Review: The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Title: The Assassin's Curse 

Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Publisher: Strange Chemistry 
Publishing Date:  October 2nd 2012

Pages: 320
Genre:  YA Fantasy 

Series: The Assassin's Curse #1
Source: Paperback

  

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.

What is not to love about pirates, assassin's, and curses. Sounds like a bunch of fun to me, and it was. I read a bunch of reviews on this book, and many said it had a slow beginning. I didn't notice any slow starts, beginnings, or ends to this story. From the very beginning I was intrigued and was pretty invested in the story in just a a couple of chapters. I love fantasy and this one definitely left my need for a good fantasy satisfied. Great story, lots of action, and very unique characters.

Ananna's family are pirates, her parents want to marry her off to another pirate but Ananna does not want to marry if she cannot fly her own colors. She wants her own ship. She runs off after meeting her future husband and in her flight for escape almost gets killed by an assassin. Instead of getting killed, she saves the assassin's life and now he is bound to her, to keep her safe. They embark on a journey to to find the impossible cure to break the curse.

I enjoyed this book so much. I was a bit concerned when I picked up, I like High Fantasy but sometimes they are written in a matter that keep my attention and confuse me. This book was very well written and I loved every moment of it. The slang and the attitude of the main character gave the book more of a modern feel but with high fantasy aspects. I had no problem keeping up with the story and it kept my interest from the first page to the last page. 

The storyline was very fresh and new for me. It was very entertaining, full of pirates, creatures, and adventure. The world that was built to create space for the quirky characters to live was just wonderful. I really was in a different world, a different mood, when reading this book. I love it when a book completely takes me away.

I really enjoyed the characters, I connected to them quickly and just loved the time I spent with them. Ananna was very independent and full of attitude. She knew what she wanted and would do anything needed to get there. She was also very brave and at times selfless, as in saving the assassin that was sent to kill her. I did have a slight problem with the voice of her character, she did seem a lot younger than she was supposed to be, but I did learn to deal with it. I completely fell for the assassin. I wanted to know more of his story. I knew from the very beginning there was more to him than what first appeared. He had many layers that were fun to peel off though out the story. 

I had so much fun with this story. I know I keep saying fun, but it really was amazing.

I just couldn't get enough. I can't wait to start the next installment. If you like magic, a very creative world, and fun characters... grab a copy, you just may love it too.