Daughter of the Pirate King is a fun story. Like many pirate tales, there is a good mix of action, adventure, and romance. A difference is that the main character, Alosa, is female. She is the daughter of the pirate king and captain of a ship in his fleet. The story opens with the capture of Alosa and her crew by rival pirate lords, two brothers. They plan to hold the Pirate King’s daughter for ransom. Following this opening, a couple of things become apparent. First off, Alosa has some secrets and second, she is a bad-ass.
One of her captors, Riden, sets about to interrogate Alosa to try to learn about the pirate king, his fleet, and location of his stronghold. Riden occasionally tricked her into giving away more than she intended, but Alosa learns about her captors as well. Through the course of their verbal sparing, they learn that they have something in common. Alosa and Riden are both children of pirate lords, they were pushed very hard to be able to handle the dangers of pirate life, and they both have tried to win the approval of their fathers. The two form a tenuous bond and a star-crossed romance seems to be lurking in the wings, waiting for a time that due to circumstance, may never come. Alosa isn’t the type of character to wait to be freed when her father pays the ransom. She has plans of her own and there is no place for Riden.
Daughter of the Pirate King is fast paced and the reader did a good job conveying Alosa’s character. In the beginning I thought that perhaps she was reading too fast, but as I got into the story I forgot about it. The book is the first in a two-book series and I look forward to the next installment of the story.