The Assassin's Curse (Book 2)

The Pirate's Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke 

Rating

4 stars

Date Read

28/6/2015 - 29/6/2015

Age Group

14+

General thoughts

Damn, I really should stop reading if it feels like this every time I finish a series.


No, not really. I love that sweet melancholy that comes with the realisation that you won't read about those characters and their lives again as much as I love the thrill of a new book.

The Pirate's Wish seemed like a big book. Not  in the matter of pages or the hours it takes to finish it, but in the matter of the huge things that happened to the characters, that changed them through the book. Where they were, who they met, what they felt; their relationships and their hardships and their challenges. The tables kept turning and where we leave them is a long way from where they started.

It was nice and quick, it will make you laugh and it will make me cry (well, actually, it left this lump in my throat that I get when I'm sad, I didn't really cry). It was a nice change, too, that there was no insta-love. Just a pirate and an assassin, fighting, talking, protecting, surviving. We left Ananna in the first book hopelessly in love with a blood magician, a Jadorr'a, while everybody who laid eyes on them knew that that would involve a lot of heartache. Now we get to follow her as she, too, realises it.

I don't make a habit of inserting spoilers but I have no other choice if I am to talk about what bothered me in the book, because there were a couple of things that were rushed, or didn't make sense. BUT before I go into the spoiler alert, let me mention that the ending is not one of those things. In fact, I really liked the way Cassandra chose to wrap her series up.Very... realistic.

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So, as I was saying, it was a nice change, from what is usually on my nightstand, the fact that there was no insta-love, not even a real kiss, until 80% through the second book of the series. Well no, actually, that last part was a really cruel thing to do, making me believe he didn't love her at all, that he wasn't capable of it.

But Cassandra did manage it very well, she had me fooled, I was losing all hope and then I was taken by surprise, when I realised that Naji's affection for Annana was very real and very swoon-worthy.

What was rushed was him showing said affection. I mean he's unconscious for a week, she helps save his life and then all of sudden he's kissing her, no explanation for why it took him so long to show he loved her, why he bothered hiding it, what made him come out. I mean, it wasn't even the first time she saved his life, so you can't say that that was the reason he felt the need to show her the depth of his gratitude. It was just too quick and sudden. That part could have used a bit of explaining.

Of course, after that, their relationship was perfect, mostly because it is true what they say, the longer someone spits the more we stick to him like freaking postal stamps. And Naji (even his name sounds perfect, all masculine and exotic) had been spitting on Ananna's affections long enough so we were all too in love with him to care that his love was revealed a bit too suddenly. Does that sound disturbed to anyone else? No? Just me then... Moving on to the why he bothered hiding it:

Now, theoretically, it could be that he was still hurt after Leila's rejection. But, having read The Witch's Betrayal, that is not the case. He knew how his self-centered, sea-witch of a girlfriend would react to his scars; she who loves pretty things would not look past his disfigured face.

No, he didn't sound hurt about Leila's rejection in the The Witch's Betrayal, it was more like his pride was wounded. He missed the easy way he got everything, the praising glances from the pretty women. He hated the snarky, cruel comments, the disdainful glances, the scared whispers (who wouldn't?), all as though he really was the monster he pictured himself to be because of his being an assassin. Now that he actually looked the part, there was nothing to convince him otherwise.

So her rejection, though scarring to his ego and psychology, could not be blamed for his choice not to reveal his love to someone who had already looked past the monster he thought he was, someone who already loved him. So maybe it all comes down to his not being able to look past it, past the monster he thinks he is, but there is scarcely any evidence to support such a serious claim in the book.

The other part that was weird was the whole "King of Foam" and underwater kingdom thing. Not bad weird or good weird, just weird. A bit of a surprise. A fun and welcome and quite imaginative on the author's part surprise. Just the right amount of far-fetchted.

Back to the pirate's daughter  relationship with the assassin: except for Ananna occasionally acting like a teenager - that childish behavior that makes me, also a teenager, question her intelligence - it was a very nice relationship. She did get weak in the knees thinking about him, but that didn't stop her from questioning him or fighting with him from time to time, so their relationship was as honest as in the previous book. Just with more kissing involved.

Coming to the last important matter: the ending. As I already mentioned, I liked it. I think it fit the book perfectly. Not sappy, or cheesy happy, no killing off protagonists just because you can (Veronica, dear.) and not a completely sad ending, either. It was heart-wrenching and touching and realistic.

They couldn't be together, they couldn't be apart. They could not have a normal relationship, but nothing about it had been normal to begin with.

"I'm not leaving you" he kept saying. "I'm just not staying".

And she didn't understand at first until he smiled at her for the first time and then she did. He was bound to the Order, she was connected to the sea. They couldn't do anything but go their seperate ways, working it out in the process, but never giving up.

"I won't stop loving you" she shouted.
"Is that what I said?" his face darkened.

They would never really be apart, what with the blood bond and all. They just wouldn't always be physically together, what with her roaming the oceans, and him keeping his commitment to the Jadorr'a.

As I said, a realistic not too sad and kind of romantic ending. What's not to like?

XOXO

Aggie Pearson