Review: Storm Siren & Siren's Fury by Mary Weber ~ ***The Starry-Eyed Revue***

I was offered up a copy of Siren's Fury for review and was graciously gifted a copy of Storm Siren, as well, so I could catch up on the series. Because, yeah, I had no clue I wanted to read it until I saw some of my favorite bloggers flailing about the sequel earlier this year. I've separated my reviews below in case anyone else missed out on the Siren train like me. =)

Title: Storm Siren
Author: Mary Weber
Series: The Storm Siren Trilogy, book #1
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: August 19, 2014
Source: finished copy received from Wunderkind PR
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

“I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don’t want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you.”

In a world at war, a slave girl’s lethal curse could become one kingdom’s weapon of salvation. If the curse—and the girl—can be controlled.

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn’t merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth — meaning, she shouldn’t even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she’s being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn’t want to be the weapon they’ve all been waiting for?

Set in a beautifully eclectic world of suspicion, super abilities, and monsters, Storm Siren is a story of power. And whoever controls that power will win.

Mention that a character has elemental powers and I am sold on said book. Which is kind of why I find it odd that I hadn't really heard of this book before this year. Oh, well...c'est la vie and all that. I've read it now and I. Am. Impressed.

Nym is fierce. She's got this elemental power that she has no idea how to use or harness or keep in check whatsoever, and she's in constant fear of harming someone. And she has. The guilt from those past transgressions constantly eats at her. So, when the chance to redeem herself by training to help save her kingdom -- from war or worse -- comes along, she doesn't hesitate.

Her trainer is the mysterious and handsome Eogan. She's been warned away from him by Adora, court advisor and Nym's benefactor, but the chemistry is there from the beginning and it only builds. They have that tug and pull, the banter and easy back-and-forth that I enjoy so much. It actually kind of reminded me of Yalena and Valke from Maria V. Snyder's Study series. In other words, I SHIP IT. I ship it so freaking hard. :D

I loved the emphasis on magic and the elements in this story, but even more, I adored the friendships. Because Nym considered her gift a curse, she shied away from people, but the people in Adora's keeping weren't having that. Nym makes friends with a maid-servant who nearly always gives her the what-for and also happens to be the sister to her fellow elemental trainee, Colin. Colin is an unbelievable flirt and cocky as all get out, but I found him instantly lovable. He might have been my favorite if not for the enigmatic Eogan.

This book ends on one unholy cliffhanger, which is probably reason enough for me to be glad I didn't read it before I had acquired Siren's Fury. It's fast-paced, full of intrigue and magic, and it had me flipping pages as quickly as I could. I can't believe I almost missed this book! It's just such a ME book.

GIF it to me straight:

Electrifying! (Bahaha...see what I did there?)

Title: Siren's Fury
Author: Mary Weber
Series: The Storm Siren Trilogy, book #2
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
Source: finished copy received from Wunderkind PR
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

"I thrust my hand toward the sky as my voice begs the Elemental inside me to waken and rise. But it's no use. The curse I've spent my entire life abhorring—the thing I trained so hard to control—no longer exists."

Nym has saved Faelen only to discover that Draewulf stole everything she valued. Now he’s destroyed her Elemental storm-summoning ability as well.

When Nym sneaks off with a host of delegates to Bron, Lord Myles offers her the chance for a new kind of power and the whispered hope that it may do more than simply defeat the monster she loathes. But the secrets the Bron people have kept concealed, along with the horrors Draewulf has developed, may require more than simply harnessing a darker ability.

They may require who she is.

Set against the stark metallic backdrop of the Bron kingdom, Nym is faced with the chance to change the future.

Or was that Draewulf’s plan for her all along?

After that cliffhanger in Storm Siren, I wasn't sure what to expect from this sequel. I mean, the most awful thing I could have imagined for Nym has happened...how do you come back from that?

I was afraid that Nym would once again shut herself off from everyone, go back to seeing her gift as a curse. But she surprised me. I won't say I agreed with all of her decisions, but she did what she could handle and what she was capable of. Until Draewulf turned the tables on her and took any hope she might have had. And still she persevered.

Nym finds herself in an even worse predicament than in the last book, and she's got a new group of friends -- though that's probably not the word I'd use for Lord Miles! -- to help her out of it. Miles is a smarmy son-of-a-bitch, but he makes himself helpful, I'll give him that. But if you remember him from the first book, you know that his intentions probably aren't all that admirable. Rasha's are, though. She tries to keep Nym on the straight and narrow, to not let her succumb to the darkness that threatens to pull her under.

But Nym is single-minded and she refuses to let Draewulf win, not when he's already taken so much from her. I adore Nym's stone-cold determination, even in the face of almost certain failure. She's impulsive and rash, but she DOES learn from her mistakes. And she tries her utmost to remain the girl she was when this all began. It does help that one aspect -- something relevant to that cliffhanger in book one -- continues to give her hope.

That same aspect felt a little...contrived? Convenient? I get it...in a world full of magic and power, anything is possible, and so it's fitting to an extent. And I'm honestly not complaining because without that element of the story, even my hope for Nym and her world would have vanished. But it felt too easy. Which is rather horrible of me, considering that Nym hasn't had an easy go of it AT ALL in these books. So,yeah, don't mind me...I'm just a bitter shrew who needs characters to experience loads of pain and torture before all is said and done. :P

That said, a much better ending is to be had in this follow-up to Storm Siren. Not nearly the cliffhanger as before, much darker, too, but still plenty of world to be saved. And Nym is just the girl to do it. She's proved that she can overcome the darkness. Now she just has to come to terms with her new place in the world. I can't wait to see how that goes!

GIF it to me straight:

Something tells me you do not want to make this girl mad.

About the author:

Mary Weber is a ridiculously uncoordinated girl plotting to take over make-believe worlds through books, handstands, and imaginary throwing knives. In her spare time, she feeds unicorns, sings 80’s hairband songs to her three muggle children, and ogles her husband who looks strikingly like Wolverine. They live in California, which is perfect for stalking L.A. bands, Joss Whedon, and the ocean.

Find Mary:

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