Review: Made Me Shiver and Reach for My Coat
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2013
Echo of a Siren by Sonya C. Dodd is a fantasy romance about a young man named Greg who is rescued from drowning by a revengeful mermaid. It is also an unusual courtship between two loners swirling in tragic circumstances.Greg accompanies his foolish friend Jake on an ill-advised boat ride into a ferocious storm. The waves capsize the craft and plunge the men into the unforgiving sea. The lovely siren Rachel, who gave up her human life to instead seduce and kill men floundering in the ocean's embrace, feels a twinge for the near-dead Greg. Following the faintest urging in her once-human heart, Rachel rescues him instead of devouring his life force.For this reader who lives in the middle of the continent, Echo of a Siren wove a vivid world about living next to that harshest of mistresses, the sea. Water's chill, the rotten fish reek in the tangy ocean air, and love's desperation between Greg and Rachel made me shiver and reach for my coat. Greg's guilt, plus the mistreatment from the bullies grieving for drowned friends, was heartbreaking. Loved ones can lash out at survivors, and survivors punish themselves for making it through.Rachel had good reasons to hate men when she was alive. Her backstory was wrenching, yet her kind treatment of Greg was a compassionate touch. Even as an undying mermaid, she too was subjected to heartless treatment from her siren kin. Dodd's story plunges the reader into a chilly fantasy world and watery heartbreaker.