Book Review: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Sometimes I read books and I love them so much I’ll recommend them to everyone I meet and sometimes I read books that I understand don’t have the same level of broad appeal, but seem like they were written just for me. This book is the latter.  Shannon Chakraborty is known for writing the bestselling Daevabad trilogy. It’s one of my favorite fantasy series so I knew when she released this book I’d make it a priority to read sooner rather than later.

This story follows retired pirate legend Amina Al-Sirafi. She’s put her swashbuckling ways behind her and plans to live in peaceful obscurity for the rest of her life. However; when she’s approached and offered many lifetimes worth of riches to locate and bring home a kidnapped daughter of one of her old crew members she gets the gang back together for one more adventure. Obviously, things don’t go as planned and soon Amina finds herself battling foes with unimaginable powers and enemies she thought she had put behind her forever.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that in most fantasy or adventure stories I read featuring a female lead the epilogue is them moving to remote locations to raise children. That’s the end of their story whereas it’s only the start of this one. Amina is a middle-aged mother captaining a ship and going on incredible adventures showing just as much bravery and strength as heroines half her age. I listened to most of this audiobook while rocking my baby during nap time and it was so rewarding to read a fast paced exciting adventure tale of someone in my stage of life.

This book has so many elements of things I love: swashbuckling badass women, found family, morally gray characters. All set in a rich, fully fleshed out world with interesting lore at its foundation.

I absolutely loved this novel. I’ve read 28 books so far this year and this is only my second 5 star read so if any of those elements appeal to you I’d highly recommend picking this one up!