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A review by wendeedeedee36
Capitana by Cassandra James
3.0
I was very excited for this book based on the overview. Pirates, rivals to lovers, political intrigue, and the potential for a revolution? Sign me up! Unfortunately, it did not quite live up to my expectations. It definitely had the exciting adventure and the political intrigue I had hoped for. It wasn’t groundbreaking in the plot, but I really did enjoy it. I like the idea of a pirate rebellion and am definitely interested in seeing how that takes off in the second book.
Where I felt underwhelmed was in Ximena herself. Ximena’s growth as a character/person is flat, and she continually flip flops back to her blind faith in the Law. Then suddenly at 90% it was like a switch was flipped out of nowhere. I do understand the idea that she’s been groomed from a young age, and that can account for it to some extent, but mostly she just continued making terrible choices for the sake of burying her head in the sand.
Similarly, the romantic tension was almost non-existent for a book marketed as a romantasy. Ximena and Dante had no chemistry, and it never seemed to develop. It felt like it came out of left field when Dante made it obvious he liked her early on, given he was rather awful to her most of the time. And while his actions more or less showed his intentions from that point on, Ximena never really reciprocated. I’m not saying a book needs romance to be good, but if you’re going to include it, at least make sure you do it with the proper buildup.
Overall, this story had great potential and I think the concept is interesting; the execution just fell a little short. That said, I will be finishing the duology when book 2 is released.
Where I felt underwhelmed was in Ximena herself. Ximena’s growth as a character/person is flat, and she continually flip flops back to her blind faith in the Law. Then suddenly at 90% it was like a switch was flipped out of nowhere. I do understand the idea that she’s been groomed from a young age, and that can account for it to some extent, but mostly she just continued making terrible choices for the sake of burying her head in the sand.
Similarly, the romantic tension was almost non-existent for a book marketed as a romantasy. Ximena and Dante had no chemistry, and it never seemed to develop. It felt like it came out of left field when Dante made it obvious he liked her early on, given he was rather awful to her most of the time. And while his actions more or less showed his intentions from that point on, Ximena never really reciprocated. I’m not saying a book needs romance to be good, but if you’re going to include it, at least make sure you do it with the proper buildup.
Overall, this story had great potential and I think the concept is interesting; the execution just fell a little short. That said, I will be finishing the duology when book 2 is released.