

“How strange that instead of taking his heart, I’m hoping he takes mine.” – 4.25/5 stars!
Attention! This book contains: ships, loyalty, cold blood, licorice, swords, human hearts, necklaces, freckles, colorful scales, keys, royals, tattooed arms, marriage, sea foam, pistols, siren songs, tridents and crystals.

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.
The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

Who would have thought I would turn this into siren/pirate books? I have so much fun reading books like these!
Compared to my favorite siren/pirate book, the “Daughter of the Pirate King“, this has more of a serious/realistic tone to it. The author did a great job setting an atmosphere that makes you travel to another dimension.
Apparently this is a retelling of “The Little Mermaid” but I honestly don’t understand why people would say that. The only thing both stories have in common is that the main character is transformed from a siren to a girl. But other than that, there is not that much in common to make me think of this as a retelling.
Even though I liked it, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance. Both the relationship progression and timing fell flat for me. It was too slow at first and then everything happened all at once!
This is also considered a dark book but I also didn’t think it was that dark. Maybe I would consider the first chapters dark, but it was mostly a very normal fantasy book.
I think it’s very interesting to see a book like this written as a stand-alone! Not very common in this area of fantasy.
I listened to this as an audiobook and I really recommend this format! Also, it’s probably just me, but the male voice reminded me a lot of Cole Sprouse’s voice. Oh, it was just me? Alrighty.
