Hunting Sirens by Mary Mecham

For Treva, sirens are the scourge that plague her island nation, Haven Harbor. Without any way to get close to the water to fish, lest ye be drowned, her people are starving to death. But she is only a blacksmith. What could she do? Born Deaf, Treva realizes that her disability is her only ability to defeat these water demons.

Their songs do not work on her. And so, she gets approval from the Queen to become the island's official Siren Hunter. One day, when sirens target her father's ship, Treva seethes and goes out on her own to destroy every last one of them. Her rage blinds her to the point that she feels no remorse for those fish people—until a mighty Kraken rises from the deep and destroys her ship, leaving Treva helpless. She wakes up confused about her survival. But finds a male siren leaning over her. (Ooh, la, la. Lol.)

He introduces himself as Bayne and cannot speak for the Kraken has stolen his voice. She soon finds that he can sign and discovers there is more to him than her pre judgemental disposition of all sirens.

At first, I had a hard time relating to Treva. But she soon grew on me. Not all characters are likable and not all of them should be. She learned from her mistakes and grew from them. Mary is talented at raising the stakes even if you think they can’t be hoisted any higher. Though I would have liked to have more of the five senses in every chapter, I understood why the author described sound differently.

As someone going deaf from a rare disease called Meniere’s, I fell in love with this book, got to know Treva a bit more, and felt empowered and no longer scared. Even when I do go deaf, I will strive to be strong like Treva. Told from 1st person POV, the chapter lengths were evenly paced and just long enough to keep me wanting more. Her descriptions could use a bit more work. Sometimes I wanted the author to describe every setting in detail so I could feel like I was there.

Also, I wanted Treva to describe more smells. That alone would have plunged me into her world a bit further. The novel was formatted well. My only complaint is that I wish it had a stronger hook in the beginning. (No puns intended) Lol.

For my Christian readers, there was no swearing at all, only made-up words, and no sex or explicit scenes. It was like reading Percy Jackson meets the Little Mermaid.

10/10 stars

You can buy her work at Amazon.com or via her website.