naji isn’t the protagonist. Ananna is. And she’s just along for the ride, basically. Naji’s desires and needs are what drive the story. There’s an attempt at an antagonist, which I don’t want to say too much about, except that I didn’t really feel the danger there, and it’s not really explored.
❧ The book just … ends. It doesn’t feel like there’s a clean break, it just seems to stop.
I mean, there’s obviously a sequel and was intended to be a sequel, but considering the blurb on the back includes things that happen in said sequel, I’m assuming they were meant to be one book that were just split into two. Based on the way this ends, it really supports that theory, since if you just smooshed the two books back together, it would fit seamlessly, as if the first book hadn’t ended at all.
Title: The Pirate’s Wish (The Assassin’s Curse #2)
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Format: Paperback
After setting out to break the curse that binds them together, the pirate Ananna and the assassin Naji find themselves stranded on an enchanted island in the north with nothing but a sword, their wits, and the secret to breaking the curse: complete three impossible tasks. With the help of their friend Marjani and a rather unusual ally, Ananna and Naji make their way south again, seeking what seems to be beyond their reach.
Unfortunately, Naji has enemies from the shadowy world known as the Mists, and Ananna must still face the repercussions of going up against the Pirate Confederation. Together, Naji and Ananna must break the curse, escape their enemies — and come to terms with their growing romantic attraction.
❧ This plot, you guys. Once it got hold of me, I couldn’t drag myself away. It was all the action and fighting and adventure you would expect from a book about pirates and assassins.
The first one was a bit slow, but this book was just one action scene to the next, once it got going. There was so much happening in this book that there were very few dull moments, and I just had to find out what was going to happen next.
❧ The manticore is such a fantastic character.
I, too, can relate to her struggle to understand humans and their weird customs like sleeping indoors and not eating men. Sheesh. Talk about confusing. She was just so naive, but trying very hard to understand, and her character was just a lot of fun.
❧ Speaking of fun characters … Marjani is great, and her romance (with a female character, I might add) is just so dang sweet.
I actually would’ve liked more of this, because it was pretty much just scratching the surface of things. But Marjani is a much bigger player in this book than the first, and she is cunning and smart, but at the same time, so much more than “just” a pirate. And her romance? Just too sweet. Love who they paired her up with (another great character), and I wish we had a bit more of a peek into their interactions.
❧ The magic in this was dialed up a few notches, and it was interesting to see all the different ways it could manifest, because no magic was quite the same.
Now, of course, I’m not saying I understand the magic system. Perish the thought. I still have no idea. But I did enjoy the different forms it came in and seeing how it manifested.
❧ The ending was actually pretty dang sweet and was a great way to end it.
I can’t say much, because I don’t want to spoil it, but I loved that neither character had to sacrifice who they are for the other. Romances that end like that just annoy me, because you can be a person with goals and be in a relationship, not one or the other.
❧ I don’t know what the heck happened to the main characters between books one and two, but I didn’t like either of them here.
Ananna’s character felt young in the first book, but here, she definitely felt 12-13 rather than 17. I just could not picture that. She was all angst and drama and storming out of rooms and having tantrums and pouting. Also, for some reason, she hates Jirac? I’m not sure why. I was quite fond of Jirac, so her hatred of him, seemingly for no reason, just irked me. #TeamJirac
And Naji? Naji has to be probably the worst assassin ever, judging by the amount of times he rightful should have died if Ananna hadn’t been there. Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% all for the heroine saving the hero. I particularly enjoyed it in the first book. But here, it was just so prevalent and in such major ways that I just didn’t understand how Naji had survived so long as an assassin.
❧ Ananna has this weird obsession with beautiful people that felt a little squicky at first. But it definitely blossomed into something uncomfortable in this book.
Her motto is basically never trust beautiful people, because their lives are so easy on account of their looks that they don’t have to suffer real adversity. Which feels squicky, but fine. She’s young. Leaves her a little room to grow. Except that she does not.
In fact, in this book, it just keeps beating this point over the head. Every time she meets a beautiful person, she’s instantly suspicious and doesn’t like them. And that feels gross. To be fair, only one of said beautiful people really turns out to be shallow and evil that I can recall, but still. The point was so pervasive that it was major negative points for me not liking her character.
❧ I’m still not sure who the target audience is for these books.
As I said, there’s a lot of cursing (pirates, yeah, yeah) and in this book there’s passing mentions of sex, nothing major. But there is one scene about masturbation (though I don’t think the word is ever explicitly used) and Marjani explaining that Ananna didn’t need a man and basically telling her this was an alternative. Which fine, cool, body liberation. But it felt really weird in this context, especially when Ananna is acting 12-13 instead of as old as she’s supposed to be.
❧ The breaking the curse thing was a super compelling plot line … until it wasn’t.
I mean, the three “impossible” tasks obviously weren’t impossible. They weren’t even hard. Actually, all three were solved purely by happenstance and a bit of luck. The outcome wasn’t exactly earned so much as stumbled upon accidentally, which was sort of annoying, because the action scenes were so compelling that I wanted them to mean more in terms of the curse. When the third task comes along, it’s basically just handed to them, and that was a pretty big letdown.
❧ I’m actually not sure why The Mist plot line was included in these books at all?
It was basically a nonstarter. I mean, it sounds hecka cool, and I definitely wanted to know more about it and learn about the Mists, etc. Now that would’ve been exciting. But as it played out in the book? It amounted to really nothing and sort of fizzled out, and I’m still not entirely sure why they were so determined and why such a big deal was made out of them in the first place.
❧ This romance just didn’t do it for me. The characters didn’t feel like they had any chemistry, and I don’t understand why Naji fell for Ananna in the first place.
Then again, I also don’t understand why Naji fell for Leila, either, so maybe it’s just him. Maybe he’s just got bad taste. It happens. Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly sweet moments in the romance, and there were brief scenes where I felt the chemistry and could see why they would be together. But overall? I just wasn’t feeling it.
Title: The Manticore’s Vow
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publication Date: June 6, 2019
Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press
Format: NetGalley eARC
A vain assassin takes an assignment with dire consequences. An aristocratic lady fleeing her past is besieged by pirates. And a manticore princess sets out on a life-changing adventure.
The Manticore’s Vow collects three stories set in the world of Magic of Blood and Sea, all exploring the origins of some of its most memorable characters: Naji, the scarred assassin, Marjani, the pirate queen, and Ongraygeeomryn, the man-eating manticore. Explore a world of dangerous magic and thrilling adventures with this trio of gorgeous, swashbuckling tales.
This collection includes:
The Manticore’s Vow
The Automaton’s Treasure
The Witch’s Betrayal
Thanks to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
So, this book is a collection of short stories meant to be companions to The Assassin’s Curse series. Overall, the collection was short and sweet, and it was a little hit or miss, but it did provide some more background into the characters in the series that I really wanted more from.
✦ The Manticore’s Vow ✦
★★☆☆☆
I actually expected to like this one more than I did, because the manticore was my favorite character. But it really ended up raising more questions than it answered, which was a bit annoying.
The biggest question I had was, how old is the manticore supposed to be in this, anyway?
She acted extremely young, like around what we humans might consider a five-year-old. She was pretty dang naive about pretty much everything, to the point where I sometimes wanted to shake some sense into her.
The peek behind the scenes of the island the manticores lived on and a little into their social structure and life was interesting, but fairly shallow.
I wanted to know more. She goes on a bit of an adventure with another manticore, but I don’t really know anything about him. And the thing they find … what really does it do? I know what they think it does, but what does it really do. The whole story revolves around this little “quest,” so the fact that it didn’t pan out to anything was a bit disappointing.
What I did like was that we got to see the wizard and how the manticore ended up with him.
So that was nice. I was a little confused, though, about why she blamed her parents in The Pirate’s Wish and said her father was too naive, when really, in this short story, perhaps her father was naive, yes, but he didn’t actually do anything that led to her capture. She would’ve ended up taken either way. So it didn’t feel all that consistent, because in my opinion, there wasn’t really anything her parents could’ve done.
✦ The Automaton’s Treasure ✦
★★★☆☆
This story felt like it started too late and ended too early. Let me explain.
The Automatron’s Treasure picks up right after Marjani’s exile, so we don’t actually get to see the exile happen.
We’re still operating off of everything we learned in The Pirate’s Wish as far as the exile goes, which was a little disappointing. Would’ve loved to have seen it play out, but fine. Post-exile Marjani was interesting, too, because she was a noble who suddenly found herself disowned and sent away. So, in other words, fun times.
If you’re wondering how Marjani becomes a pirate, this short story answers it for you … sort of.
This is where it gets into the idea that it ended too early. It felt like the tale wasn’t fully told. There’s a little quest going on, which was cute and neat, but there was all this danger and warnings, and then … it ended. Like it was all no big deal. Except that at the point where it ends, Marjani is still in danger. So rather than wrap up, I felt more like it just stopped.
✦ The Witch’s Betrayal ✦
★★★☆☆
WE FIND OUT HOW NAJI RECEIVED HIS SCARS. YES, PLEASE.
I was dying to know this throughout the series, since it played such a freaking big role in the way Naji viewed himself, and the fact that he was “ugly” (pfft, yeah, right) was harped on. So yes, we get to see how this came into play.
Remember that part where I said that I didn’t understand why Naji fell in love with Leila? Yeah, I still don’t get it, except that she’s beautiful.
That’s quite literally all she has going for her. Naji himself even says she’s a bad person, and she admits it. Other than being sex buddies and her being an easy lay, there is no chemistry going on here. This really doesn’t feel like someone Naji loves, certainly not someone he should be pining after like it makes it seem in the series.
The actual how behind Naji’s scars makes sense, and I thought that was pretty well done.
There’s also a little bit more background about assassins and what it means to Naji, at least, to be an assassin. I still don’t know much about his history (and I do sort of want to know more about how he came to be in the Order), but this nicely filled in a few things I was pretty curious about.
[…] Calling of Morrigan Crow (★★★★★) The Book of M (★★★☆☆) Gemina (★★★★★) The Assassin’s Curse (★★☆☆☆) The Pirate’s Wish (★★★☆☆) The Manticore’s Vow […]