Review: The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse #1) by Casssandra Rose Clarke

Title: The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse #1)

Author: Casssandra Rose Clarke
Book Taken from Netgally
Published:  October 2nd 2012 by Strange Chemistry

Book Description:

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her. 

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.

MY THOUGHTS:

“You don't realize how much you miss something till it comes back to you, and then you wonder how you went so long without it.”

        

            Before starting my actual review, I actually want to apologize first for this very late review. I mean very veryvery late review. I did not expect to be this busy when I entered second year and things just piled up and I can’t really read this as fast as I can. So yes, I apologize for that.

            Well, starting my review, I must say this is my first pirate book. And since I told you I was busy, I don’t have that much of an expectation. So where do I start…

            The author started the story with the main heroine being whisked of by her influential pirate family into marriage to a very handsome pirate named Tarrin. Feeling betrayed by her parents and not wanting to be married to someone like Tarrin she run-off by riding on a camel. So basically, Ananna, the main heroine is very headstrong, free-willed and sharp tongued and I really like her. This is because while I’m reading this book on her point of view, you will see how strong she really is but she’s not that typical “Mary-sue” character because she has her insecurities. She’s insecure with her beauty, at some of her decisions and a few things here and there. She’s also brusque to a point that you don’t want to cross her. I don’t want to explain more about Ananna because I really want you to read this story and see things in her eyes. My only downside is I can’t picture her well. The author did not paint her image that well. I kept on thinking how I would paint her in my mind since she’s very negative about the way she looks I’m not sure how to really picture her.

            Naji, on the other hand, is a blood magician hired by Tarrin’s family to kill Ananna for running away from their engagement. Blood magicians in the story are the worst assassins there is, since they can kill without you doing anything. Because of a very simple reason (I won’t tell what that is), he became indebted to his suppose target and the wheel has turned and he is now required to protect his target. For me, I really like Naji with all his angst and all that. He has this deep personality that you just want to slowly uncover. And as time goes by, you would realize that he’s not as indestructible as he is painted out to be as shown on the times that Ananna saved him. Sometimes, I actually think that she’s the one doing the protecting.

            The romance part on the novel, on the other hand, has a very slow but subtle progression that I really like. Ananna’s attraction to Naji is very endearing in a sense and maybe it is due to the character she presented. I’m really fond on the way the author presented Ananna’s feelings and I can’t wait for the next book to read what will happen next.

            There are some parts that are very fast paced and seemed to only center on the two of them. That part has a good side that is making us dig more into their story and a bad side, which, for me, feels a bit unexciting. The dialogues between the major character in the story, on one hand, is very ‘cute’ (not sure if this is the right term to use) because even if Naji rarely speaks and Ananna always hold her one-sided conversation, you can still feel his reaction through small actions that he gives.

            Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book but I think that it ended prematurely and there are still things needed to be uncovered before the author had ended it. Too many questions are left hanging that I know would appear in the next book but I think she should have included some of them in this book. I think that this part is just scratching the lid of something bigger that is about to happen. But, as I’ve said above, I enjoyed reading this one and can’t wait to read the next one since I think it would more or less have the answers to the questions that was left hanging in the first book. And I have a feeling that the second book would be full of surprises.

Well, I’m giving this, 4 whale wrecking pirate ships (pardon the pun)