This book was next level amazing and I didn’t completely realize it until the very last page of the book! It had so many stories while and take that there, but I almost gave up on it a few times, but I’m really happy that I didn’t. It turned out to be a pretty fantastic story, and I loved all of the strong female characters, in the story, I’ve always been drawn to mermaids, especially sirens. This book was perfect!

I’ve never read anything by Emilia Hart that I didn’t enjoy. Her latest, The Sirens , was fabulous. Pick this one up.

This is the sophomore effort from Emilia Hart following last year’s debut novel, Weyward.

Like Weyward, this book focuses on women. Four of them, in fact. Jess and Lucy are our characters in the modern day, and Mary and Eliza’s story takes place in 1801.

After an unfortunate event at University, Lucy decides to run from trouble and ends up on her sister, Jess’ doorstep, who she hasn’t spoken to in a few years. When she arrives after a long journey, she finds her sister gone, with no clues as to where she may be.

As she stays in her sister’s home, she begins to research the story of eight missing men, as well as the story of a convict ship, the Naiad, that wrecked just off shore in the 1800s. She also finds her sister’s diary that holds secrets to both her and her sister’s pasts.

The alternate timeline takes place in 1801. Mary and Eliza are sisters and their story is told while alternating chapters with Lucy and Jess. They are aboard the Naiad on a long journey to Australia when the boat wrecks just off shore.

The book ends with the stories of Jess, Lucy, Mary, and Eliza joined together. While I felt as if some of the book was a bit slow in the middle, I thought the ending was well done and satisfying.

If you liked Weyward, you will like The Sirens. Personally, though The Sirens was very good, my favorite of the two is Weyward. Both have strong themes of family, womanhood, and love.

As always, thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a review.

This is such a good read if you are looking for escapism. I found the first 40% quite slow and I almost gave up on it. But I was drawn to the beautiful, atmospheric tale that took place in 1800s. I would probably love the story of just that time period.
Overall enjoyable story. I love the author’s use of language and I was able to add some new words to my vocabulary.

Emilia Hart has a way of taking the darkest most triggering topics and weaving them into a beautiful tale of love and redemption with multiple POVs and timelines. The Sirens was a perfect example of that— mysterious, mythical, suspenseful, with feminism and the importance of sisterhood at the forefront.

The writing was poetic and thought provoking and the characters were intriguing— each harboring various secrets that kept me on the edge of my seat. Hart touches on colonization, forgotten history, misogyny, family drama, adoption, grooming, SA, prostitution, and domestic violence thoughtfully and emotionally with enough detail to really make you feel immersed in the story. I enjoyed the eerie atmosphere of ‘Australia’s Bermuda Triangle’, the whimsical feel of Cork in the 1800s, and the brutal depiction of life on the Niad before its sinking.

This book solidified my love for historical fiction and magical realism and put Emilia Hart on my growing list of auto-buy authors.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Marten’s Press for the ARC! ✨

Emilia Hart, who also wrote Weyward (gorgeous book cover) next venture brings us another multiple POV, multiple time-line story.

I enjoyed Weyward and was excited when I saw this available on Netgalley (thank you for the advanced copy). Part 1, was difficult to get into, I didn't understand what the story was doing. Before starting the book, I was familiar with the Mythology or lore of sirens and I think it's fair to say I am underwhelmed by this story. Parts are quite good, but it takes a long time to get to its point. It all makes sense by the end, but I feel the story could have benefited by having the knowledge at the end, at the beginning instead of going along the self discovery journey as blindly as the characters do.

When I finished reading Emilia Hart's debut novel Weyward, I knew I was going to keep an eye out for her next book, no matter what it was about. Earlier this year when she announced her second book and that it was called The Sirens, my excitement was off the charts. I couldn't wait to read it!

And now that I have read it, I can say with confidence that I was not letdown. Similar to Weyward, The Sirens brings women's issues to the forefront. What Mary, Eliza, Jess and Lucy all went through often brought me to the verge of tears. The connection to real life history was also both heartbreaking and fascinating.

Hart has once again crafted an immersive, hauntingly enchanting tale woven with magic and myth that is deeply enriched with the power of women.

I so look forward to reading more from this fantastic author!

Told in alternating timelines between two sisters, Mary and Eliza in the past and Jess and Lucy in present day. This is a fascinating story about the relationship between sisters, about figuring out the past of Jess and Lucy, why do men disappear from Comber Bay and why the sea calls to all the sisters.

I found the relationship between both sets of sisters very engaging. Mary and Eliza are from the 1800 and the brutality of their situation is told in sad and realistic details. Lucy is also going through a situation and wants the advice and support of her sister to figure out what to do next. This story is gripping, the details are engaging, the twist at the end I didn’t see coming. Don’t miss out on this read by Emilia Hart

"Sirens" is an engaging, epic feminist fantasy tale revolving around four women who are on a journey to discover their uniqueness in a world where equality is a myth, and where they must find their own place by embracing their differences and brilliance in the face of chauvinism.

The story begins in 2019, introducing us to Lucy, an 18-year-old journalism student who has been cyberbullied by her secret boyfriend, who shared an intimate photo of her on social media (though he insists he didn’t), turning her into the laughingstock of her school. Reporting the issue to the school authorities doesn’t help, as the boy she blames has influential parents. One morning, Lucy finds herself sleepwalking and choking him in her sleep, which makes her fear she may destroy everything she has worked so hard for. Seeking refuge, she drives to her estranged older sister Jess’ house in Comper Bay, along the Australian coast—a haunted place where numerous men have mysteriously gone missing at sea over the decades. When Lucy arrives, she finds the door open, her sister gone in a hurry, her phone left behind, and signs of a male visitor before she disappeared.

Lucy connects with Jess’ neighbors, but none of them seem to have any useful information about her sister’s whereabouts, and surprisingly, they didn’t even know Jess had a sister. While Lucy waits for Jess to return, she begins having recurring nightmares of two sisters on a ship fighting for their lives, and her sleepwalking becomes more intense. As she digs deeper into her past, she starts uncovering why her sister distanced herself from the family and missed Lucy’s recent birthday.

When Lucy discovers her sister’s diary hidden in the house, she has no idea that her life is about to change forever.

Jess’ diary takes us back to 1999 when she lived with their parents in a rural town. Struggling to connect with others due to a rare skin condition, aquagenic urticaria, which makes water a danger to her, Jess finds solace in her art, with the support of Max, a fellow outcast, and her 24-year-old art teacher, who gives her private lessons. As she learns more about her condition, Jess begins to suspect her parents are hiding secrets about her illness that she must uncover.

Meanwhile, the narrative shifts to the 1800s, introducing us to Mary and Eliza, twin sisters from Ireland who are sent to Australia as convicts aboard a ship for criminals. They fear the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were young. As the sisters sail farther from home, suffering from thirst, hunger, and the harsh conditions of the ship, they begin to notice strange transformations in their bodies, as though the sea itself is calling to them, turning them into something else entirely.

The stories of these four women converge as the past and present collide, helping them embrace their future. Sirens is a powerful story of women's empowerment, richly woven with fantasy and a reimagining of real historical events in Australia. The vivid character development and intriguing plot make for an immersive and rewarding read, especially for fans of the author’s previous work, Weyward. It’s a beautiful journey through different timelines and a chance to empathize with powerful heroines on their paths of self-discovery.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this epic journey's digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

It took a bit to get into the story, but what an intriguing story it became, with some really interesting twists and turns.

Since Weyward is one of my favorite books of all time, I had high expectations for The Sirens.

This book was a perfect blend of historical fiction, mystery, and magical realism. The characters were well developed and flushed out, and I adored the dual timeline with alternating perspectives to keep me engaged from start to finish.

However, this book’s pacing is what made me a bit frustrated. It felt like a roller coaster where, in one moment, it would be a slow burn just for it to quickly speed up, just to slow right back down. It threw me quite a bit and took me out of the story on occasion.

The story of Mary and Eliza was heartbreaking, and Jess & Lucy’s struggles were beautifully composed. Overall, it’s still a uniquely breathtaking story and a solid read that I believe readers of all genres will admire.

This is such a beautifully written historical fiction novel centering around women convict ships in the 1800s, but intersecting with the present AND mythology! Hart’s writing is beautiful and thorough and is so vivid. The sense of place is strong here and we have a lot of dark, intense, gritty imagery. There is also a very female-first theme which is similar to Weyward. The beginning is very slow going and it took about 60% for the novel to really get moving, but once it did I couldn’t stop reading! I really enjoyed this beautiful novel!

Emilia Hart's The Sirens is many things. It is a time-bending tale of family and sisterhood that extends beyond what we know as reality. It explores how the sea connects us all to our past and to our future. It reminds us that those who came before us will always watch over us. These threads, along with many others, are all woven together seamlessly throughout this book. The pacing carried along at a great pace, I never ran into boredom or disinterest. There are so many secrets hidden within the pages which leaves much room to be surprised. Even though there were a few reveals that I had an inkling of, they still added great value to the overall plot. The majority of the principle characters were fleshed out very well and each provided great insight to the story and the motives of the characters.
The one thing I struggled with was the fact that I wish we could have gotten more of the past timeline. It was so magical that I almost would have preferred an entire book dedicated to that story. The present timeline did have a lot of great mystery elements and added a lot of twists, but the past timeline was so atmospheric, I feel as though Hart's writing style matches that time period more, as opposed to the current timeline. Overall, this was an engaging and mystical tale that anyone who appreciates the sea as a being a living thing will appreciate.
(3.5/5)

This book was total escapism. Two sets of sisters linked together even though they are separated by hundreds of years . Lucy is a victim of a skin condition that forces her to cover herself completely. Betrayed by a boyfriend who makes her condition public on social media, Lucy begins to have nightmares. She wakes choking the ex boyfriend and she is forced to run to her one safe place. Her sister. Together they find out the source of their skin condition and why their parents kept them away from water. Lucy begins to dream about another set of sisters. Together she and her sister find a link between themselves and the sisters from years ago. They find that nothing is as it seems and the truth is more than they could ever dream. I loved this book even though it was nothing like I ordinarily read.

This is a non-linear novel going between modern times and the late 1700s when many Irish families were forced onto convict ships bound for Australia. The descriptions of that journey are graphic and tragic. Two modern sisters deal with abuse both from their appearance and their talent. The story is woven carefully with color playing a big part.

I enjoyed reading the author’s previous novel and similarly enjoyed reading this novel and following the character’s stories.

The multiple perspectives helped to add depth to the story and to better depict the characters’ shared experience as sirens. Lucy was easy to relate to and Jess’ experience was unique and fun to return to intermittently.
The settings (inland and on the coast) gave just the right eeriness to the story while also serving as a meaningful backdrop to the characters’ actions.

I was curious all the way to the end and could t wait to finish the story to figure out what was happening. My only wish is that certain characters’ perspectives (the mom/dad) had been shared a bit more.

Lucy wakes up to find herself strangling the man who wronged her. She runs off to her sister's home because she feels that Jess is the only one who could understand her. Along the way, she starts having vivid dreams about another pair of sisters. Lucy then discovers that Jess and her share the same skin disorder and the same dreams, but little does Lucy know that they share much more than that.
The Sirens by Emilia Hart is a story about family, about women who have been wronged by men, and about finding yourself. It is told in a dual timeline, comparing the two sisters from the past with the two sisters from the present. It is a mythical, magical story that captures you from the first page. Emilia Hart weaves a wonderful tale of myth intwined with modern life. I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I loved how the story unfolded and the slow reveal.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart is a captivating novel that blends elements of mythology, mystery, and modern-day suspense. The story revolves around a young woman who becomes entangled in an ancient curse linked to the mythical sirens. Set in a coastal town with a haunting past, the novel explores themes of fate, identity, and the powerful pull of the sea. Hart weaves together a rich narrative that delves into the protagonist's search for truth, both about her own history and the mysterious occurrences in the town. The atmospheric setting and intricate plot make The Sirens a mesmerizing read. I highly recommend this new novel by the author of Weyward. For me, this was a gripping page-turner that you will not want to miss of sisterhood, time, space, and connection. It captures the powers of dreams and women's resilience. .

Told in dual timelines that seep into each other, this book had potential but didn't cut it for me. It started off a little bumpy and abrupt although as the story went along the writing became better and I was pulled into the story, especially of Mary and Eliza. I liked the twists but the end just became a little too over the top. Mary and Eliza's story ended satisfactorily but Lucy and Jessica’s felt a little contrived.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Sirens was not wholly my typical read -- not out of character, necessarily, but out of my comfort zone, and I was greatly rewarded for my curiosity. The gorgeous cover is what first drew me in, and the writing within kept me hooked.

The Sirens tackles a lot of misogyny, on all sides. It faces rape culture in a tasteful way, along several different perspectives. There was a moment where, reading this I was reminded of stories and rhetoric where it goes from feminist to strange -- saying women are 'touched by the divine' while all men are pigs, something closer to TERF terminology -- but in actuality, I found nothing of the sort.

Instead there are both awful men, and good ones -- good women, and ones who victim blame and minimize sexual harassment. Every character is flawed in a delicious way; even those who are good are not unflawed. Everyone makes mistakes in this, and it's a very human writing.

The paranormality has some ties to unreality; I'd say that if a reader is triggered by such, they may want to read with caution. For a long time I was not sure if what was happening was real, or if the characters were hallucinating -- which was really interesting to read. Still, I could see it easily being upsetting to folks who have issue telling reality from fiction.

The Sirens was very well written; it was intriguing, and I found myself reading a few pages even during dinner, because I did not want to set it down for long. I found myself very satisfied; almost all threads I could think of were brought to a conclusive end. It was the perfect length. I also found myself surprised by two reveals, which isn't easy to do -- though I think the big one could be guessed, it had the perfect amount of foreshadowing, where you are perhaps surprised, but not blindsided; yet you are also not being hammered by hints of something you'd surmised chapters ago.

The Sirens was a lovely, mysterious, haunting read, and I am glad to have read it. I found the ending a satisfying conclusion, though I perhaps would have liked to see a little more of Lucy's dreams being reshaped, along with seeing Ben get some comeuppance.