Siren's Call

Siren's Call by Debbie Herbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for this review.

Siren's Call is the 3rd installment of the Dark Seas trilogy, focusing on the Borsage sisters, Shelly, Jet, and Lily, who live in Alabama. Book 1, Siren's Secret, focused on Shelly, book 2, Siren's Treasure, focused on Jet, and book 3 focuses on Lily. To update everyone, Shelly married Tillman, the sheriff. Jet married Landry, a former FBI agent, and is pregnant. The Bosarge sisters are all mermaids, a secret known only to them and to their husbands. Lily has the gift of the siren's song, which attracts men to her. This makes the women in town very unhappy. One day at the grocery store, Lily runs into Nash, and old childhood friend, who is immune to Lily's siren song. Nash is a photographer, who came back to take pictures of the area. Since he is immune to her song, Lily wants him more. She also runs into Opal, Nash's assistant. The novel follows their interaction. Lily's mother comes to town to convince Lily to go back to the mermaid community. Nash's grandfather, who is dying, tries to convince Nash to stay. He also tells Nash of the legend of the Okwa Nahollo, a race of underwater creatures that live in the bayou. Nash and Opal have secrets of their own, which I won't reveal here because of spoilers.

Overall I thought the book was great, just like the first 2. The plotline was defined, with just enough twists to keep everyone interested. The characters of Lily, Nash, and especially Nash's grandfather were very well-developed. The climactic scene was very engrossing.

I had two issues with the book. First, the ending with Carl Desmukes. He had been threatening the sisters by claiming to have documents showing that Tillman's father had been embezzling from the county. He had been threatening them for all 3 books. It ended too abruptly, in the middle of the book. I would have liked to have seen it at least extended out to the end of the book. Second, the ending, which was designed to wrap up the trilogy, was too much a Disney movie "happily ever after" ending. I believe there should have been some tragedy in the ending.

These are just minor quibbles. All in all, it was a great book. She's currently working on her next book about the Okwa Nahollo. I look forward to it.

Full disclosure: The Okwa Nahollo is a Native American legend. The author stated that she did enhance some elements of the legend for dramatic purposes.

View all my reviews