The Pirate’s Wish
(The Assassin’s Curse 2)
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publisher: Strange Chemistry, 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD
After setting out to break the curse that binds them together, the pirate Ananna and the assassin Naji find themselves stranded on an enchanted island in the north with nothing but a sword, their wits, and the secret to breaking the curse: complete three impossible tasks. With the help of their friend Marjani and a rather unusual ally, Ananna and Naji make their way south again, seeking what seems to be beyond their reach.
Unfortunately, Naji has enemies from the shadowy world known as the Mists, and Ananna must still face the repercussions of going up against the Pirate Confederation. Together, Naji and Ananna must break the curse, escape their enemies — and come to terms with their growing romantic attraction.
The Pirate’s Wish comes with new characters, surprising events, sea battles and more!
Stranded on an enchanted island with nothing but each other for company, has Ananna and Naji on edge. Now that our heroes know what the three impossible tasks are, they concentrate on unraveling them in this second book. And yes, they deal with all three tasks in this book because it’s the last one. I definitely had issues with this. The Pirate’s Wish, while entertaining as hell and amazing, felt too rushed. The series could’ve easily been turned into a trilogy instead of a duology. The material is there, and it would’ve allowed the character relationships and completion of the tasks to be more natural. As it is…it’s rushed. But I did like the message though: that nothing is impossible, it just seems that way.
The first task and most important one was solved too easily. I expected hours of delicious tension and a big ‘reveal of feelings’ moment, but that’s not how it happens. It was ABRUPT to say the least and left me and Ananna unsatisfied. There’s a lot of angst after this. The pirate girl is sick of playing ‘princess in a tower all safe and sound,’ a role Naji continually puts her in because of the curse. She knows he hurts every time she’s in danger, but she just wants to be in the middle of the action! This both amused me and bothered me. I mean, because of Ananna’s stubbornness Naji keeps suffering! Gahhh Then because of misunderstandings and an unwanted spell, Ananna becomes even more stubborn and pushes poor Naji away. The angst was at least tempered by their obvious care for each other.
Naji is once again the perfect assassin and gentleman, two characteristics that seem at odd but he pulls it off. I love, love, love his resolve. When Naji says he’ll do something, he’ll do it no matter what cost. Misunderstandings abound where he is concerned, but he is such a cutie trying to make things right again. Though that plan goes all to hell when he’s forced to strengthen the link between him and Ananna. Reading each other’s thoughts…awkward! His final decision…well, though it didn’t lead to the usual happily ever after, I loved it. It showed a level of maturity and realism to this fantastic story.
Once again, I felt this could’ve been a trilogy. The solution to the tasks came too easily, Ananna's power sprung out of nowhere, and there were a lot of characters introduced here and I was left wanting to know more about them. Like, what happens to the manticore and the promise between her and Ananna? What happens to the King of Salt and Foam and their curiosity to know exactly how they came to be? What happens to Naji’s assassin pals? What happens to Jeric yi Niru? WHAT ABOUT SAMUEL THE ALBATROSS? It’s my understanding that there will be more books set in the Assassin’s Curse universe, so maybe some of these people will appear. I certainly hope so, and I hope it’s not the last of Ananna and Naji.
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
Favorite Quotes:
~Angst~
“It didn’t burn me bad.” And I showed him my hand.“Would a stick pulled from any other fire have burned you at all?” he asked.
I scowled at him. “You only care cause the burn hurt you. But it ain’t hurting no more, right? So could we just drop it?”
“It’s not about the burn hurting me—”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Ananna—”
“Shut up!” I was regretting coming back to the cave now. I should have just trudged back to the manticore. The damn beast probably slept through the whole thing, but at least she wouldn’t nag me about getting burned by magical fires or look at me like I was this big disappointment cause I was the one in love with him and not some pretty little rive witch.
~Fighting Fun~
I stalked out of the garden and into the palace and right up to his room and pounded on his door until he answered.“Ananna,” he said. “Always nice to see you in person.”
“Stay out of my head!” I shouted. I launched myself at him, aiming both of my hands for his chest, figuring I could at least topple him over. He grabbed me by the waist and swung me off to the side.
“You’re such an ass,” I told him.
He laughed. “Why? Because you couldn’t knock me down?”
“Cause you tossed me around like a rag doll. Good thing I didn’t have my pistol on me.”
“Yes,” he said. “Good for us all.”
“Oh, shut up.”
~Protective Fathers~
Mama frowned, and before she could say anything, Papa’s voice boomed across the ship. “And what the hell kinda parley is thi—”He stopped when he saw me. For a moment nobody moved. We all just stood there in the smoke and the sea breeze.
“Nana,” he said. He threw his sword belt and his pistols and then rushed toward me, scooping me up like I was a kid again. “You were dead,” he said to me, leaning close. “You were dead. The assassin—”
“He’s here,” I said without thinking.
Everybody on the damn boat pulled out a weapon. Swords and pistols and daggers all threw off glints of lights in the sun.
Naji slumped against the railing and sighed.
