This book was just all over the place.

I am a huge fan of The Selection series (though The Heir was a bit of a disappointment), but I never read this as a self-published ebook. I didn't think that the story sounded all that interesting--sirens, really?--but when I heard Harper Teen had bought the rights and were going to publish it, I knew I had to check it out. I mean, it's Kiera Cass. She could make even the most boring sounding story wonderful, right? Wrong.


Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again.

Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude...until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of.Falling in love with a human breaks the Ocean’s rules. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.


Kahlen and Akinlin (whose names are ridiculous) are relatively fine characters, but they aren't very memorable. I love that Kahlen is so passionate, and feels so much. She's killed too many people as a siren, and she bares that pain rather than try to forget about it. But that's the only thing about her that sticks in my mine. Akinlin is very conventional. He's too rounded out that he's very surface level; he's supposed to have attributes that very person would love to have a in partner, but just it makes him boring and not interesting.


Kahlen and Akinlin are supposed to have this tragic, star-crossed love, but it's instalove and anticlimactic at best. But the worst part was how repetitive it was. Kahlen would miss Akinlin, she would move away, she would miss him, she would move away, she would mis--AGGRH!!! Enough. Give me some character growth, some plot progression. The climax of their love story was extremely adorable, but by that time, I was fed up with the story to really care.


This book is wishy-washy, uncaptivating and just plain...not that great. The opposite of Batman. It's a writer's first attempt, that maybe could have been recreated into something magical, but it wasn't. I don't even want to know what the original version looked like, if this is supposed to be the new-and-improved edition. And it's not that it's terrible, it's just boring. The moment that it's decided that something should, I don't know, happen in this book, it about 35 pages from the end. So it's rushed and then it's happily ever after. And I'm supposed to be satisfied? No, thank you.

Kiera Cass, please rock my world with The Crown. Your last two books have left me wanting, and it breaks my heart.