Storm Siren

Synopsis:

“In a world at war, a slave girl's lethal curse could become one kingdom's weapon of salvation. If the curse--and the girl--can be controlled. "I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don't want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you."

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn't merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth--meaning, she shouldn't even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she's being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn't want to be the weapon they've all been waiting for? Set in a beautifully eclectic world of suspicion, super abilities, and monsters, Storm Siren is a story of power. And whoever controls that power will win.”

Review:

Storm Siren is set in a somewhat feudal fantasy world with a bit of a steam-punk vibe. The heroine, Nym, is a very sympathetic character. She has been a slave for most of her life and lives with the tremendous guilt that has resulted from all the harm she’s done others ever since she was a child, especially what she remembers doing to her parents. But even with that background, she refuses to be a victim.

This story deals with several themes, the main ones being self-harm and self-worth. Nym struggles to see her “curse” as a “gift.” I’ve read so many other books that have their main characters bemoaning how their gift is a curse, and it usually just comes across as a poor attempt to make the main character a reluctant hero. This isn’t the case in Storm Siren. Nym’s powers truly are a curse throughout most of the story, in that they have caused her nothing but pain and misery.

Most of the characters you will either really love or violently hate. I especially loved Nym’s horse, Haven. Even though she was only a background character, and an animal at that, her personality was developed from the very beginning when she tried to trick Nym.

There is only one thing that I’ll say against this story. It is written in first-person, present tense. While some people might like that style, it’s a bit like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. If the story is good, I can usually get into it and ignore the tense, but every once and a while, a particular passage will jerk me out of the story because of how awkward the tense sounds. However, this story was good, and I could ignore it most of the time I picked the book up, once I had read a page or two.

4.5 Stars

Book 1 in The Storm Siren Trilogy