Storm Siren by Mary Weber

Fantasy. 333 Pages. 4 Stars

Synopsis:

“I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don’t want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you.”

In a world at war, a slave girl’s lethal curse could become one kingdom’s weapon of salvation. If the curse—and the girl—can be controlled.

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn’t merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth — meaning, she shouldn’t even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she’s being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn’t want to be the weapon they’ve all been waiting for?

Set in a beautifully eclectic world of suspicion, super abilities, and monsters, Storm Siren is a story of power. And whoever controls that power will win.

My Review:

I enjoyed this book. I think it took me a little longer to get into it than I expected, but once I reached that “invested” stage, it was hard to put the book down. I think it certainly got more interesting the more things progressed. I enjoyed the plot very much and would definitely like to continue into the second book to see where things go.

The setting was established from the get go and the author kind of threw the reader into her world like the deep end of a pool. What I mean is that elements of the world were revealed progressively rather than explained up front.

The book itself was pretty well-written from a technical point of view. I would not say that I thought it was the most well-written book I’ve ever read, but it wasn’t poorly-written either.

The characters were priceless. I think they were my favorite part of the book. I was wholeheartedly invested in the characters and my decision to continue to the second book is in no small part due to the wonderful characters Ms. Weber has constructed. I also really liked the concept of the Elementals, and I very much hope to see more of them in the last two books.

There was no foul language and no explicit romantic scenes, though there were brief allusions to abuse, and though the setting was not void of hardships by any means, it was very tactfully implemented. The book is set on the premise of the MC as a slave, so slavery is a prominent theme, and eventually, so is freedom. The book does have a little violence, but, again, nothing memorably graphic–very well-done, in my opinion. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, pure and straight up, as well as those who enjoy natural-disaster type things. I would be okay with giving this book to an early teen.

More:

Book 2 in the Storm Siren trilogy is Siren’s Fury (4 Stars)

Book 3 is Siren’s Song (4 Stars)

I have reviewed each of the above on Goodreads. Follow the links to find more info on the books and then scroll down to see the reviews. Mine is among them.

This series should be read in order.

On GraceBought

Check out my thoughts on the next book in the series!

Siren’s Fury