Review: Hybrid Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2013
I’d recently discovered the romance genre several books prior to reading Echo of a Siren. These were not classic romance novels; rather, they were all a combination of suspense, action/adventure or thriller with romantic overtones. Now I can add another mix to that list… horror/paranormal-romance. Easy to do as “sirens” are monsters, the same as vampires, succubi and demons are paranormal and monstrous beings.Ms Dodd has created two wonderfully detailed and three-dimensional characters in Rachel and Greg. I was easily able to connect with both on an emotional and intellectual level. Her ability to write lean, descriptive prose, while still providing enough detail for the reader to imagine the rest of the incidentals for him or herself, is second to none.  I particularly liked that she avoided the truly “mushy” romantic scenes. This author clearly stands head and shoulders above those that for me use barely adequate imagination to write romantic nonsense that essentially has little to do with the story, serving only to increase the page count.I'm not a fan of the star count, neither am I intent upon pointing out what details added or diminished the number of stars awarded.  Suffice it to say that in order to reach five stars, a book really needs to knock my socks off... emotionally and/or intellectually.  Echo of a Siren is truly a great novel, one that I had a hard time putting down, but upon completing the novel, I still had a sock on.A quick read, due to its sparse but captivating style and high entertainment, I highly recommend this book to readers of all genres, but especially to those who want to “test the waters” with a hybrid genre. I, for one, will be reading more of Ms Dodd’s work, regardless the genus.