Published: 4th June 2013
By: Strange Chemistry
Source: Netgalley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this second instalment in the The Assassin's Curse duology. I'd really liked Ananna and Naji in the first book, and I was hoping things were going to turn out a certain way.
Adding a manticore into the mix here surprised me somewhat but worked quite well, and I really liked her. She added something to this book for me and I was slightly disappointed when they dropped her off. I enjoyed the relationship that was built between her and Ananna.
Part of me felt though, and this could just have been my bad memory, but that Naji and Ananna's characters had changed somewhat from the first book. While in The Assasin's Curse I enjoyed the dangerous, mysterious and broody guy that was Naji, I felt he acted more 'little boy lost' in this book and seemed to sulk or something. When he doesn't return Ananna's feelings towards him, she's just really mean to him all the time, so he just tries to stay out of her way. I found this annoying on both of their parts. And I never would have guessed his feelings for her, he gave absolutely nothing away.
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the antagonistic relationship between the two of them, I did. But I'd been hoping that they would get together, knowing Ananna had feelings for Naji and just hoping they would be reciprocated. But when they did eventually get together, there was nothing. No sparks, no swooning. It just didn't fulfil my expectations at all which was slightly disappointing.
And something that only came to mind sometime after finishing this book, was that, for three apparently, impossible tasks, they weren't that hard to accomplish.
So, to reiterate, as this seems quite negative lol. I did really enjoy The Pirate's Wish and I would recommend this series. The plot is decent and I enjoyed the characters.
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This series sounds good!
I thought the Pirate's Wish was good but not great. I didn't feel compelled to pick this one up. I am glad that it was a good read for you, though!
I'm glad that you enjoyed this follow up Suzanne, my feelings were incredibly mixed that I didn't really know how I felt. I think I had my expectations set a bit too high and it kind of didn't match up to that, oh well. I'm happy that this worked out really well for you though!
lol - I hate when I really like a book, but it seems like my points are more on the negative side.This series really does sound good. I wouldn't have looked twice at the covers though.
I agree that Naji and Ananna HAVE changed a lot, and not for the better. I wasn't entirely happy with how it all played out, mostly because the changes were so sudden and came when neither of them particularly deserved it. But overall, this was a great duology, well written and full of surprises. I'm glad you enjoyed it too.
Oh I felt the same way about the romance. I suppose I was satisfied overall (I DID get what I wanted after all), but like you said, there wasn't enough spark. I'm not sure what happened between the first book and this one to result in something like that. I liked the book on the whole though and I'm glad you did too. Great review!
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