Review: Siren by Tricia Rayburn

Series: Siren Trilogy, book # 1

Published: July 13th 2010

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Details: Hardcover, 352 pages

My Rating: 3/5

My Summary:

Enjoyable paranormal read about Vanessa who is investigating her sister’s sudden death in a coastal town in Maine. If you are tired of fallen angels and vampires, this is a refreshing tale of something new: sirens. It’s a quite spooky read what with all the deaths caused by these creatures. Also with a hint of a romance. Be prepared to have questions left unanswered though.

A few chapters in:

Ever since this book was published half a year ago, I’ve been keeping an eye on it, as it seemed to include everything that I normally enjoy in a book. We have Mystery: check! Sweet romance: check! Paranormal twist: check! And finally, but not least, great reviews: check!

I’m now a few chapters in. Quiet Vanessa and her lively sister Justine return together with their parents to their lake house in Maine to spend the summer. As always, when in Maine, they hang out with the neighbours and brothers Simon and Cabel. However, this time not many leisurely days go by until the unthinkable happens. Justine’s dead body is found in the sea, after having supposedly thrown herself off a cliff in bad weather.

Vanessa and her parents leave Maine in complete shock to arrange the funeral at home. After a few days, Vanessa decides to go back to the Lake House to investigate her sister’s death further as she is doubting the police report stating that Justine jumped off the cliff herself. There, she meets Simon, who tells her that ever since the night when Justine died, his brother Cabel has been missing too. Meanwhile, the weather in Maine is behaving rather strange, gathering up storms from out of nowhere and calming down the next second. Somehow, I believe the weather is linked to these disappearances, but how I don’t know.

And this is as far as I’ve got, but the beginning is promising and I’m sensing a bit spooky too!

After finishing the book:

I have just finished the book, and..I liked it. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but I did enjoy reading it.

First of all, I have to point out that it had some striking similarities with Need, all though instead of pixies, here there are evil sirens. In both books, the heroine (a girl with a lot of fears) is grieving the sudden death of a family member. Both storied are set in small towns in Maine, involving quite a few deaths before our heroes manage to close in on the enemies. And last but not least, they both involve a kick-ass grandma Betty!

I could go on, but if I do I’m afraid there will too many spoilers. I gave Need a stunning 4.5, and as you can see, I was not as impressed with this book. The main reason? The romance, which was so much stronger and steamier in Need. Loved Zara and Nick!

Ok, I’m getting sidetracked, back to this review:

We have Vanessa, who is a very likeable heroine, thoughtful and cautious, yet brave and strong. Just the way I like a heroine. All through the book she deals with her sister’s death, which is a painful process and somewhat confusing, as she gradually realizes that she didn’t know her sister as well as she thought.

We have geeky but still adorable Simon. A romance is hinted between the two of them, or rather starts but never truly takes off. I actually thought there would more romance, but it turns out the suspense in this novel overshadows the romance.

There are also many side characters, such as Paige, Cabel, Zara and Betty who were very well portrayed. I particularly warmed for sweet (almost to the point of naive) Paige, who seemed so misplaced amongst all the cruelty.

Even though the romance was not as prominent as I hoped it would be (as you know, I am a romantic at heart), it still very much kept my interest. I got a real spooky feeling while reading about the small coastal town surroundings, with dead bodies washing up onshore every few days and a weather going havoc. You don’t need to be an Einstein to guess that the sirens were the cause of all the mayhem (considering the title of the book), but there were many questions regarding the how and why? Through most part of the book, I was kept in the dark, with only tiny bits of information thrown in here and there. And it worked, I kept turning pages hoping to get my questions answered.

After finishing it, I’m not completely sure though I fully understood the how and why. I’ve read quite a few reviewers addressing the same issue, that too many loose ends were left hanging at the end, and I have to agree. I would have loved more to have been explained about the world of the sirens. And not only that, but other weird happenings, such as why supposedly dead Justine could communicate with Vanessa. Anyone got that?

Then again, I assume all this will be more throughly explained in the sequel Undercurrent. The end in this book promises an intriguing sequel, so I am looking forward to continue reading this (what I assume to be) trilogy.