KEEP CALM AND LOVE BOOKS: 50'

Pages: 327 pages

Publication Date: January 26th 2016

Publisher: HarperTeen

ISBN: 0062391992 (ISBN13: 9780062391995)

Love is a risk worth taking.

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. And though she can’t talk to him, they soon forge a connection neither of them can deny…and Kahlen doesn’t want to.

Falling in love with a human breaks all the Ocean’s rules, and if the Ocean discovers Kahlen’s feelings, she’ll be forced to leave Akinli for good. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.

Now, What I Thought:

Lets just put this into perspective for you guys, I read the sample and then bought this book at around 3am this morning and I then finished it at 7am this morning. Damn, that was quick. I could not put it down. It was so captivating and such a light, easy and fun read. Who doesn't want to read about sirens and then to turn it into a sad perspective on them as well? I think Cass wrote this book beautifully and I just loved that it was a stand-alone. I needed a book with a happy ending since I've been stuck on the gruesome, A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), novels. This was much needed and I think you guys can tell how much I enjoyed this.

It was a cool concept on the whole siren/mermaid type thing. We automatically start off with our main character in the 50s where she's 19, the richest family on the ship they're on and beautiful. Her and her family start to hear this beautiful song with these beautiful voices and all of a sudden everyone is going overboard willingly, jumping to their deaths. Kahlen has the sense to plug her ears but even then that is not enough. She does, however, have enough time to see her family jumping to their deaths as well, damn. Distraught by that and a moment of distraction the voices reach her head again and she, too, jumps overboard. After coming to sense, she realizes she hasn't even lived yet, she's 19 and she wants to get married, live a life, have children etc. Well that seems to be the call for help because then she is soon pulled out of the water and given the chance for a life where she will not age, not get hurt, and stay beautiful for however long the Ocean says. As long as Kahlen feeds the Ocean that is, with humans. Shipwrecks. See where this is going? It doesn't take a genius to know what she picked, so Kahlen then turns into this beautiful Siren and rather abruptly, we get to chapter 2 where it is 80 years later. Dun Dun Dun....

So Kahlen seems to be with new and young sirens now, in the present. She's almost like there leader seeing as she's the oldest siren they know, or rather live with. It was cool how Cass tried to justify that killing people for the deemed 'evilness' of the Ocean was something good and to kill 200 is to save billions type of argument. Also that the Ocean, whenever She is mentioned in anyway, has to be capitalized. It was almost like the Ocean is a real living thing with a mind of Her own, which in this book She was. She could speak to the sirens, give them hugs and warm their hearts. The thing I found interesting though, was that Kahlen loved Her. Like really really loved Her and adored Her. I couldn't get that seeing as it was the Ocean Herself that killed Kahlen's family and forced Kahlen to live for about 80 years isolated and killing people on shipwrecks. It was weird how the sentencing went as well. Kahlen had mention it was 80 years since she was 'reborn' and still had about 20 or so to go. That's 100 years of not speaking to any human, unless it's to sing for their death, and since we're on the topic, killing loads of people for the Ocean to eat. Kahlen of course then meets a boy whom she realizes that she may love and may want to live for. The Ocean doesn't like that and in a way, is jealous? Since it seemed that She only truly loved Kahlen out of all of Her sirens, which is interesting because the Ocean knows that if this boy sticks around She will lose the only one She truly cares about.

This book was so cool and new!! I had never read anything remotely close to this type of fantasy and just the plot line in general. I really liked how different it was and it was a nice, easy and fun break from all of the other YA paranormal book series there are today. Really starting to like Kiera Cass's work now!