When I was a little girl, any time I was in water (be it the ocean, the pool, or the bathtub) I was a mermaid. When Disney's The Little Mermaid came out, this increased my inner desire to be this beautiful creature that could see and breath under water. I always thought, hey...that would be so freaking cool.

I was wandering through Books-a-Million (as I often do) when the cover for this book, Siren's Call, Book 1 of the Dark Tides series by Devyn Quinn caught my eye. Even before becoming a cover artist, I have the tendency to impulse buy something that has just down right gorgeous artwork. (I found Virginia Kantra's Children of the Sea novels through their artwork, and I spent a small fortune importing used copies of the original UK Pointe Horror collection covers of the original printing of LJ Smith's The Forbidden Game because their covers were gorgeous) Anyway.... The cover was pretty and I impulsed bought without even reading the description. (I do that when hot blond men grace covers too. It is like a surprise sometimes what the book is actually about. Keeps it interesting.) So...Based on the title I naturally assumed the heroine was a Greek Siren. To keep with the surprise, I didn't read the synopsis before starting to read and the first bit kinda went along with that them....then ta da! The heroine is a mermaid!

While Mermaids are in a lot of folklore and here or there in stories I read or in movies I watch, I hadn't actually read any of the "mermaid" romances. There are a good bit, but they aren't taking up as much of the shelf space as say...vampires or werewolves. 

As for the story itself, I felt I could relate to the heroine at several points of the book. She has a personality that is similar to mine. I have the tendency to push people away when they try to get close to me because I can't handle the attention properly and she had the same reflex...God, I didn't know I was that annoying! LMAO. Anyway, I liked the hero too....he was just too "nice" for me to LOVE him. And I am not just saying that because he isn't blond. I would have prefered a bit more of an alpha male, but it wouldn't have worked with her personality very well and he would have pushed her away in his forwardness within the first 20 pages.


Now...slight spoilers ahead, but will refrain from anything major.

The book starts off with the basic paranormal premise: Guy likes girl, she is mutually attracted. One is paranormal. The other figures it out. They deal. They hump. They wake up the next morning all shades of WTF and they deal with that. Enter the antagonist: the evil, super hot blond ex. (Why do they bad apples always have to be blond lately. I object!!!!)

Midway through the book it goes from relationship drama, thank god because I was wondering if it was nearly 400 pages of relationship drama or if something supernatural was going to occur to stir trouble. I got my wish, but it wasn't anything like I thought would happen. At all! Evil Blond Ex is an archaeologist who is using his knowledge of the Mer to seek fame and fortune by looking for historical fact to prove their existence without actually outing the heroine and her family in the process. While he is a loathsome character, he is vastly entertaining and supposedly very attractive so I did enjoy most of his page time.

When they embark on their journey into the Mediterranean sea, it goes from simple paranormal romance to more action/adventure and I think I really really got into it at that point. Things of course do not go smoothly and FINALLY events occur that  bring about a story arc to continue through the books other than the fact the heroine has two mermaid sisters. I just ordered a copy of book two, Siren's Surrender. I am looking forward to seeing how things progress. Book three comes out Feb 7, 2012.

And for those wondering about the Sexiness factor. There's a lot of chemistry between the two characters, but the romance is more sweet and intimate than lust bunny humpage every 5 minutes. While it would have been nice to see more intimate scenes between the characters, it got weird there when Blond Hunk of No Good came back into the picture, but I don't think it took away from the characters or the story any.