The Siren’s Kiss by Leslie Vedder (out September 1) is a book I was hoping would break a reading slump, and it did just that. e follow Rayleigh, who has been cursed to captain the ghost ship of the famed pirate Red-Handed Roger unless she can retrieve his heart from the Sea Witch, and Maren, whose brother was taken from her by the same witch. The two of them start off opposed to each other, but quickly realize that they’ll have to work together to confront the Sea Witch if they want to succeed at their quests. As they work together, they begin to fall for each other, but will their relationship be doomed to end in heartbreak?
My main issue with YA fantasy is when the characters are underdeveloped because the plot takes more of the focus, and I felt that in The Siren’s Kiss. I remember really liking the characters in Vedder’s debut novel, The Bone Spindle, so I was disappointed by how the two leads felt flat. They had backstories and motivations, but it felt like I was being told them, and I never felt a deep sense of emotional connection. I also didn’t really get why Maren and Rayleigh began to like each other so quickly, without much happening to form that trust to build the relationship on. However, I did like some of the banter between them, and it’s hard to complain too much about a pirate/mermaid relationship because I think more people should write about that.
I liked the prose most out of everything in this book. I’ve actually been on a few sailing trips (the actual sailing kind where you have to work pulling lines, not the hoity-toity rich yacht kind of sailing), and I thought the descriptions and prose really captured the essence of the maritimey seafaring life.
The Siren’s Kiss did pretty much everything I was expecting to do, which was to be a perfectly acceptable teen fantasy romance to break a reading slump. The pacing kept me hooked and it was easy to read most of it in one afternoon. I think if I had been able to read this book when I was sixteen, I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but I still liked it enough to recommend, especially if you want something along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean or Our Flag Mean Death but with lesbians.
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