A Sweeping Tale of Secrets, Sisterhood, and Family Legends
The Sirens
Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction, Sister's Fiction
St. Martin's Press
April 01, 2025
ebook, hardcover, audiobook
352
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • #1 LibraryReads Pick • Indie Next Pick
A spellbinding novel about sisters separated by centuries, but bound together by the sea, from the author of the runaway New York Times bestseller Weyward
2019: Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover’s throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister’s house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack―but Jess is nowhere to be found.
As Lucy awaits her return, the rumors surrounding Jess’s strange small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women’s voices on the waves. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister’s adolescent diary.
1999: Jess is a lonely sixteen-year-old in a rural town in the middle of the continent. Diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, she has always felt different, until her young, charming art teacher takes an interest in her drawings, seeing a power and maturity in them―and in her―that no one else has.
1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been torn from their loving father in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. For their entire lives, they’ve feared the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were just girls. Yet as the boat bears them further and further from all they know, they begin to notice changes in their bodies that they can’t explain, and they feel the sea beginning to call to them…
A breathtaking tale of female resilience and the bonds of sisterhood across time and space, The Sirens captures the power of dreams, and the mystery and magic of the sea.
What use is a weapon people are too afraid to touch?
Last year, Weyward kept me spellbound as I read Emilia Hart’s debut novel about magic being passed down through generations and the three women who are connected by it. The Sirens being Hart’s second standalone release equally enchanted and enthralled me much like the titular mythical creatures.
underwater gif via giphy
Told through dual timelines, The Sirens is a tale of sisterhood at the very core. In the present timeline, we meet Lucy. She’s a college student, a daughter, a sister, and attempting her best at navigating the murky waters of a co-ed relationship at college. Social media, gossip, and hormones are not a good combo, and Lucy swiftly realizes that her trust can easily be misplaced. When an incident causes Lucy to search for answers she runs to her sister Jess, who seemingly is going through her own ordeal, but Lucy is determined to reconnect even if Jess won’t.
“There’s something about this place, something different. It keeps its women safe.”
In the past, we meet two Irish sisters, Mary and Eliza, on the cusp of being sentenced to a prisoner ship bound for Australia. With their mother lost to the sea, they regret leaving their heartsick father alone. The journey is harrowing and the longer the sisters stay on the ship the more they realize that they are closer than ever to their true home, but surviving the passage is the first obstacle.
sea glass gif via giphy
Where Lucy and Jess have water allergies, Mary and Eliza know of their own special heritage—one that finds comfort in the water, where the sea calls to their very core. There is a special way of storytelling in which Emilia Hart delivers her newest novel. While I recommend that anyone who is interested in picking up The Sirens takes care with triggers of sexual abuse, bullying, and teenage pregnancy, as well as starvation and the use of sexual favors for survival, I found that all parts of the story were pertinent and didn’t detract from the overall storyline.
A world where sharks glided in the deep, where fish swam in glittering clouds. A world where songs swelled and rippled, traveling for miles. A female world.
I loved the parallels between the sisters of different generations, while the reveal is easy to figure out, I could not be bothered to put The Sirens down during the climax and culmination of the storyline. Emilia Hart weaves the perfect amount of magic and paranormal into her historical novels in a way that makes my brain and heart so happy while reading. I look forward to more novels from Emilia Hart in the future, but for now, I will eagerly celebrate the release of The Sirens.
Jes is a self-proclaimed bookworm, who recently moved from the PNW back to the Midwest. When her nose isn’t in a book, she’s spending time with her husband, two kids, and her three fur babies, or exploring the globe. She also firmly believes that you should start the day with coffee, and end the day in bed with a good book.
