Siren by Hazel Grace

 

BOOK: Siren

AUTHOR: Hazel Grace

TYPE: Standalone

GENRE: Fantasy Romance

POV: First Person - Multiple

PAGE COUNT: 353 (Kindle Edition)

PUBLICATION DATE: Jan 7, 2020

DATE READ: Dec 3, 2020

*(Subject to change)*

4.02

Degan - 30

Davina - ?

Tobias - ?

Murder, torture, violence.

I’m one of the most alluring creatures in the world.
Dangerous.
Beautiful.
Powerful.
A siren.
One of seven princesses of Lacuna.
But I wanted more than that, so much more than the trinkets I stowed in my caverns. I wanted my own piece of the world.
And I got it.
However with that wish came a price, and that price came with secrets.
Two of which should never have been able to set foot on where I reside.
The fate of my heart belongs to Lacuna, but whose heart belongs to me?

*SPOILERS AHEAD WARNING.*

“I love you,” he decrees. “I love you more than anything in this universe. More than myself, more than life, more than any circumstances or outcome. You are my world, Blood. I will never forget you, even in eternal sleep, you’ll always be my dream.”

The first 60% would have been 2 stars, but the last bit got a bit better. I swear I nearly stacked this because this has some of my least favorite tropes. A love triangle and scenes with BOTH OM and OW. While it was a reason to dislike this, it was not THE reason.

Siren by Hazel Grace was a complicated book for me. I loved some aspects of it and I hated some others. Let's start with the good ones. This is an intriguing and unique version of 'the Little Mermaid' universe. The world-building was complex and on-point and the characters were multi-dimensional and real. Since this book is a part of Sinister Fairy Tales, I expected this to be a bit more dark. It was a little mild in that area apart from some neck-snapping. One thing that I loved was how Davina was stronger than the male leads. For once, it was the female character who was more powerful and superior. I loved her strength, valor and fierce nature. However, she was the only lead I loved. None of the other characters, nor Dagen or Tobias or any of her six sisters did it for me.

Let's hit the letdowns;

➽ Davina: I loved her then I didn't. She was a strong character but she sort off ruined it for me the moment she had sex with I-can't-even-remember-his-name in a weird torture/interrogation/seduction? technique. And then she killed what's-his-name (who was completely innocent, btw). I don't want to read about our main protagonist having sex with someone other than her love interests. It's just icky. FYI, her torture techniques suck. I think she should read a manual. Here's that scene, if someone's interested.

❝❝  However, it was me underneath her as she rode my cock, not Tybalt.

“Holy mother of Athena,” Tybalt groans. “You feel amazing. Is this real?” He’s answered with a delicate chuckle.

“It’s real,” she whispers loud enough for me to hear. “So fuck me like it’s the last thing you’re going to do.”

I hear his grunt and see his knees bend as he pounds into her. Into the woman who drove her nails inside my skin to the point where I wanted to strangle her with my bare hands and do exactly what the lad is doing right now. My resentment has passed its peak, surpassing the level of being able to stay calm. Yanking on my chains in frustration, I set myself to stand, all while seeing Davina’s head turn in my direction.

“Didn’t mean to wake you,” she coos, letting Tybalt continue to drive his dick inside her. She looks down at him, her hair cascading over her shoulders. “Don’t stop.”

“Stop,” I deadpan, my eyes boring into his body. But he doesn’t, my words mean nothing. It’s her that possesses him, body and soul, and she’s trying to get into my fucking head. She’s already there. She’s been there. Now she’s using her little antics and tricks to drive me fucking crazy. To the point where my fingers are itching to clasp around my own man’s neck. I can’t see Davina’s eyes when she turns in my direction, but I can make out the look on her face—defiance.

“Go back to sleep,” she croons then lets out a harsh exhale, dropping her chin to her chest. “Yes, Tybalt, like that.”

“Yeah?” he utters, suddenly confident. “You like that, beauty?”

“Yes,” she breathes. “Mhm, you’re so good at this.” ❞❞

➽ The writing: I soon made my peace with the above scene. I was even fine with the love triangle. But then the writing. It was so stilted and weird to read. God, this book badly needs an editor. And then I came across this gem of a quote;

“Good,” she sighs when my cocks spreads her opening. “Because you’d be everyone’s fool if you fell in love with me.”

Cocks? Cocks?? Like plural? How many does he have? Jesus. Maybe it's just the eBook. But the writing felt stilted to me throughout the plot. There were more like “Seems like all the decision-making has been taken away and talked about amongst themselves.” and “Freezing in place, I listen to the house start to creak and clatter with the belongings of the castle.” Does this make sense? I know English is not my native language but still, that felt weird. The writing was a big no for me. And Tobias and Dagen? I was more or less impervious to them.

➽ Plot holes: In chapter 11, during Dagen and Tobias's altercation, Dagen mentions rumors about Tobias raping women and Davina asks him, “What's raping women?” Now mind you, she reads so many books, she has a library on her island and is it still possible she doesn't know what's rape? Maybe it is, but I don't believe she is that naïve when she obviously has had sexual partners before and participates in that scene with what's-his-name. But in chapter 29, when Dagen has her captured underneath him, she insinuated that he will rape her. So unless I missed something she went from not knowing what rape is to accusing Dagen of wanting to rape her. Which doesn't make sense unless some scenes were deleted.

➽ The end part: The last thing that irritated me was how both Tobias and Dagen were killed off in a sacrifice, and how Davina went through 10% of the book in various stages of grief, like “my best friend is dead, my love is dead and how will I live? what will I do now?”

While in my mind, I was going “Please don't resurrect them now. Don't resurrect them. What's the point then. Oh. Oh Shit. You did it. Tobias is alive again. Huh. But Dagen's still dead. Maybe he will remain dead. Please remain dead. Don't come alive again. Don't come alive. Oh. Shit. Really? Really?? Was that really necessary? Of course. Of course he's alive again.”

Safe to say this wasn't a favorite. But hey, don't knock it off till you try it.

• ❝If this is hell, I’d gladly lounge in it—it’d be worth the trip.❞

• ❝He’s a brute, I’m a killer when need be. He’s a human, I’m a creature of the sea. He’s a warrior of the land while I’m a killer of the sea.❞

• ❝I don’t want to be a faded memory because she’d never be that for me. She is a living and breathing light of freedom that I didn’t know I needed.❞

• ❝“I love you,” he decrees. “I love you more than anything in this universe. More than myself, more than life, more than any circumstances or outcome. You are my world, Blood. I will never forget you, even in eternal sleep, you’ll always be my dream.”❞

• ❝Claiming my mouth again, his lips give into everything that we both share. The happy moments of us laying together in my bed. The angry ones when I killed his men right in front of him. The desired memories of bliss when he filled me and lavished my body with kisses and his mouth. And now our last one that we’ll ever spend together.❞

• ❝“I’m in love with you, you brainless Viking,”❞

Hazel Grace is an avid music lover, an undefined human being, and hardcore Oakland Raiders fan from the mitten state of Michigan.

Always surprising her readers with weird Michigan sayings (they have their own cuss words) and writing "what the f*ck" storylines.

When she's not writing, she's on Spotify finding new bands, working on her Camaro or watching shows with her kids with annoying songs attached to them.

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