Review: The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke - Juhina

Title: The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse, #1)

Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke

Publication date: October 2, 2012

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Genre(s): Young Adult (Supernatural/Pirates)

Challenges: Debut

Source: Publisher
Format: Digital ARC

Pages: 320

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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.

The Assassin's Curse was exactly what the cover and synopsis promise, an adventure. Cassandra Rose Clarke has recreated the feeling of fairytales such as Aladdin and Mulan and basically delivered an addicting and all consuming novel called The Assassin's Curse. The two main characters are a pirate and an Assassin. The originality of the premise and characters as well as plot in this novel is what really set this novel apart from the usual adventure novels. 

The protagonist, who is a daughter of a powerful pirate family ends up running away from an unwanted marriage. The family of the groom send an assassin to murder her because the shame is apparently too much for them. Now the twist that happens is that she ends up saving the assassin's life and causes the emergence of a curse. Naji, the Assassin now has to protect Ananna's life. Here is when the adventure to break the curse begins. Of course the adventure begins from the first page of the novel and I loved how we are dropped right in the middle of the action from the get go. Ananna is a great character; she is strong headed and doesn't go along with anyone's plan for her life, not even her parents. However I think my favorite character of the two is Naji. I just really sympathize with him at the beginning and I just love how even with his hard exterior, he isn't the dark brooding type, he isn't even labeled as an assassin's version of a bad boy. He is sweet, caring, and just all around a true gentleman, which ironically contradicts his profession. I just loved their growing fondness of each other over time and I just always hoped for more from those two together! 

Cassandra Rose's writing is engaging and makes you totally connect with the characters. I honestly couldn't put the book down and kept on sneaking in reading breaks whenever possible. While The Assassin's Curse doesn't go that far plot wise, I felt this book was more about the character growth than the actual plot progression. The ending just made me want more and I can't wait for the release of the second book in this series and continuing on the journey of this odd partnership between a pirate and an assassin.