The Assasin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke (ARC)

I fell in love with this book even before it was available on NetGalley. It sounded awesome and the cover somehow appealed to me (a rare occurrence, since while covers can discourage my interest in a book, they rarely encourage it).

The Assasin's Curse follows Ananna, a pirate daughter who runs away from an arranged marriage. And because she does so, her spurned fiance's family sends an Assassin after her. But in a strange twist of events, she saves the Assassin's life and activates a curse that compels him to protect her. This is the premise of the book, and the rest of the book follows Ananna and Naji (the assassin) as they try to break the curse.

Personally, Ananna reminds me a bit of Huck Finn. Both are "anti-heroes" (they have no qualms about stealing and such), but have their own form of honour. But to me, Ananna is way more interesting. Her style of talking is very informal (and while she speaks like someone who's quite uneducated, the bad grammar manages not to offend) and friendly. And special mention must be made about the fact that though the whole novel is written in a conversational style, it does not get tiring at all.

Naji was another interesting character. He was very guarded at first, but he gradually opens up. In fact, I'm very interested in how his character is going to develop as the series goes on. At the beginning, he was obviously in charge, but now, I think it's a 50-50 relationship between the two, as Ananna starts to assert themselves, and as they get onto Pirate Territory.

The world building was really excellent. The pirates aren't completely lawless, they have a "Confederation", but there are also 'rogue' pirates. There's a world beyond the pirates which seems interesting (like the hierarchy for the Assassins, and the reason for their existence).

The only thing I don't like about the book is the use of swearing. While most of the curses are quite imaginative (and suited to the pirate world), the f-word does appear once or twice. Because of this, I'd recommend this book only to those about 15 or older.

All in all, a really enjoyable book.

Disclaimer: I got this book free from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.