Siren by Tricia Rayburn

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of everything--the dark, heights, the ocean--but her fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to coach her through every challenge. That is until Justine goes cliff diving one night near the family's vacation house in Winter Harbor, Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day.

Vanessa's parents want to work through the tragedy by returning to their everyday lives back in Boston, but Vanessa can't help feeling that her sister's death was more than an accident. After discovering that Justine never applied to colleges, and that she was secretly in a relationship with longtime family friend Caleb Carmichael, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor to seek some answers.

But when Vanessa learns that Caleb has been missing since Justine's death, she and Caleb's older brother, Simon, join forces to try to find him, and in the process, their childhood friendship blossoms into something more.

Soon it's not just Vanessa who is afraid. All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes home to a string of fatal, water-related accidents . . . in which all the victims are found grinning from ear to ear.

As Vanessa and Simon probe further into the connections between Justine's death and the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance, and that will change her life forever.

Review:

If you've been a long-time reader of my blog, you'll know that I've been looking forward to reading this book for quite awhile now, since the cover was eye-catching and the premise seemed mysterious (and I do like my mysteries, you know). So when the chance came up to read an early copy of it, I jumped at, and I'm so glad I did!  Since while Siren didn't always live up to expectations, it still was one book that proved to be an exciting and un-put-a-down-able guilty pleasure!

Vanessa is a character who to put it lightly seems to be afraid of everything. Water, heights, life... you name it and she'll probably be at least a wee bit afraid of it, but when it came to her sister's death, she puts aside her own fears and became a fighter with only one mission. That mission? Find out who killed her sister along with all those other men.

While sometimes I was put down by the fact that Vanessa constantly let her fears get the better part of her, I did like her. I could feel her sorrow for loosing her sister too soon radiate off the page, as well as her exciting non-friendship feelings for the alluring, brilliant Simon. And seeing her find out the mystery behind her sister's death made me proud of her in a way that I wasn't before. Also her friendship with Paige was anther aspect of this book that I enjoyed because it was easy to see what great of friends they were given the short amount of time.

The plot of this was also proved to have me hooked, as it will any reader who loves mysteries, siren stories, and romance. I was always rushing through the pages, eager to find out what happened to Justine and whether or not Simon and Vanessa would ever get together, as well if the two of them would ever overcome each road-block thrown in the way to figure out the mystery. Though I felt that some of it could have been better explained, especially in the last few chapters were everything seemed to be a rush of excitement with no real, logical explanation. Though don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this story, but I felt that it would've been better if explained.

Overall, Siren proves to be an easy, light read that will be perfect read for the summer season, since it does drop on July 13. And the ending has left me with the hope that there will be sequel, thankfully.

Grade: B-

Siren will be released July 13, 2010.

Source: Around The World Tour