Dnf'ed @ 28%

Unfortunately, this book doesn't give much to love. Past a quarter of the way in, and I don't feel as though I really knew our main character. She felt hollow, almost as though she was two-dimensional rather than three. I wanted to know more about her and get more in-depth characterization than what is being given.

Additionally, I feel like there is a lot more showing rather than telling happening. One of the side characters we're introduced to -- who becomes a suspect but is on his way to being cleared -- feels even more hollow than Moira. We're told that she knows him well, and she gives us the clarity that she doesn't see him as a suspect immediately after asking him if he'd committed murder. There was no reason for us readers to feel he wasn't the murderer other than her demanding the police release him for a crime she says she feels he didn't commit. It felt off and as though there could've been further poking, prodding, analyzing, storytelling into why that'd be.

All in all, for the parts I did read through, this could've been just an island murder mystery. It didn't need the sirens, we barely know anything of them other than the way they leave their leftovers and how they appear to Moira. For a story that seems to be partially centered around them, they sure are missing in action quite a bit.

I was hoping to love this more than I did. I did enjoy the mystery and the atmosphere but I was hoping the sirens would be more prominent than they were.

This book was so atmospheric. While not wholly original, this book kept me entertained with its secrets and writing.

At times this was very character driven, Jude and Moira spent a lot of time reconnecting. Also the sirens took up very little of the story, I wish they had appeared more.

I've always been a fan of character driven books, so I really enjoyed this one.

For a book centered around dark and mysterious creatures called sirens, there were precious few moments with them. Kelly Powell's murder mystery novel, <em>Songs from the Deep, </em>really has just about nothing to do with the sirens--other than the fact that they're a convenient scapegoat for the true murderer--so, if that's the reason you're picking this one up you may want to put it back down and just move on. But, if you're here for the murder mystery, well...you might enjoy it?

<b>Sirens as a plot device.</b>

The truth about the sirens in this novel is that they are really no more than the setting. They serve little other purpose than to set the scene for the events to play out around and serve as motivation for the murderer and the protagonist, Moira, who wishes to clear their name. There's a lot of history with the sirens and her father that basically accounts to the sirens being dangerous creatures that he wanted to protect...for some reason?

When you look a little deeper at the history between Moira's father and her childhood friend, lighthouse keeper Jude Osric's family, there seem to be a bunch of plotholes where the answer basically accounts to, because they loved the sirens. You almost expect something more to come of their shared history and secrets, but nothing ever actually does.

<b>It was this person, at the beach, with a claw.</b>

Okay, so I don't know how other readers fared on this one, but the murderer was <em>painfully </em>obvious. Even the accomplice was obvious. They were so obvious, in fact, that I was convinced for a good portion of the story that there was no way those people<em> could</em> be the ones. The idea that the author would make the suspects so obvious as they were just seemed ludicrous to me. And then they were revealed and I just couldn't help rolling my eyes.

I don't think I ever had a moment where I was surprised by anything nor where I felt as though I was unsure about who was involved. Ultimately, everything with the reveal ended up feeling very anticlimactic as a result. And, again, the sirens were relegated to a plot device to serve as motivation only. The air of mystery and fear you were supposed to feel while reading this book was...nonexistent.

<b>Jude Osric</hb>

So, if nothing else, I thought perhaps the one thing that could make this novel okay for me would be the love story. There was very clearly an endgame plan for the main character and her childhood friend, despite some odd and pointless will they, won't they plots that never actually went anywhere, to be together. They were cute, at times, and I've always been a sucker for childhood friends falling in love.

But honestly? The level of boring that filled the novel and subsequently these two characters made it almost impossible to root for them. It was certainly incredibly hard to care in the first place. I don't know what it was about Jude Osric that left me so put off and apathetic to his character, but I just couldn't find myself in position to really care about him at all.

I liked Moira, at times, but it was only a mild inclination to do so. Even she couldn't capture my emotions in the end.

<b>I wish I had positive things to say.</b>

I don't think that this is necessarily a bad book. It was written decently and had an interesting enough plot that I didn't put it down and never pick it up again. But, aside from that, I really don't know that I could speak to much that I actually liked or enjoyed about the book. It feels kind of wasteful to me, in a way. I guess a part of me was just expecting for there to be more darkness and more fantasy and I wasn't expecting to be so bored.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

Lovely cover. But for a book where mermaids feature so heavily in the summary, they are surprisingly absent from the story.

The premise is actually pretty interesting, as are the concept of the characters. But it all falls flat after a while and you realize this girl isn't Veronica Mars and has no business sleuthing.

Left me overall meh, unfortunately.

Deeply moving.. Powerfully written. An elegant historical tale with a twist of magic and a side of murder mystery to help it along. Powell has given us a glimpse into the cruelty of mankind and the purity of hope. The plot is unique and transforms the world around you, leaving reality far behind, even after you have closed the pages. I highly recommend this book for readers who enjoy stories that are not what they seem, with villains who are not really villains at all. This debut is a solid 4/5 stars!

I loved this take on mermaids and sirens. It was dark and fascinating. I really hope there is more in this series. It was excellent and I will recommend this to friends and patrons.

Not what I expected but if you like sirens and fantasy, romance, and mystery combined this is a story you’re going to want to read. It was interesting, slow paced at times, but overall the plot was fun and kept you wanting to read more.

This was an interesting and compelling story. The way it started was not what I initially expected, but I enjoy a murder mystery, so I kept reading. Murder, mystery, deadly sirens...what's not to like?

This book started off so strong but in the end I just didn’t love it like I wanted to. Right away I was sucked into the beautiful writing and the way the author gives the story the perfect atmosphere. I thought the story itself was an interesting idea and I liked the characters for the most part. My main issue with the book was pacing. The book is very slow and there wasn’t enough character development to hold it up either. I also really wanted the story to focus more on the sirens but was more about the mystery.

Review: 3 Stars

When I first saw Songs from the Deep I was pretty excited. I feel like there aren't many books out there about mermaids or sirens and I was very excited to see how sirens were depicted in this novel. I really wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. Songs from the Deep wound up being more of a murder mystery and hardly wound up having sirens as a part of the story at all. It just wasn't what I expected it to be and I found myself pretty disappointed.

The romance in this book was something that really bothered me. Throughout most of the book I didn't even realize that Moira had feelings for Jude. The two of them just seemed like they were friends. I felt like the romance had no sparks to it at all and it certainly didn't feel real to me. I think Jude and Moira made good friends, but in YA I feel like unnecessary romances are thrown into stories all the time, I think part of the reason it didn't feel real is because these characters lacked emotional depth. I didn't find myself very invested in their story and the characters never made me feel emotional.

The plot was not really what I ha expected, but it did keep my interest and even though I didn't find the book extremely compelling I did finish the book pretty fast. Th murder mystery didn't keep me on the edge of my seat and the way it turned out didn't really shock me, but it did keep me interested in the story. Songs from the Deep had a gothic feel to it that I really liked, but it just felt like it was lacking many elements. I had expected this book to be about sirens and to really fascinate me, but for the most part the sirens were seen from a distance. There was only one scene where a siren was seen up close. The story was more about how the townspeople felt about the sirens instead.

I had pretty high expectations for this book and it just didn't live up to them. The murder mystery kept em from putting the book down, but it didn't have any great plot twists or keep me on the edge of my seat. I didn't love the characters or the plot and I was pretty disappointed by how little the sirens appeared in the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

Wow. This atmospheric murder mystery was so good. The setting was dark and gloomy, a perfect compliment to the goings on in the story. Quite honestly, the descriptions were so vivid, it played out like a movie in my head. I want this to be a movie.

The characters were likable and believable. The mystery kept me guessing. The end action was amazing. I can’t say enough good things about this book!

While I was not what I was expecting, I really enjoyed this book! I think it was the mystery and romance that it had in it, even though i thought it was going to be more fantasy. A fun read, with well developed characters and a fun world to explore, which ties in some of my very favorite genres of mystery and romance. I think that if you are looking for a pure fantasy centered around Sirens, you will be a bit disappointed, but if you enjoy romance, mystery, entwined with a bit of fantasy grab a copy today.
Will make sure i buzz it up!

https://lynns-books.com/2019/11/12/songs-from-the-deep-by-kelly-powell/
4 out of 5 stars
Songs from the Deep is Kelly Powell’s debut and I must say I was very impressed with her writing which is both evocative and elegant. I can say without doubt that this is an author that I will watch with interest.

So, to the story. It won’t come as a surprise, given the fantastic cover, that sirens play a part in Songs from the Deep. But, to be absolutely clear from the outset, the sirens are like a silent partner. They’re there, they’re both the catalyst for the story and the key attraction that brings tourists to the island and readers to the book, but they don’t take an active part as such other than being present and causing fascination and fear in fairly equal measure. I suppose it’s like reading about an island surrounded by sharks, you might be absolutely fascinated by them, drawn to the coastline to observe them, recognising all the time their deadly nature. They’re not your friend and by the same token they’re not cruel – it’s their nature to hunt. People may be killed by the sharks and this might feed into the story but the sharks are little more than the means of death – and so are the sirens.

The small island of Twillengyle is made famous by the sirens that frequent it’s waters. Tourists flock to the island regardless of the danger that these exotic creatures pose and every year deaths ensue. The islanders know better than to fall prey, they carry iron about there person at all times and don’t make a habit of standing at the water’s edge looking for the creatures – of course on an island where fishermen make their living avoiding the water is an impossibility and death an inevitability.

So, as the story begins we meet Moira, a young woman who prefers her own company to that of others. She seems to be ill at ease with many of the people on the island, including her own mother, and prefers her own company, whiling the time away playing her violin on the cliff edge whilst the sirens lounge on the beach below. Moira is fascinated by the sirens. Her father likewise was drawn to them and indeed wanted to protect them helping to enforce a hunting ban before his untimely death. As Moira prepares to make her way home she bumps into Jude. Jude was a childhood friend but the two have grown apart, both have lost family to the sirens but that shared loss, rather than creating a bond, has served to push the two apart. On this day, Jude is visibly shaken, he’s come across the body of a small boy on the beach. The immediate conclusion is that this is another victim of the sirens but Moira isn’t convinced. To cut to the chase Moira and Jude will eventually team up, resparking their friendship and indeed coaxing a little romance into the pages, whist they try to convince the other villagers of the siren’s innocence. Of course, if the sirens didn’t kill the boy then that means there’s a killer on the island!

Songs from the Deep is really a historical cosy mystery with supernatural elements being thrown in in order to provide credible sea monsters. I suppose, in fairness, the sirens could have been replaced by any sea predator but the sirens do add an ethereal and fascinating quality to the story that maybe wouldn’t have been quite so bewitching by the addition of finned critters. Stories of sirens and siren songs are not a new phenomena and their inclusion gives the story and the place a magical and yet sinister quality.

Added to this the lovely writing really does help to conjure the place in the mind’s eye and this was one of the really winning elements of the story for me. The beauty of the island shines through but at the same time is tempered with the brutality and harsh living. You can practically taste the sea air and hear the waves crashing. There’s an almost oppressive ‘small island mentality’ feel to the place, everyone knows everyone else and yet family secrets give the place a dark foreboding feel.

In terms of the characters. I can’t deny that Moira is at first a little difficult to like. I can’t really pin down why and maybe I’m being a bit unfair to her in some respects but she also doesn’t really do herself any favours. She comes across as sullen, sulky and a bit bossy at first. But, as the story developed there was something trying to break through to the surface. Moira herself has been keeping secrets and her withdrawal is almost like a form of protection. She doesn’t easily mix with others and on top of that her obsession with the sirens, on an island that has seen a good deal of loss because of them, doesn’t endear her to some of the villagers. Jude on the other hand is warm and likable. He has an easy going nature and is lovely to read about and in fact his renewed friendship with Moira is definitely something that helps to soften her edges a little. In fact there is one scene where Jude is ensconced with a crowd of people from the island and Moira comes across them. In that particular scene you can really see the gulf between her and the others but more than that there’s a kind of longing inside her to not always be so isolated and remote – she almost envies Jude is easy going nature and ability to make friends but at the same time she feels powerless to act the same. It’s a bit like telling somebody who is shy not to be shy. This is who Moira is and though she might hope to be different it isn’t easy.

The sense of place is good here. The historical element keeps the murder mystery alive longer than it could have survived in a modern story. There’s no such thing as a murder scene, no mobile phones with instant pictures and videos and quick means of contacting people. Twillengyle lacks all sorts of modern conveniences and when the sun sinks in the evening it becomes a dark island where it’s easy to imagine danger hiding.

In terms of criticisms. I have very little to be honest other than a few words of caution. Moira and Jude make rather bumbling amateur detectives. Their attempts to uncover truths are far from sophisticated and more than uncovering things their actions draw unwelcome attention. I kind of liked this aspect though which probably sounds a little crazy. They’re two teenagers trying to uncover the truth (whilst hiding a good deal of things from each other). I think it would be unrealistic for them to come across as little more than amateur sleuths. Also, like I said above, the sirens play a minor role here but again this didn’t really bother me to be honest. I suppose you could say I came for the sirens and stayed for the story.

Overall I found this a captivating and very quick read. The writing is lovely and I really enjoyed the setting, the cosy mystery and the remote and other worldly feel. I would say this is YA, there is mention of death and there’s also romance but neither element are really strongly described.

My rating is 4 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of Songs from the Deep through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Songs From The Deep is a YA mystery novel. I was expecting perhaps a thriller with killer sirens, what I ended up getting is a low key and elegant cozy mystery about sirens and secrets within a small seaside town.

This book is almost strikingly down to earth and relaxed. It creates a tangible atmosphere of normalcy with descriptions of the small town and its sights. Our main character, Moira, is a violin teacher. The foremost supporting character is Jude, a lighthouse keeper. They were childhood best friends and are starting to rekindle their friendship. One is hiding secrets from the other, and from the reader. Those subtle hints toward larger mysteries begin early on and provide depth separate from the prevailing murder mystery plot line.

A young boy is found dead on the beach and sirens are the assumed culprit, though Moira and Jude wonder if a citizen of their peaceful little town might be responsible. As the sole perspective of this story, Moira has a kind of dour quality to her. Not senselessly so, but certainly not a bright and energetic type of heroine. She's quiet and low key, and a fine match to the atmosphere of the story.

One of the greater aspects of this title for me was the eerie juxtaposition of the sleepy picturesque town with the presence of sirens rising from the water and watching Moira play the violin on a cliff, or looking at people in general on the beach. The sirens typically mind their own business but occasionally can be found wandering the beach- they seem to look like beautifully odd humans but have distinct skin and hair, hypnotizing eyes, and sharp needle-like teeth.

One of the areas in which I had to suspend disbelief was in the strange calmness of this town despite their presence. Moira and Jude are simultaneously fearful of yet want to protect these creatures. Especially Moira, whose father spent his life enamored by them. Any humans bearing iron (in the form of a piece of jewelry, for example) will be left alone by the creatures. But anyone venturing toward the water without that protection might be grabbed or put in a trance-like state.

I was fascinated by the sirens, but felt like the main characters were almost too calm and compassionate toward them. I do actually like that, it's much preferable to; say, a ravenous bloodlust to destroy the odd beings.

Now to get into some technical bits, this book is quite G-rated outside of some disturbing descriptions of the sirens. Though classified as YA, I feel Songs From The Deep could easily categorize as adult fiction too. The characters are older than average and there is never any markedly juvenile aspect to the proceedings outside of the simply digestible and eminently readable writing style. I zoomed through this book in a little over a day. The pace would slow at several points but I mostly attributed that to the atmosphere. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read that wraps up nicely. I'd definitely be interested in trying more books by this author in the future.

Why You Should Try It - Very down-to-earth story and picturesque setting, interestingly contrasted with the presence of eerie sirens. Multiple mysteries that are wrapped up nicely by book's end.

Why You Might Not Like It - The sleepy small town feel and the descriptions of such can slow down the pace. Moira has a dour quality to her, definitely not an in-your-face likable or charming type of lead.

Note : Many thanks to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this title for review.

My biggest gripe with this book was this: It's a book about SIRENS and yet we barely get to see them?! Instead, what we get is a cozy mystery/romance novel. UM, I DID NOT sign up for this! I wouldn't have gotten annoyed if the book had been marketed differently, instead, it was marketed as being a book about deadly sirens, and the sirens are merely in the background as a PROP. Ugh.

“A flash of silver under sea, when siren song hath taken me.

Absent of color, absent of light, absent of all that I knew in life.

Bolt the latch and watch the waves, pray sirens do not take me tonight.”

The inhabitants of Twillengyle island know the dangers that lurk below the surface of the waters. They are taught as children to be fearful of the harbor, to wear iron at all times, and to never go into the ocean. But the fascination of sirens brings yearly tourists to the island, which always ends in a death or three. But this year, an islander is found dead on the shore. A young boy with his throat slit clean. The police deem the cause to be an attack from the sirens, but Moira Alexander disagrees. Moira has always been enraptured by the sirens, just like her father, and believes the death of this boy is due to foul play. She enlists the help of the light keeper, Jude Osric to help track down the true killer. But Moira has no leads, and is finding it difficult to trust anyone. But she must act quickly, before the bodies start piling up.

Allow me to introduce to you, my newest eerie fantasy of 2019.

Move over The Wicked Deep!

There’s a new creepy island in town with deadly beings in the water, and a meddlesome female lead to make you swoon!

“Playing for the sirens fills a dark and hollow yearning, a cavernous desire I’ve no other way to appease.”

The setting for this enchanting read is an island called Twillengyle, and my oh my, am I obsessed with it! It is oddly alluring island masked in fog and mystery, beckoning outsiders forward with a chilled bony finger. It whispers secrets on the wind, rains fear on its sandy beaches and coaxes sailors to the docks and out into the blue.

It gives me Sleepy Hollow tingles and caresses of Sparrow curses, but these waters aren’t filled with ghostly spirits enacting revenge. In this tale, songs flutter through the waves from the dark depths of the unknown, luring the souls foolish enough to walk unprotected. The sirens keep an alertness about the island and apprehension in the air, but it is the islanders who keep the darkest secrets.

“Twillengyle is a place to be embraced with one arm, with a dagger ready in the other hand. To be charmed by its magic is not the same as becoming its fool, Moira. Remember that.”

As soon as I began reading Songs from the Deep, I was hooked. I devoured this beauty in five hours, and all I can think is I need more. The writing was beautiful and eerie, and the historical fiction of the tale brought the creep factor up a notch. Each character was introduced in a manor where you can’t tell if they are good or evil, sincere or manipulative, like something straight out of a Stephen King novel. Who to trust, who to fear? Honestly, I’m not even sure I could tell you! The old-fashioned dialogue brings about an air of propriety and polite interactions, but mix that with a couple slit throats and you’ve got blood coating the sandy shores.

“Now I’ll have his blood on the soles of my boots.”

If you, like me, love a meddlesome girl, then you will surely adore our Moira Alexander. She is strength in a petticoat, authority in stockings, and a fiercely skillful young lady. Moira is a character who knows exactly who she is and what she believes in, and wouldn’t think twice about apologizing for either. She has strong morals and opinions, which she has no shame in voicing, but she does so in a regal and sophisticated way. As a child, Moira followed in her father’s footsteps of having a keen interest and love for the sirens. So much so, that she spends her days sitting on the cliffs playing songs on her violin to the creatures below.

“When she disappears beneath the waves, I feel pinned to the moment. I replay it like a song, over and over, until it’s familiar as a heartbeat.”

But like all the islanders of Twillengyle, Moira has secrets of her own, and this one involves her former best friend and the love-interest of this haunting story: Jude Osric.

“On one dark bough, I curse my efforts to drain our friendship bloodless, when neither of us desired the ax.”

Jude is the epitome of good-natured and sweetness! So many times in YA Fantasy we have a bad boy character with secrets, regrets, a mournful past of death and dark hair with gray eyes. Well…the secrets and mournful past of death is still there, but you see where I’m going with this. Jude is kind and honest. He has an innocence etched into his bones that even the loneliness of his lighthouse can’t extinguish. He is an upstanding gent, an endearing friend and he’s just… pure goodness. This is one male love interest I could jump into the ocean for.

But obviously, the real treat of this story is the plot.

This siren story is one you need to buy now and devour. I know so many of you have been in an endless hangover from The Wicked Deep, and this is the cure! Not only is it a fantastic mystery full of twists and turns that keep you guessing until the end, but it ends on a note that makes you feel eerily complete. If a book was ever written for my soul, it would be this. This world, these characters, and the mysteries of the waters speak to my very being. If I could crawl into these pages, my heart would have finally reached bliss.

“Disquiet makes a home inside my heart.”

I received an eARC from Margaret K. McEdlerry Books in exchange for an honest review. My full thoughts can be found at the accompanying link.

I tried extremely hard to get into this book thinking it was possibly my mood influencing my inability to enjoy the story, but after finishing I know that wasn't the case. The pace was so excruciatingly slow and I kept having to put the book down and pick it up multiple times over the course of a week. I felt like if I got far enough into the mystery that it would finally hook me and things would kick into motion. For me it was consistently stagnant through the end.

One major contributor is the lack of character development. This is told in first person POV from Moira's perspective and yet even with the ability to really get inside her head and know her from the inside out, she didn't make sense to me. Her motivations, actions, personality, were so two-dimensional and often I was left scratching my head trying to understand her as a whole. I needed a lot more in order to care for her, to empathize, to feel a variety of emotions. There was a noticeable lack of internal dialogue involving self-reflection to help flesh her out as a believable person. We're told that she's a gifted violinist, she's fiercely protective of the sirens on the island, and she has two secrets. One of them which caused her to push her best friend Jude away, supposedly for his own good. The second secret caused her to stop performing at the town dance hall where she found such joy and seemed to stem from something serious with one of the other performers.

I spent the entire book thinking there was going to be some type of revelation as to why Moira was so obsessed with protecting the killer sirens that live around Twillengyle. These sirens that felt more like a prop for the overall murder mystery of the story rather than anything substantial. I mean, good grief, we weren't told anything about these creatures at except how ethereal and vicious they are, and at the same time innocent of killing the people found on the beach. There was no backstory to speak of except a small paragraph at 87% in the book explaining the myth of how they came to be.

These creatures are predators that lurk all around them, lure innocent people to their death, or outright attack them. Her best friend's entire family was wiped out, her grandfather, and countless others in town. And she held no ill-will or blame whatsoever towards them, instead revering them simply because they are a link to her father and her childhood. At one point she even admits to herself that this is a childish way of thinking, yet her loyalty remains unwavering through the whole book. She also brings up the fact that they are perfectly safe as long as you take the necessary precautions and carry an iron charm around with you. The problem is, all of their victims inexplicably didn't use one knowing the dangers, including Jude's family.

Jude was a sweet guy, however I couldn't grasp what he saw in Moira to be honest. I felt as if his kindness and constant innocent blushes for her weren't reciprocated back to him so his feelings were a bit odd. She generally gave off a cold and detached feeling towards him, only wanting to be around him to help her investigation of the island murders. She lectured him like a nagging wife when he went to the bar for a few drinks which was so weird. What was that about? As far as I can tell he's a grown man who's within his rights to do that. It's not as if he was a raging alcoholic, and yet she berated him over it.

When it comes down to it, the mystery was extremely predictable and simple, the romance fell flat, and the plot did not have a strong fantasy element as I was hoping for. All of these things added up along with my disconnect with the characters and unfortunately that made for a disappointing story. The author has a distinct writing style with the type of prose I usually go for, so it's possible a future book by her may be a winner. However, Songs from the Deep is not one I would recommend unless you're looking for a plot driven historical mystery novel to pass a few hours with.

Songs from the Deep by Kelly Powell is a mysterious young adult fantasy that is sure to take you to another world full of unknowns. An intriguing read that is magical and mysterious. Powell has created a world that is vivid and realistic making it easy to get swept away in the story.