Review: The Siren by Kiera Cass

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: January 26th, 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Audiobook from Audible

Pages: 336

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Summary (from Goodreads):

From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a sweeping stand-alone fantasy romance.

A girl with a secret.
The boy of her dreams.
An Ocean between them.

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.

This was my first ever audiobook, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had a long day at work and listened to almost the whole thing while I was there! It really made the day fly by to listen to this!

Kahlen has been a siren for 80 years. She has always followed the rules, afraid to anger the Ocean, for fear of the consequences. She and her sisters, Miaka and Elizabeth, are living in Miami near a college campus, trying to blend in with the crowd. Kahlen is more apt to stay at home or go to the library, live a quiet life, while her sisters prefer to go out to clubs and interact with humans despite the fact that they can't talk to them. Because if a human were to hear one of their voices, they would promptly drown themselves in the nearest source of water they could find. That makes interaction kinda tough.

I liked Kahlen, she lives cautiously, not putting herself in positions where she might accidentally break the rules. She is one of the oldest of the Siren sisters so it's kind of her job to look out for the others. She cares for her sisters, but she is very different from them and they don't seem to have a lot in common. She finds herself connecting with a boy that she isn't allowed to develop feelings for. He doesn't take her hints to go away and tries to make conversation with her and even finds ways for her to communicate back with him without speaking. She's always been so obedient, just biding her time til her sentence is over and she can live again. But she starts to fall for the boy and starts to follow her heart over the rules.

Kahlen's sisters, Miaka and Elizabeth, are almost inseparable. Elizabeth is kind of vain and outgoing and even without being able to communicate, has had many lovers. She struck me as that friend who you love, but is kinda mean in a way. At least to Kahlen. Miaka is an artist. She is a lot friendlier. She's also a lot more like Kahlen, but a bit more outgoing. She is thoughtful and is probably the one that holds the others together.

The Ocean is a character in this book as well. She needs the Sirens to help her sink ships so that she can sustain herself and thus, sustain the rest of the world. She loves her Sirens as if they were her own children. She has a personality and feelings as if she were human. She has flaws, as any other character would. She gets jealous, she feels unappreciated by her Sirens at times. She feels everything the same as a regular character would. She can even interact with her Sirens, using her currents to caress them and such. I think that this really added a lot to the story.

The romance in this book is sweet. I liked Akinli and Kahlen together. They develop feelings for each other after like ten days before Kahlen begins to worry about the Ocean's rules and runs away from Miami. Despite knowing it's breaking the rules, Kahlen can't stop thinking about him.

I enjoyed this book. It doesn't seem to move too slowly in any parts. I felt like the ending of this book was incredibly cheesy and probably kind of ridiculous. But other than that, this was a fun, easy, quick read (or rather listen for me). 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I haven't read very many siren/mermaid novels, but this is probably the one that I liked the most. If you're into books like Of Poseidon by Anna Banks, you might like this book!