Review: Siren’s Desire

Posted February 23, 2012 by Nima in 3 stars, Paranormal Romance, Rating B Tags: , , ,

Siren’s Desire
Release Date: Feb. 7, 2012
Publisher: Signet
Dark Tides #3
ISBN: 978-0451236111
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Contemporary Fantasy
Format(s): Paperback (400 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
About the book:
While fighting for their lives, three mermaid sisters must battle dark and forbidden desires hidden in the ocean’s depths…
After defeating the covert agency that threatened to destroy her and her sisters, Addison Lonike grudgingly resumes her life as an EMT in Maine. She would love nothing more than to take on the dangerous Mer queen, Magaera, who is hell-bent on destroying them. But with two baby nieces on the way, she can’t take the risk. That is, until Mason McKenzie arrives…
Captain of the naval task force on the hunt for Queen Magaera in the Mediterranean, Mason sees the perfect recruit in Addison. But while at sea, the pair is pulled under a wave of passion that threatens their independent natures—and their mission. An encounter with a new race of male sea-shifters further complicates Addison’s desires. Now, she must choose between a life of the sea, or fulfilling the deepest longings of her heart…
What Nima’s talking about:
Siren’s Desire is the third and apparently final book in Devyn Quinn’s Dark Tides series.  While it told the love story of Addison, youngest of the three Lonkie sisters, and gave us the final showdown with the evil Queen Magaera, it didn’t feel like “the end” to me.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Quinn goes forward with the storyline under the umbrella of new series.  She has introduced a new breed of sea shape-shifters and the future of “Mer” must be managed as they are introduced into the current century.
I liked main character Addison Lonkie.  She’s a tough, independent emergency medical tech (EMT) who just happens to be, like her older sisters Gwen (Siren’s Surrender) and Tessa (Siren’s Call), a mermaid.  When she gets recruited by the Navy to serve as an advisor on a special unit to hopefully save the world from going to war with the Mer population, I was ready for some action.  Unfortunately, there was very little…of any kind. The set-up of getting Addison on board and in position with the Navy and catching the reader up with her sisters, takes most of the book. Addison is attracted to Naval Captain Mason McKenzie and he is attracted to her.  They have a single, brief, hot intimacy in the first third of the book and it’s all just angst and longing after that.  When confrontation with Queen Magaera finally happens, it is equally brief and explosive.  The final confrontation takes less than fifteen pages, ending a little abruptly for my taste.  I could have done with one more chapter, even an epilogue.  
Some of my misgivings at what the book failed to be for me were mitigated in its overall feeling.  Siren’s Desire feels not so much like a contemporary romance as it does like a fairytale. The evil queen is one-dimensional crazy—easy to hate without remorse; the hero is a strong military man and loner who will only be tamed by his one true love; the princess is literally a princess—next in line for the throne as descendant from the last true queen. Add in some mermaids, sparkles, and a happily ever after and you’ve got a grown-up Disney movie.  That’s not an insult.  It just means that the book is more charming than the paranormal adventure I was expecting and that’s okay.  I liked it.
Nima’s Rating:
Liked it, but I had some issues – recommend (B)





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One response to “Review: Siren’s Desire”

  1. Angela Brown

    There isn’t a major deluge of mer-tales out at this time. I’ve mainly heard a lot of buzz for Tangled Tides. I can’t wait to read it and this series seems like an interesting one to check out.

    Thanks for the review.