The Assassin's Curse

From Goodreads:
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 Rating: ****

I'm glad that the goodreads summary is different than the summary on the back of the book, because the book's blurb gives away almost the entire plot and even outlines the second book! Weird. If you read this, do not read the back of the book.

And I really recommend that you do read this, because it is a rollicking good adventure and a seriously fun read. Ananna is about as entertaining as any pirate character I've ever read/watched. I do wish perhaps that she didn't swear like a sailor, but it's definitely in character and light on the heavier words (there was one "F" word). Her grammar is atrocious, which bothered me at first, but I got used to it fast. And that's enough of the negatives, because there really aren't any others. Ananna is hilarious, a good fighter, a loyal friend, an independent thinker, and a smashing good sailor and, on ocassion, thief.

I found Naji, the assassin, a bit more bland. But not a bad character, mind you. He was just so quiet. I wasn't sure why he was an assassin, or why Ananna started falling for him by the end of the book (come on, that's not a spoiler - you knew that's where this book was going, right?). There were several things I just wanted more from in this book. Naji for one. Other than that, I wanted more magic and more answers in general. This book needs its companion. It does not stand alone at ALL. Expect half a story and half of the answers you need. I will definitely be reading the sequel, but I kind of wish I'd waited for them both to be out before reading the first.

But not really, because this book is still a lot of fun and full of adventure and humor and magic. Ananna absolutely makes it worth it. Very much recommended and I can't wait for the sequel!