A journey of self-discovery wrapped up in a timeless tale of merfolk and the sirens of the sea. This story takes the reader from Ireland to Australia and New South Wales. It is a terrifying journey for two twin sisters on a prison ship and the many women with them. It is also the story of a family and what you do to keep your loved ones as safe as possible and to know they are loved. This is a beautifully crafted tale that alternates between the prison ship of the past and the present day.

Emilia Hart is back with another atmospheric novel full of magical realism, mystery, and female empowerment. The story is told in two timelines: twins Mary and Eliza in 1800, who board a convict ship in Ireland en route to NSW. (Based on a true story). Their mother had mysteriously disappeared at sea years earlier.

In 2019 Australia, Lucy flees university after a sleepwalking episode where she wakes up choking her ex-boyfriend. She makes the twelve hour journey to Comber Bay, where her sister Jess lives. On arrival, the mystery deepens and questions abound. The house is in chaos, the door unlocked, with Jess's latest painting of The Sirens on display. It also appears that a man was at her house. But Jess is gone, and her cell phone and car are still at the house. Where is she? Her art show at the gallery is just days away. Using her journalistic skills and Jess's diary, Lucy sets out to solve the case. Why is she sleepwalking and having nightmares that seem to connect her to sisters from the past? Why does she have aquagenic urticaria?

This book is woven with themes of sisterhood, the bonds of family, and choosing your own destiny. It pulled me in like a siren call to the sea, and I highly recommend it. 🌊 🧜‍♀️
Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Emilia Hart for the advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

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"The Sirens" by Emilia Hart was wildly disappointing. Hart's writing is beautiful, yet I found this story lacking. I was hooked for around the first 20 percent of the book, but I quickly found myself losing interest. There just wasn't enough happening. Most of the book is spent with Lucy just waiting for the next thing to happen. I thought the chapters revolving around Mary and Eliza were boring. The one thing that kept me reading was Hart's prose. I don't think I would have finished this book if it had been written by another author. If you enjoy mysteries with little to no action, you may enjoy this. But for readers who enjoy action-packed fantasies, I would recommend you skip it.

Eerie and unsettling books have been a recent hit for me, and this book fits this description perfectly!

This book is set in two different times in history, and both follow a set of sisters. One follows two sisters who are on a prisoner ship and are being sailed off to Australia where they most likely will be met with more horrors than they already have experienced. The other time follows a sister whose daily life is being challenged by these visions she is seeing, and so she flees and goes in search of her older sister for help. When she arrives at her sister's home though she is nowhere to be found.

Both timelines highlight the struggles of being a woman in the past and the present, and that is a huge focus of the book. This book may focus on how the world forces women to struggle, but it also focuses on the strength of woman and their connections with each other. This focus adds purpose to the book and makes it multi-dimensional, and I was truly able to connect with these aspects of the book.

One of the other things that stood out to me in this book was the atmosphere it creates for the reader. There is such an eerie and strange vibe to this book, and it truly felt immersive. The setting and just feel of this story were masterfully created by this author, and in doing so made such an interesting place/set for this story to take place.

Overall I was very impressed with this story, and also the atmosphere that it was created in.

This is a really rich tale with super beautiful prose. The pace was a bit too slow for me, especially in the beginning, and it led to me not fully appreciating the end as much as I could have.

The Sirens, following a similar story structure to Weyward (which I really enjoyed) gave me an edge when it came to the predictability of this story. However, I still found it to be very well written and an intriguing story. I listened to the audiobook alongside reading the e-arc and I had a great time, mostly. There were some points that really seemed to lull but I am happy that I continued. I love seeing all of the story lines coming together! I cannot wait to see what Emilia Hart does next, or if she will choose to continue these interconnected story lines.

This was a really beautiful story about female empowerment. It was so mysterious and engaging. We learn about the lives of four women from two different timelines. I love their story of healing, trauma, and accepting who they are. The connection was also super interesting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a chance to read this book ahead of the release.

I really enjoyed this book. Hart's writing is evocative as always and the story was very compelling. I was very drawn into the mystery and I absolutely loved the haunting setting of Comber Bay.

After loving her debut, Weyward, I knew I had to jump on Sirens. I was so excited to read another book by this author. Hart's stories are so different from others and they suck you in from the start. Following these two time lines, it was exciting as they started to come together.

Hart does a great job at character development, and it's so easy to fall in love with them!
It is easy to related to these women, as they are working through their struggles of feeling different than anyone else.

Sirens definitely lived up to my expectations, and I can't wait for more books from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Emilia Hart for an ARC of this book!

At it's heart, The Sirens is a book about sisters, men abusing women and resiliency. Colonialism is a sidenote to this tale but definitely one worth research. Nice of Emilia Hart to start the book with an introduction acknowledging the facts of that era. Emilia Hart is skilled in penning characters so real that the reader starts identifying with them. I felt that with both Lucy and Jess.

Here's what I liked: Cliff House and Emilia Hart's decrepit, almost gothic, descriptiveness of it. I loved the beginning of the book, where Lucy wakes up with her hands around Ben's neck and the podcast/true crime angle. The gorgeous, eye catching cover is amazing. Reading Jess's diary is a smart and intimate way of getting to know both sisters.

I did not care for the Nonlinear Timeline, despite how well it's done. I didn't get really confused as to who or when the chapters took place until the end and kept having to flip back to the chapter headers to see who was narrating. It felt like the paranormal part of the story, that the book is named for, was a side note until the very end.

There were small inconsistencies like the postcard and Jess's return address. It took me out of the storyline. Lucy is supposedly using the address on this postcard to find Jess's house. Then the author goes on to transcribe exactly what the postcard says, also no address because postcards don't have return addresses. It's a small thing and could be fixed by calling it a letter but distracting none the less. (It should be noted however that I'm reading an uncorrected proof.)

I found this book to be a mixed bag. The parts I liked, the in-depth character based plotline of Lucy's story and the author's masterful descriptiveness, I REALLY loved. There were parts that lost me a bit and some that fell short but overall I appreciated reading The Sirens. It is not some whimsical fairytale retelling. Enjoyable isn't the right word for this book. There are multiple forms of trauma delved into here and overall I think it was done pretty realistically. Trigger Warnings aren't needed but this was a depressing book. Be prepared for that. I liked it but don't feel like I need to buy a physical copy. If you enjoy intense, well written character based plotlines give this one a try at your local library.

Another whimsical & heart-wrenching story of female resiliency, love , and deep familial bonds spanning the ages from Emilia Hart. Her writing style has a way of driving emotion from the reader making it nearly impossible to be disengaged. How Lucy, being pulled by an innate force, uncovers her roots through her journalistic eyes -particularly with Jess's diary - was deeply moving. The story of Mary and Eliza driving toward the future of Lucy and Jess and how it slots in the puzzle pieces for how things came to be as they are weaved the story beautifully. I really loved this one.

As written on Goodreads:

“The Sirens is a feminist fantasy in the realest way: sisterhood, strong female characters who save themselves, and VENGEANCE. In fact, there’s really nothing about this book that I DIDN’T like - the pacing is great, the storyline hooked me in, the characters were well written and complex, and I enjoyed how the diary added a third perspective partway through. It was everything I would have expected from Emilia Hart after reading Weyward - right down to another gorgeous cover.

That being said, I do feel as though a lot of the twists in this book were tossed low and slow right down the centre so we could easily see them coming (not all, but a few at least), and while that didn’t bother me it did seem to make me read faster so I could get to the “aha moment” and Emilia could prove me right.

At the end of this book I can once again confirm that I will read anything Emilia Hart writes, and I look forward to seeing what she does next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. ”

This was not it for me.
there was so much unnecessary things happening with these characters that in the end had no impact on the actual plot of this book. I had to fight hard not to dnf. Very very slow. Did not connect with the characters and the plot didn’t hit until at least 75% of the book.

Sirens is the second novel by Weyward author Emilia Hart. I loved the first book and was looking forward to this one.

Lucy wakes from a dream with her hands around a boys throat, with no recollection as to how she got there. While it is easy enough to imagine she had sleepwalked in a rage over him sharing intimate pictures of her, Lucy can't help but fee there is something more.

Fleeing to find her sister, the only one she feels she can turn to, Lucy is drawn into a mystery of a town and herself .

Similar to Weyward, Sirens time jumps between multiple characters who are connected in some capacity. While I felt the premise was interesting, particularly the connection to the sirens of Greek mythology, I was never as connected to the characters as I had been in the first book. It felt like something was missing.

That said, it is a decent read and does seem to pick up in speed closer to the end

The Sirens is a captivating story that seamlessly moves between past and present, offering a unique blend of history and fantasy. The family dynamics are heartfelt and relatable, and the characters are well-developed, making their journeys engaging to follow.

While the book starts off a bit slow, it quickly becomes compelling as the mystery and magical elements unfold. The surprise twist adds an exciting layer to the story and keeps you hooked.

That said, I would have liked more focus on the siren mythology, which felt underexplored. Even so, The Sirens is a well-written and thought-provoking read that fans of the author’s previous work, Weyward, are sure to enjoy.

Emilia Hart has lovingly crafted a tale of women’s fiction involving mysterious mermaids, women overcoming impossible odds, and transforming the remains of trauma into a personal Renaissance. Lucy and Jessica—sisters living in present day Australia—are dreaming of twin sisters, Eliza and Mary, who both lived over 200 hundred years ago. The twins were forced to travel to Australia on a British convict ship with other women and their story is one of sadness and transformation. Each time Lucy and Jessica dream, they learn more about the twins’ story, but they also begin to sleepwalk, dangerously being guided to the water. Both stories lead us to a seaside town called Comer Bay, where men have gone missing without a trace so many times over the years, it’s called the “Bermuda Triangle.” It is here that Jessica, Lucy, Eliza, and Mary’s stories converge to provide answers about their heritages and identities; more excitingly, this is where each character transforms into their own powerful self, which is only achieved after reaching out to one another. This deep-sea saga is salted through with magical realism and a generous helping of decadently dark and rich Irish folklore; merrow, which are mermaid or siren-like creatures, are known for being able to freely transform into humans. In traditional Greek mythology, Sirens are typically portrayed as rather villainous. They are beguiling temptresses, luring men to their watery graves with beautiful enchantments woven into song, as depicted in ancient tales such as The Odyssey. The sirens in this story have a vengeful protectiveness over women, which is a refreshing, feminist variation on the lore.

After reading both of Emilia Hart’s books, I have noticed a strong thematic presence involving the female experience, specifically as it relates to trauma and the healing process. Personally, it was difficult to read about the tremendous amount of trauma each female character faces, so I recommend being familiar with the trigger warnings. The story was beautifully written, so when I felt like my soul was being broken apart yet again, the author at least painted a painfully exquisite picture with her emotional writing style. I honestly struggled with disliking the female main characters as much as I did. However, I am also able to see how each woman being written as a considerably flawed individual is integral to a story hooking together the intricacies of change, self-enlightenment, and self-acceptance in the face of hard truths. While cognitively complex, it can also make it challenging to prevent the characters from becoming wholly unlikable. The author had several characters to navigate and multiple story lines to simultaneously weave together; in this, she was successful at showcasing female tenacity and resilience. However, I concluded that the pacing was bogged down by these alternating points of view and shifting timelines. Additionally, it seems like significant moments for characters were forgotten altogether as we progressed between the various viewpoints. Clearly, this nautical tale is one of female empowerment, embracing the tides of transformation, and a sisterhood so powerful it connects generations of women across time. I recommend embarking upon this seafaring, feminist odyssey if you enjoyed Hart’s previous book or enjoy works comparable to those from Kristin Hannah.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC and the opportunity to share what I think! All opinions are my own. I will be posting this review on my Goodreads and Instagram accounts.

An eerie story about family, coming of age, mystery, feminism, and bit of fantasy. Lucy finds herself in some trouble after sleepwalking one night. She flees to the only other person she knows who sleepwalks, her sister. But her sister is not there and now she is alone in her new home with these strange dreams and no idea where her sister is.
While somewhat dark and eerie, there is also a heartwarming aspect about family and the power of sisterhood (family or not).
At a few points, I felt there were 1 too many things going on and some of the “women power” notions were a bit too on the nose for me.

A powerful story of righteous female anger, a mystery that spans centuries, and the strength of love. The Siren is full of raw, complicated human emotion that drew me in, with a mystery that kept me up all night to finish it. A touching exploration of family ties, and the complexities of familial love.

I LOVED this book!! Emilia Hart does such a great job weaving an intriguing story that readers will fall in love with like I did!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy books!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Sirens by Emilia Hart is a story about family, sisterhood, and the cruel world that tries to break that apart. Each character, Lucy, Jess, Mary, and Eliza are unique in their own right, but connected by the struggles they face. I can't say much about the plot to give a synopsis without spoiling anything, but I can assure you that all of its layers and mysteries are worth reading about! This novel had a bit of a slow start, just getting on board with the characters and what was going on, but once I got acquainted it was addicting. Every page added to the mystery and legend of Comber Bay and more importantly the women of this story. I felt just like Lucy, using all of my detective skills to try and piece together what happened all of those years ago. This book definitely rewards readers with a sharp attention to detail.

I highly recommend this book and would rate it a 4.25 out of 5 stars. My only struggle with this book was the beginning as I mentioned earlier, but the latter half of the novel was a treat that I keep thinking about after I finished it. Trigger Warnings for this book would be: death, grief, violence, sexual assault, pregnancy, murder, and some language.