Review: Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli

Sirena By Donna Jo Napoli

Goodreads Summary

When Sirena and her sisters sing their siren songs to the sailors on their way to the Trojan War, the men crash their ships upon the rocks. There is one survivor. Sirena defies the goddess Hera by tending his wounds and soon the two are deep in love. But does Philoctetes love Sirena's song, or her soul? And will the pull of honor prove stronger than the bond of love?

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Review:

This was my very first mermaid story. I don't typically read fantasy so I almost dreaded reading it, however I try to keep an open mind...plus it only had 224 pages. It was pleasantly surprising and I actually quite liked it. Now that I've tried this one on, I will be more apt to read this type of book in the future. 

Sirena and her mermaid sisters sing a song that makes men adore them. The problem is that when the men are lured by the song, their ships crash on the rocks leading them to their deaths. Her 9 sisters are not bothered by this the way she is so she swims away to live alone.

Sirena will not become immortal unless she is loved by a human man but when she finds an abandoned soldier on the island of Lemnos she hides from him. She won't let  him to hear her sing because she does not want to trick him into loving her. She brings him food and water while he is asleep because he is ill due to a snake bite and unable to provide for himself.

Will he survive? Do they fall in love thus allowing Sirena to achieve immortality? Will this Greek soldier ever be able to leave the island and continue his journey to the Trojan War? I'm not telling so you'll have to read this book and find out for yourself!

3.75/5

Paperback: 224 pages

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (November 1, 2000)

Review: The Cottage at Glass Beach

The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Harper (May 15, 2012)

Goodreads Description:

Married to the youngest attorney general in Massachusetts state history, Nora Cunningham is a picture-perfect political wife and a doting mother. But her carefully constructed life falls to pieces when she, along with the rest of the world, learns of the infidelity of her husband, Malcolm.

Humiliated and hounded by the press, Nora packs up her daughters--Annie, seven; and Ella, twelve--and takes refuge on Burke's Island, a craggy spit of land off the coast of Maine. Settled by Irish immigrants, the island is a place where superstition and magic are carried on the ocean winds, and wishes and dreams wash ashore with the changing tides.

Nora spent her first five years on the island but has not been back to the remote community for decades--not since that long ago summer when her mother disappeared at sea. One night while sitting alone on Glass Beach below the cottage where she spent her childhood, Nora succumbs to grief, her tears flowing into the ocean. Days later she finds an enigmatic fisherman named Owen Kavanagh shipwrecked on the rocks nearby. Is he, as her aunt's friend Polly suggests, a selkie--a mythical being of island legend--summoned by her heartbreak, or simply someone who, like Nora, is trying to find his way in the wake of his own personal struggles?

Just as she begins to regain her balance, her daughters embark on a reckless odyssey of their own--a journey that will force Nora to find the courage to chart her own course and finally face the truth about her marriage, her mother, and her long-buried past.

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Review:

When I started  reading this book, I didn't realize that there were elements of fantasy in it. That's not a genre I usually read. I felt it was a little slow and parts of the story were not believable to me....guess that's why they call it fantasy huh?  Ha!

I was unable to  get invested in the characters although they did have potential.

I liked the whole beachy, cottagey (I know that's not a real word but I like it) setting but I didn't get enough of it. I want to hear the surf,  smell the salt and feel the sand between my toes. For me, the story ended just as it finally got going.

2.75/5