Sarah Street

A fairytale on the high seas, A Curse of Salt by Australian author Sarah Street is touted as a cross between Beauty and the Beast and Pirates of the Caribbean.

It’s not a bad description. When her father is taken hostage by a mercenary, Ria Lucroy volunteers to take his place and sacrifices herself to the scourge of the High Seas, the Heartless King. Trapped aboard the Blood Rose, among monsters spoken only about in whispers as she seeks answers to the family secrets that have marked her as pawn between the Heartless King and his enemy, Bane, the pirate swears that no harm shall come to Ria, but a promise, unlike a curse, can easily be broken.

Street relies fairly heavily on fairytale character stereotypes. Ria, is the naive but plucky young heroine, determined to solve the world’s problems, and a secret princess to boot. The Heartless King, aka Sebastien, is the typical gruff, brooding hero who, not unlike the titular Beast, is cursed, and therefore redeemable (with a library to boot). Which makes Bane, Gaston-like, with the expected arrogance and not too dissimilar goals. I liked them all well enough in their roles, along with the Blood Rose crew.

I enjoyed the romance, which exploits the enemies to lovers trope. Ria is horrified to realise she is falling for the man she supposes to be a monster while Sebastien attempts to keep his front of indifference and intimidation. Inevitably there is a lot of tension between the pair, which I thought Street developed well.

Though the story had its moments, unfortunately, I found the plot as a whole to be fairly one note and circular, suitable for its intended YA audience perhaps, but just not enough for me. That said, the writing is good, descriptive and emotive, and includes touches of humour. The action and drama of the finale in particular was tense and satisfying, with the expected fairytale ending.

A Curse of Salt may not have been the spellbinding fantasy I was hoping for, but I did find it to be a decent read, and I would be interested in reading the debut author’s next book.… (altro)

In order to save her ill sister, Ria sacrifices herself to join the evil pirate Heartless King's ship. Her father's life had been spared as long as he delivered his eldest daughter to the King's magical ship that controls the seas. Once onboard Ria discovers that she and her sister are actually princesses and a mutineer called Bane is hunting for them to use as a way of controlling the King Oren on land. The Heartless King wants to kill Bane, so Ria is basically bait to trap Bane. The Heartless King himself is 321 years old but shrouded in a hood so Ria can't see his face. But he invites her to dinner and they start a cat and mouse game where she asks him one question a night and he answers it as long as she turns up to eat....slowly she comes to see him not as the monster she originally thought he was....shades of Beauty and the Beast...except at sea :) with a bit of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell no Tales thrown in with Nerida the goddess of the Sea having placed a curse on Sebastien the Heartless King.
This book started off great but I felt the author couldn't quite tie all the ends together when it came to the end of it. It gets a bit raunchy in some bits but is never explicit . Still 9-10.… (altro)