Daughter of the Siren Queen-Book Review

Book cover of Daughter of the Siren Queen. Underwater graphic with girl with red hair swimming down.

Daughter of the Siren Queen (Daughter of the Pirate Queen #2)
By Tricia Levenseller
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: YA Fantasy
Recommended For: Ages 16+ and those who secretly (or not so secretly) wish they were a pirate.

Alosa’s mission is finally complete. Not only has she recovered all three pieces of the map to a legendary hidden treasure, but the pirates who originally took her captive are now prisoners on her ship.

Still unfairly attractive and unexpectedly loyal, first mate Riden is a constant distraction, but now he’s under her orders. And she takes great comfort in knowing that the villainous Vordan will soon be facing her father’s justice.

When Vordan exposes a secret her father has kept for years, Alosa and her crew find themselves in a deadly race with the feared Pirate King. Despite the danger, Alosa knows they will recover the treasure first . . . after all, she is the daughter of the Siren Queen.

The Gist:
A thrilling sequel to Daughter of the Pirate King that amped up character growth, romantic tension and adventure. In fact, I liked book 2 more than book 1. I was drawn in even more to the story by the plot and characters. In this story, we get to meet her mother and learn more about the scars left by her father. The stakes are higher making Daughter of the Siren Queen even harder to put down than book one. It is a very satisfying end to a fun pirate duology.

What I Liked:
If you were like me and fell in love with the fiesty Alosa in book one, you’ll be pleased to know she is the same pirate with an attitude we adore. We do see character growth, but without sacrificing her unique personality.

Extra. Tension. The book was much more of a race against the clock feel as Alosa tries to outrun and outsmart her Pirate King father. This greatly improved the pacing and saved the book from a saggy middle. When danger is always near, I must turn the page. I’m always impressed by how Levenseller is able to maintain a compact plot and story without sacrificing engaging conflict.

I love a good romantic plot line. It’s fairly evident in most of my reviews. So I was pleased that one of the big things book two improved on was the romantic plot. There was more tension and we saw the roller coaster of emotions without any of it feeling soap-opera dramatic. And we get to see how well Alosa and Riden fit together. There’s progression and growth in their relationship, but it never tries to take center stage. Instead it only feeds the main plot and character development.

The reader also gets to know Alosa’s crew more, which we never got in book one because she wasn’t with them. The more I read about these girls, the more I wished I could send in my application to join Alosa’s crew.

Levenseller wrote an outstanding ending. Loose ends were tied up and the story line came to a neat and tidy end, which is exactly what I’m looking for in my YA books. We learned more about things only mentioned in book one and at least all my questions were answered. Gotta love a good satisfying ending.

What I Didn’t Like:
Book one left some questions unanswered and lots of curiosity about some of the side characters and ones we hadn’t met yet. Unfortunately, some of the expectations I had for this book related to meeting her mom weren’t met in my opinion. Given the book title, I was anticipating the Siren Queen to have a more pivotal role in the story.

Plot. Great. Characters. Awesome. World building. Eh? Given that the duology centers on pirates, I would have loved to read more about pirate culture and all the rituals and pirate code type things. It would have added a magical depth to the story.

Most of the relationships Alosa had with other characters were well developed with Levenseller giving the reader a deeper look into the character dynamics. However, there were a couple that I wish would have been more significant in the story, only because I expected certain ones to be more of a centerpiece…given the title of the book….

LunasLuckyRating: 4/5 Lunas