#SRC2014: Serenade by Emily Kiebel

Title: Serenade
Author: Emily Kiebel
Format: Ebook
Publisher: SparksPress
Publish Date: July 15, 2014
Source: BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Lorelei Clark's only concern was her future as a classically trained soprano, that is, until the day her father was tragically killed. Shattered by his death, she hesitantly accepts an invitation from a mysterious aunt to visit her lavish oceanside home in Cape Cod. She quickly discovers that her aunt and the two women who live with her are harboring a frightening secret they are sirens, terrifying mythical creatures responsible for singing doomed sailors to their deaths. Even more astounding, Lorelei is one of them.

In this new world where water comes alive at her touch and an ancient power pulses beneath the tide, the most important rule Lorelei must learn is that a siren never interferes with fate. When she breaks this rule by rescuing a handsome sailor who should have died at sea, the sirens vow she must finish the job or face grave consequences. Finding herself inexplicably attracted to him, she must fight to keep him safe from the others, even if it means risking her own life, and her heart, in the process."

My Two Cents:

Lorelei only thinks she has to worry about doing well at school with her singing. She has a bunch of natural talent but come to find out, that natural talent may not be so natural after all. This is a paranormal story where nothing is as it seems. Lorelei may actually come from a line of sirens. The sirens are, of course, those mythological creatures who are beautiful and potentially dangerous. As the myth goes, they have beautiful voices that they can potentially use in order to draw men deep into the sea.

Once I got into this book, I really enjoyed it. It opened a little slowly as we learn about Lorelei's time at her school and her singing practice. Once the mythological elements start coming into play, the book really picked up. Then things start to happen and Lorelei is forced to focus on something more than school (I don't want to give to much away). Lorelei begins to find out more about her family legacy once she goes to visit an aunt who can shed more than a little light about where Lorelei's family really comes from. It is definitely not anything that Lorelei expects. I liked how Kiebel did not show all her cards at once with the book. You get a little detail at a time to keep you going.

I really liked that Kiebel chose to write about sirens. I am absolutely fascinated by them. They definitely made for a good subject for a book. Kiebel adds a lot of detail so that even if you are not familiar with sirens, you will still understand the story and you will learn about them in the process.

Definitely a good paranormal read!