{4.25/5}

CW: violence, death, references to abuse, some others

When the very first sentence of the book involves slaughtering someone, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

It’s been 2 months since Alosa obtained the first missing piece of the map to Isla de Canta, and she’s hell bent on getting the third from Vordan. Along with revenge, of course. But her father’s been hiding secrets, and their discovery threatens Alosa’s entire crew.

It’s a rare treat when a sequel is better than the original, be that in a movie or a book, so it was absolutely delightful to read such a story. Is it perfect? No. But it was still a lot of fun and a marked improvement from book 1.

First, our characters. Alosa is just as fierce and clever as she was before, and the tension with Riden is just as fun and steamy. The change here is their dynamic; it’s no longer two relatively flat characters with entertaining banter. They’ve both got issues, with themselves and each other, and they have to talk to figure things out. It was nice to see some more depth to them. We also get a lot more information on Alosa’s crew and her relationship with them. They’re a lovable bunch, and they made the story that much better.

We also get to see more locations and settings for this book; we aren’t just limited to a singular ship and a random island. Everything felt more detailed and more realized, which helped the story feel that much more immersive.

And of course there’s the book itself. The end game is less obvious, there’s more nuance to the plot. It’s just an overall better experience. It feels like book 1 should have been a prequel novella, with book 2 being the main attraction. At just over 300 pages each, I’d even argue that they’d do well combined into one longer novel.

I had trouble classifying where book 1 fell in terms of reader age (YA, NA, or adult), and I think book 2 was only slightly easier to place. I would solidly rule out the YA category given the level of brutality and violence. Without that, I actually think the series would work well as a YA/NA hybrid. Given the murderous intent, though, we’re left in an older range. I do think that the overall story lacks a lot of those more refined elements that would set it solidly in the land of ‘adult’ books for me, but given the FMC is only 17, that makes a lot of sense. It’s an in-between sort of age, especially on the high seas. Having it as an ‘in-between’ story works well.

Overall, this was another fun read. Our heroine is still a badass, the love interest is still cute, and the story is still entertaining. At just under 350 pages, this was another one day read for me, but it was definitely one that I enjoyed.

Daughter of the Siren Queen - Likewise Book Reviews

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