Daughter of the Pirate King – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Having seen the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (yes, it’s a trilogy that stops after At World’s End) countless times, it should be no surprise that I love a good pirate story. And one about a strong female pirate who holds her own in a traditionally man’s world? Count me in.

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller follows seventeen-year-old Alosa Kalligan, the titular daughter of notorious pirate king Kalligan. The story starts right in the middle of the action with Alosa being captured by a rival pirate ship. Since Alosa is telling the story in first-person, however, we also know that the capture is actually staged. It is all part of her plan to board the rival ship and steal a portion of a treasure map.

The map in question is said to lead one to the legendary Isla de Canta, or the island of the sirens. The Isla de Canta holds innumerable wealth and treasure. Every pirate’s dream. Years ago, the map was divided into three portions. One piece was given to each of the founding pirate lords – Kalligan, Jeskor, and Vordan. By orchestrating her capture by Jeskor’s ship, Alosa begins her quest to retrieve the two remaining map pieces for her father.

An adventurous tale

Once on Jeskor’s ship, the Night Farer, Alosa learns that the captain and the first mate are the late Jeskor’s sons. Captain Draxen is the more arrogant and hot-tempered brother, determined to make a name for himself as a more fearsome pirate lord than his father. First mate Riden is more focused on the well-being of his crew and keeping his brother from getting them killed. Alosa spends most of her time being interrogated by Riden for the location of the Pirate King’s keep. After evading his questions daily, Alosa sneaks out of her cell each night to stealthily search the ship for the map piece.

Daughter of the Pirate King is well-written and well-paced. The story takes many twists and turns with several unexpected betrayals toward the end. I can’t say much without spoiling the story, but it’s an action-packed journey. Alosa makes a few friends within Draxen’s crew – Enwen and Kearan – who treat Alosa with relative kindness and provide much-needed comic relief during her time as a “prisoner.” (I put that in quotes since she technically planned her capture, she’s not fully a prisoner, but she is still dealing with the stress of searching for the treasure map.) She also starts to feel a growing attraction to Riden, which both annoys and worries her.

A fearless heroine

I wanna be Alosa when I grow up. She is a seriously cool, absolutely fearless pirate. Raised by a single father – who also happens to be a ruthless pirate – Alosa has been trained to be the best. Despite the crew’s attempts to lock her up and discipline her as a prisoner, she finds new ways to break out of her cell and to disobey orders. She is an excellent swordswoman and able to think quickly on her feet. As the story progresses, we get to learn a little bit more about her abusive childhood and her siren powers. Alosa is also revealed to be captain of her own crew – almost all women – whom she has handpicked for both courage and compassion.

I felt that a lot of this book was setting up the events of the next one. For example, Alosa’s conversations with Riden about fathers and unconditional love reveal potential similarities in their difficult upbringings. But although Riden is aware of the abuse and hates his late father, Alosa still seems to be in denial about hers. She maintains that her father loves her and only put her through rigorous training exercises to make her stronger. At the same time, she is very curious about her mother. Her quest for answers will likely cause her to re-evaluate her relationship with both of her parents in DotSQ.

A gentle hero

While the romance between Alosa and Riden is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers – two of my favorite tropes – what I really enjoy about their love story is the swapping of traditional gender roles. Of the pair, Alosa is the more bloodthirsty, impulsive, and sarcastic pirate. As a result of her harsh upbringing and her siren abilities, she has quite a healthy ego and often acts rashly. She tends to be more short-tempered and quick-to-violence.

Riden, on the other hand, is the gentler soul. He treats everyone he meets with empathy and support. His compassionate actions often remind Alosa of her own humanity. For instance, when they are captured by an enemy crew and are being tortured, it’s Riden who is able to keep Alosa grounded. His presence and words of encouragement help her keep the siren half at bay and ultimately save both their lives.

Daughter of the Siren Queen – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was even better than the first! As expected, a lot of the plot points and themes introduced in the DotPK are brought to conclusion in this one. These include Alosa’s reckoning of her relationship with her father, as well as her dealing with her fears of her siren half.

Daughter of the Siren Queen begins with Alosa and her crew successfully stealing Vordan’s piece of the map. Despite her victory, Alosa is left unsettled because of Vordan’s parting words to her that her father is merely using her as a weapon. Her doubts and curiosity lead her to break into her father’s study. There, she discovers a secret so terrible she loses all loyalty for him. Alosa decides to sail for the treasure at the Isla de Canta with her own ship, the Ava-lee. With the money, she plans to start her own pirate empire.

Captain Alosa

DotSQ takes place almost entirely on the Ava-lee, and we get to see Pirate Captain Alosa in her element. She is a ruthless leader, who rules with both justice and compassion. As deserters of the pirate king’s fleet, she and her crew are in grave danger. And rather than leave them at the mercy of Kalligan, she takes Enwen, Kearan, Riden, and even Draxen – whom she hates – aboard her ship as part of her crew. Though she finds the first three useful and somewhat considers them friends, she saved Draxen’s life solely because he is Riden’s brother. She knows how much it would hurt Riden if something were to happen to him.

Despite her bravado, Alosa clearly has a conscience when it comes to people she cares about. She is constantly forced to make difficult decisions in this book. Alosa repeatedly prioritizes the safety of her crew above all else. For example, she hates her siren side, but she undergoes training with Riden to learn how to control it so she can better help protect her loved ones against Kalligan’s fleet.

Found family

One of my favorite parts of this book was getting to know the crew members of the Ava-lee: Niridia, Mandsy, Sorinda, Deshel, Lotiya, Wallov, Deros, and little six-year-old Roslyn to name a few! Compared to the crew of the Night Farer and the pirates at Kalligan’s keep, all of whom were held by fear – it’s so refreshing to see a crew of pirates who follow their leader out of a sense of love and genuine loyalty. Alosa’s crew respect her and perhaps fear her powers a little. But above all, they trust her to always look out for their best interest. And that’s exactly what she does.

Enwen references this mutual respect when he admits that he would never steal from his crew mates aboard the Ava-lee. Kearen finally stops drinking because he is shocked that Sorinda “cares” enough about him to dump out all of his flasks. Even Riden tells Alosa that living aboard her ship is the first time he ever truly loved being a pirate. And seeing Wallov with his daughter Roslyn made him realize he could potentially have a similar future with Alosa. That scene was absolutely adorable!!

“I can picture a fiery-haired child running amok on this ship, locking her dolls in the brig when they misbehave.”

–Riden, p. 238

Final thoughts

Both books are action-packed. There’s not a boring moment. The pacing is good; the writing is easy to follow with plenty of humorous moments. Alosa’s POV is often comical in the way she loses her temper at people and situations that don’t go her way. Enwen and Kearen provide comic relief in book one, and in book two, they are joined by Alosa’s well-meaning crew. Niridia, Mandsy, and Sorinda provide additional lightheartedness with their frequent attempts to get their captain to admit her feelings for a certain new crew member haha.

In fact, I love how fleshed out all of the main and secondary characters were. It made deaths during battle scenes that much more heartbreaking and impactful. In the DotSQ, many members of Alosa’s crew whom she loves and whom even we have gotten to know throughout the two books: Lotiya, Deshel, Haeli, Deros, are casualties. And we feel the loss just as Alosa and her other crew members feel it. It makes their struggles and their desperation and Alosa’s rage toward her father so much more justified and worthy of our support <3

This duology truly has my heart. I love the slow-burn romance between Alosa and Riden. They bring out the best in one another. Alosa helps Riden become more independent from his brother and learn to be brave and stand behind his own convictions. Riden keeps Alosa grounded. He knows exactly how to comfort her and be there for her when she feels vulnerable or angry. His love helps Alosa maintain her humanity when in the ocean. He gives her a reason to stay with him and her crew rather than be lost to the invulnerability and power she has with the sea. Together, they’re unstoppable.

Read the Daughter of the Pirate King duology if you enjoy:

• Action and adventure on land and sea! 🌊
• Strong heroines who make the best pirates (and ladies!) 🏴‍☠️
• Enemies-to-lovers romance 🖤
• Found family <3
• Siren magic 🧜‍♀️
• Sword fights ⚔️
• And double-crossings fit for Captain Jack Sparrow himself! ☠️