Review:Siren - Tricia Rayburn

Vacationing in Winter Harbor, Maine, is a tradition for Vanessa and Justine Sands, and that means spending time with the Carmichael boys. This summer, Vanessa is determined to channel some of her older sister’s boldness, get over her fear of the ocean, and maybe turn her friendship with Simon Carmichael into something much more.

But when Justine goes cliff-diving after a big family argument, and her body washes ashore the next day, Vanessa is sure that it was more than an accident. She is more certain of this, when she discovers that her sister was keeping some big secrets and Caleb Carmichael’s gone missing. Suddenly, the entire oceanfront town is abuzz when a series of grim, water-related accidents occur, with the male victims washed ashore grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa and Simon team up to figure out if these creepy deaths have anything to do with Justine and Caleb. But will what Vanessa discovers mean the end of her summer romance, or even life as she knows it?

Siren has the features to be an amazing book, unfortunately, it falls a little short. I wish I could say I adored it but I didn’t, I didn’t dislike it, I just didn’t love it.

As a paranormal reader, sirens are something I haven’t read much of, I’m not sure there are many books out there about them and I was extremely excited to read this book, so much so that when I found it in my local supermarket I begged my mother for the £7 and bought it there and then. I started it in the car ride home. It was a slow start, I couldn’t really get into it and I kept putting it down. I finally got into it around fifty pages in and it held my attention for most of my night.

What can I say? The plot is amazing, original but unfortunately, Rayburn doesn’t pull it off as well as she could do. I got a little confused at some places about what was going on, who was doing what and where things were taking place. It could have been simple but I think that Rayburn needlessly overcomplicated some parts of it.

The book flowed well, things led to another and clues were discovered, as should happen in a good mystery novel, I didn’t really think anything was a shock, I mean, she kept me on edge, but I never really had any *GASP* moments while reading (and I need a good *GASP*). Some parts of this book were downright scary though, the parts where Vanessa is sneaking round the house had me so scared for her, but the parts that could have been really frightening, like the action at the end, were overlooked, and I felt she rushed the end of the book.

Vanessa annoyed me slightly at the beginning, but I grew to like her as she developed, which is good because I doubt I could have bared to read the book if I had hated her but... Simon... oh Simon... this is one of the only YA boys that I have liked. I adored him, and I felt the relationship was natural, as he and Vanessa had been friends for years before, it wasn’t just “I METZ A BOI ‘N’ NOW I LUB HIM ETERNALALALLY!”, it was a natural development, and I loved that there was something in the way, my heart breaks for him at some points in the book. I really hope Rayburn keeps him as Vanessa’s love interest in the sequel, I would HATE her forever if she suddenly changed her mind and decided to give her somebody different.

All in all, the book isn’t terrible, not fantastic either though. It is a good start to a trilogy. I will be reading the sequel (Undercurrent, which is released summer 2011, I think), but I won’t have massively high expectations.

Overall rating: C

Stand alone/series: First in a series

Released: February 3rd 2011 (Paperback)

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Pages: 320

Book obtained via: Bought!