4 stars

This book is a dash of historical fiction, a dash of fantasy, a solid dose of feminism, and overall a fun read (or listen - audiobook recommended when and where accessible).

Because the narrative happens over the course of three distinct timelines, readers need to pay attention to make sure they're keeping up with the events of each moment and the connections between them. While this structure could become overly complicated quickly, it doesn't. I'll admit that I found myself least interested in the earliest timeline (which is the opposite of how these things tend to fall out for me), but even that dip in interest was slight and periodic.

The main activity of the novel begins in 2019 with Lucy, who is attempting to process a horrible event she has experienced (and readers in any kind of know about how these situations CAN be handled on university campuses will want to run right over and punch an admin or two of Lucy's. Yuck). Lucy scoots away from these troubles to go visit her sister, who is suspiciously and inexplicably absent. From here, readers jump between timelines, learn about a peculiar skin condition, and ultimately discover how all of these characters and events connect.

My vagueness is intentional. This is not a thriller, and the connections are not particularly surprising, but part of the joy of this particular narrative is in watching those ties come to light.

This is my second book by this author, and so far, it's my favorite. I recommend this to folks looking for an intriguing approach to an unfortunately age-old situation.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book

Could not ask for a better book.

Didn't know if I would like it based on the description and limited feedback, but wow it was so good.

NetGalley has come out with so great books lately. Wish I could read them all. I added Emelia Hart to my author list!

Recommend.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart is though provoking historical fiction and fantasy mashup that will grab your attention from page one and refuse to let go. I loved Weyward so I was thinking incredibly excited for this one. And it did not disappoint. From the beginning the story is full of eerie and dark undertones that left me feeling unnerved. That atmospheric vibe continued throughout the story. I really loved the use of multiple povs and timelines to tell the stories. The folklore and history that surrounded the mermaids made them feel so realistic. This was a truly wonderful work of fiction that makes you think and feel so much. I highly recommend if you're looking for an eerie story full of magical realism and secrets.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Such an interesting plot! I really enjoy reading books that don’t slot easily into genres. Was this fantasy or historical? Family drama or psychological thriller? It was all and more.
Lucy always knew she was different because of her skin condition. And when she wakes one morning strangling a fellow student at her college she knows there is only one person who can help, her sister Jess. Yet when she arrives at her sister’s new house on the cliffs, her sister is nowhere to be found and Lucy worries something has happened. And her nightmares are getting more insistent in telling the tale of Mary and Eliza and her sleepwalking is getting more out of hand. Will she walk over the cliff? And why has her sister painted the women from her dreams?
Original, sharply written and atmospheric. This is definitely worth the read.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The Sirens intertwines POVs of two sets of sisters in present day, 20 years prior, and 1800. I was entranced from the beginning and cared about all POVs equally. This novel is the perfect blend of magical realism, mystery, and historical fiction. I deeply hated part of the epilogue, but that is my personal opinion.

Narration performed by Barrie Kreinik was outstanding as always.

I received an ARC and ALC from St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by Emilia Hart, and it didn't disappoint! It's a dual POV between three different times, 1800, 1999, and 2019. This story revolves around Lucy, her sister Jess, and two twin sisters from 1800, Mary and Eliza.

It starts off a little slow, but it's also necessary for the later parts of the story to make sense. Lucy is starting to deal with sleep walking, only to find out her sister, Jess, has been dealing with the same thing for years and hasn't said anything.

Lucy departs on a journey to find the truth behind who she is, an the mystery and discovery of it all is quite the adventure! I thoroughly enjoyed the story and how it all played for each character.

Mysterious and magical, “Sirens” is a dark and moody page-turner carefully entwining multiple characters, storylines, and timelines. Whether it is the descriptions of vivid and haunting dreams, sleepwalking, unexplained disappearances, or breathing life into the surroundings – most notably by making the ocean a dominant and dynamic character - Emilia Hart excels at writing atmosphere. And as all the stories are equally evocative and captivating, it remains a compelling read from start to finish. This beautiful story, with its strong messages of sisterhood and female empowerment, is going to live on in my head for quite a long time. Thank you, Emilia Hart, for your writing.

The Sirens was an enticing story about two sisters finding their way back to each other and discovering who they really are and their place in the world. Emilia's writing is hauntingly beautiful, with dark and moody vivid imagery that had me hooked from the first page. Although the beginning was a little slow, it definitely picked up and I loved following the different POV's and getting to know each character. The ending was slightly underwhelming in my opinion as I expected more from the buildup, and there were a couple loose ends where I would have liked some more closure. However, this book is perfect if you are looking for a rainy day read with a focus on female resistance, mystery, and fantasy.

The Siren is a bewitching brew of magical realism, historical fiction, and mystery, pulling me into a world where sisterhood, secrets, and family bonds are tangled like seaweed in the depths of the sea. With magic in the air and mystery at every turn, this story cast its spell on me from the very first page. Magical realism often leaves me questioning what’s real and what’s conjured, leaving me with a few lingering questions, yet the storytelling was utterly captivating. A breathtaking tale of female resilience that stays with you long after the final page.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Wait, I really liked this one.

I wasn't sure about it at first. It felt a bit repetitive and expected. But then the story picked up, there were some twists, and dang if it didn't hook me in completely and totally. At it's core, this is a story about women's redemption, but you don't get to see the full breath of that redemption until the end.

And the epilogue? AMAZING.

I really liked the points of view, even if Mary and Eliza's was so devastating. But in part three, when it shifts POV, whew, it really hooked me.

A beautifully told story of the bond of sisters hundreds of years apart. The two sets of sisters have an unusual characteristic: they live on land but yearn to be in water. Being in water is problematic as water causes their skin to flake and painfully peel. The two current time sisters have dreams of the other two, of the hardships they faced and of the arduous journey they made captive on a ship from Ireland to Australia.
The enduring qualities of sisterhood bind the sisters together and their experiences create an unbelievably engaging story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I liked this to an extent. I do love Emilia Hart 's writing, and the way she sets up her stories. I really enjoy the sort of low stakes feeling mystery, as in you never really feel like the characters are at too much risk. The kind of book where nobody seems to have to work or eat, they just solve mysteries about their family on a stormy coast. I found every plot point to be pretty predictable, and everything I assumed from the beginning of the book on turned out to be correct. That's not always a bad thing, sometimes it's nice to read a book that doesn't stress you out a whole bunch 🤣

I thought the middle to end of book got a little cheesy for my tastes, but it wouldn't necessarily stop me from recommending the book. The things that made me cringe might not make someone else cringe lol. The descriptions of the skin were so vague and yet way too descriptive.....was not a huge fan of any of that.

Overall, 3 stars for keeping me engaged for the most part. As a big fan of Weyward and a moderate fan of this, I'll read whatever Emilia Hart puts out.

Amazing. I loved Weyward by Emilia Hart so when I saw this book I was so excited! This book had so many great twists and turns, and the story telling was just incredible. Emilia Hart really pulled through with this one, and I already cannot wait for her next release!

Lucy finds herself in a jam and takes off to visit her older sister, Jess, only to find Jess missing when she arrives. What she finds instead is oddly familiar artwork and her sister’s journal. The more Lucy reads, the more questions she has about their history, decades of missing men in the area, a baby found in an underwater cave and her mysterious allergy to water. Twists and turns galore kept me sucked in from the very beginning!

I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down! Emilia Hart does a wonderful job of threading three different stories and three different time periods into a wonderfully captivating story of female resilience when faced with hardship.

I usually am not a huge fan of time hoping in book but the author didn't make it feel like three different books put together haphazardly like I usually read. The stories of sisters in the 1800s, a girl in 1999, and a girl in 2019 were woven so well together that I was wanting more of all their stories by the end.

I felt like this book definitely blurs the line between selkies and sirens myths more than any other story I have read. I definitely was captivated by the idea of selkies and sirens being one in the same and being protectors of women everywhere since there is not much mythology on either of these two creatures. I really enjoyed in this book the concept of selkie sisters from Ireland coming to Australia as convicts and becoming the protectors of women after the shipwreck in a cove in New South Wales and taking on aspects of sirens by luring evil men to their deaths by their songs.

I really appreciated how the character of Lucy learning about the disappearances of men in this cove by listening to a true crime podcast in 2019 and how that leads her to her sister, Jessica, dairy from 1999. I felt like Lucy's story line was so relatable since most of us listen to true crime podcasts then end up in rabbit holes of what really happened. By the end of the book I still was a little unsure of how Jessica and Lucy were connected to the sisters in 1800 but the epilogue kind of hints at it. I just wish there was a clearer link.

Emilia Hart stole my heart with Weyward and I still think of it often. It is one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. So my hopes for The Sirens were sky high.

There were some problems, inconsistent pacing and predictability within certain parts of the story, but overall this is an amazing story. Emilia Hart writes atmospheric, lyrical novels, that perfectly capture the frustrating, grim reality of being female in our world. The multiple POVs are well executed with each character grabbing onto the reader and leaving them wanting more.

The novel follows Lucy, who runs away after a sleepwalking incident to visit her sister. When she arrives in the spooky town (Australia's Bermuda Triangle with multiple missing men over the decades) her sister is not at her dilapidated house. Another narrator is Mary, a young Irish woman, being transported to New South Wales along with her twin sister Eliza and four score other women. There is a mysterious air throughout, leaving the reader to wonder the connection between these women and events over time.

All in all, an excellent read.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC! All opinions are my own!

There’s a lot to love about the Sirens. Mermaids aren’t a common fantasy being I’ve seen in books recently, and loved getting to know that lore a bit more. As a history girlie from the States, I found the female prisoner exile to Australia fascinating—I knew about the Australian colony being a place for British male convicts, but had a total blind spot to how women were treated and their stories. I also found the “revenge on men” element extremely satisfying because… obviously. This book was mysterious and overall, I really enjoyed it. The writing was great, I love a multiple POVs and multiple timeline structure using the diary as a mechanism for Jess’s history was a great way to add some variance. Mary and her sister were so well done as historic characters, and I appreciated how much dimension the author gave to the women on the ship generally.

My major gripe: the last chapter. I get that the author had to explain the lineage component or it would have been a major plot hole, but…. ugh it broke my heart a bit.

I can’t wait to see what others think of this book, and I’m so glad to have been able to recieve an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

The Sirens is a dual-timeline story of sisterhood, secrets, and belonging. In 2019, Lucy wakes with her hands wrapped around her ex-lover's throat after sleepwalking to his room. She flees her university to seek answers from her sister, Jess, but upon arriving at her new home, Lucy finds her sister gone with no trace of where she could be. Lucy finds herself surrounded by the tension of the area's rumblings of the past, of talk about women's voices coming from the sea, of eeriely realistic dreams, and secrets of her own life connecting her to a past she was only beginning to learn.
In 1800, Mary and Eliza are being transported to Australia on a convict ship. Surrounded by the sea and hunger, the two girls find their bodies changing.

If I were to use one word to describe this read, it would be haunting. Emilia Hart did such a stunning job with her writing, creating such an eerie atmosphere surrounding Comber Bay and its mysteries. I was instantly pulled into this one and read it quite a bit faster than I've been reading anything lately. I am a sucker for dual-timeline stories as it is, but this one was done so well and its usage racketed the tension up even more.
While I didn't find anything too unpredictable or twisty, I was still sucked in and needed to read more and more. I think Hart's writing is simply that amazing. I'm usually not a fan of magical realism, but I love how it all came together in this one. I am definitely excited to read Weyward by this author after reading this one.

Also, it's very feminist and has a hint of female rage in there- two things that will NEVER get old!

Another beautiful and harrowing tale of womanhood and resilience through generations from Hart. The Sirens follows the story of Jess, Lucy, Mary & Eliza as they navigate fear of the unknown while they find who they truly are. I enjoyed how the dual timeline was created through the use of dreams and think everything tied together nicely at the end. Harts writing is so descriptive and beautiful; it creates such a beautiful and detailed picture in my mind. I’m excited to see where her next story will take us.

Thank you NetGalley and author Emilia Hart for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

A non-linear timeline, connecting sisters through time and sea. All-in-all, spanning centuries, 1800 through 2019. A wild tale, one that will have you reeling. A story of love, lies, coverups, fear, and abuse. Mary and Eliza, their parents… Jess and Lucy, their parents…

Your heart will soar, it will break; you will be sad, you will be angry. This one will take a while to get over. I certainly could appreciate the references to Hawthorne ~ I thought they were fitting and gave that weight - the heaviness - we SHOULD be feeling as we take it all in and try to process the real message here.

Enjoyed the writing style - I stayed connected to the story and the characters throughout. I will be seeking out more Emilia Hart.