Review: Storm Siren (Storm Siren #1) by Mary Weber

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Storm Siren by Mary Weber

My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Received: NetGalley
Publication Date: August 19th 2014
Publisher: Thomas Nelson / HarperCollins
Pacing: very slow
POV: 1st person & female

BLURB:

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.

REVIEW:

Well, this is awkward. Every one of my friends who read this book either liked it or loved it. Sigh, I guess we all feel this way from time to time.

…Right?

description

Alright then, let me explain you why this book didn’t capture my heart.

First off, I can’t go on without saying that I had a feeling about this book. Somehow, I felt like I wouldn’t enjoy it, and yes I admit that the cover had to do with it. At first glance, I didn’t like the cover at all but, then, the more I looked at it, the more I got curious about the actual story and learned to appreciate that girl in a long white dress seeming to fight nothing but, a forest perhaps?

The most gigantic problem of this story, in my opinion, is that it doesn’t contain any atmosphere. You see, there are some heavy or strong/important subjects in this book but, while reading about those, I felt…nothing. Same thing happened for The Girl from the Well (although I did like that one A BIT more.)

Also, there is a serious lack of world-building. It’s as if the author thought we already know EVERYTHING about the creatures and magic and the war. And she didn’t even bother describing us the characters in detail, tell us some information about them that could make them endearing to us, except for Nym’s (main character) parents who died. That’s about all we know about her and that she had many masters for she is a slave and killed a lot of people with her gift to make storms appear.

I was also very deceived by the romance. I’m not sure if I should call it a love-triangle since the second guy, Colin, is actually a player. Even though he was nice to Nym, he still tried to seduce her and I couldn’t help but not feel bad for him being rejected and loose interest in his character.

Then there’s the actual love interest, Eogan. I was sure I would fall in love with that guy…but then I kind of felt tired of the author always describing him as very handsome. Superficiality can annoy me when there is too much of it.

Plus, he kept pushing and pushing Nym in better controlling her power. I mean, I can understand that it’s important for him and everyone since there is a war to start and she is supposed to be apart of it, but he wasn’t romantic, sweet or swoon-worthy in the other scenes either.

Finally, the writing didn’t appeal to me. There were many times when I felt like some sentences were cut in two to make an effect probably. It felt like trying too hard and that’s one of the reasons why my reading experience wasn’t pleasant.

So…yeah, I didn’t like this book, unfortunately, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t either!

Would you consider voting for this review on Goodreads, if it was helpful? ^_^

37 thoughts on “Review: Storm Siren (Storm Siren #1) by Mary Weber”

  1. I love that cover, but after I read your own opinion about it I wondered why I loved it automatically – and the answer is Frozen. The cover looks like Elsa in her glorious ice dress. I couldn’t believe I’d been hoodwinked like that! I wonder if it was deliberate? I kind of expect lots of girls would buy the book based on the cover alone, and I might’ve too, which kind of makes me sad about my superficiality. If you didn’t find the book exciting, I don’t think I’ll be picking it up.

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    • I think you may be right about Elsa…and I do love Frozen but Nym is not quite like Elsa. 😛 Lol, hey, I’m superficial too about the cover of books, except if it’s a classic, then whatever. 😉 No, unfortunately, I thought it was pretty boring and VERY slow. Not what I expected. 😦

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  2. Thanks for the review! I stumbled upon this book on Goodreads, and it sounded pretty interesting. Sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy it :/ I may rethink reading this one, especially because there’s no world-building. I don’t like info-dumps, but at least that’s better than not knowing what’s going on!

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  5. I like the cover. Makes me curious about the plot but with that rating, I don’t think I’ll be even pick this up if ever I see it.

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  6. I saw your rating and I was like oh noes. *cries in heap* I loved this one and it’s one of my favorite reads this year but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore because I still do. I really liked the worldbuilding and the writing. Eogan appealed to me because he’s not a book pleaser but that’s just me and we’re all entitled to our own opinions. Thanks for the honesty, Lola! *cries again*

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    • XD haaa, I was sure you would have this kind of reaction! Wow, one of your favorite reads this year? WOW. I saw your review on Goodreads as well as on your blog so I do know that you loved it. Glad you still love me 😉 *pats you on the back* Be strong, Sarah, be strong.

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    • Thank you! And for stopping by my blog as well. I love meeting new bloggers so I hope we’ll get the chance to interact again. I’m glad when I realize that I’m not the only superficial person regarding book cover, haha 😉 I don’t know if you’ve seen the one for The Storybook of Legends, but it’s so pretty. *.*

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  10. This happened to me with Throne of Glass Lola! I think I was the only person who struggled a touch with that one (though I’m madly in love with the series now), and it’s always extra frustrating when a book everyone else seems to love just doesn’t grab you. Sorry this one didn’t work out, but hopefully the next one on your list makes up for it!

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    • Really?? Wow. I mean, Throne of Glass was my first read in English so I did struggle with it as well but then when I think of the story and characters, I see that it was pretty good. I just had to look over the dictionnary too much but other than that my reading experience was fine. Thanks Jenny! 😀

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  11. Oh no. Hahahaha. You already know that I really like this one. Sad that the “romance” didn’t work out for you. It was weird but for me it was one of the strongest points of the book. But oh well, I might have been biased because I was really not in the mood for romance while I was reading the book. And what the author has offered was, to say the least, unusual.

    Fab review, Lola!

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  12. I’ve heard so many spectacular things about this one but i’m with you here I was not a fan of the cover when I first saw it. It’s part of the reason why i didn’t request it. But the more really good reviews for this one I read the more I wanted to give it a shot. But now i’m not so sure. I love fantasy but i’m very picky with the genre and knowing that you weren’t satified with the world building has me on edge. MAJOR red flag for me. Oh well! Lovely review

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    • Major red flag indeed! I was actually warned by reading so many reviews but they all said the character were great and fantastic twists and turns so had to give it a try. I had to read like 5 praising reviews before deciding to request it, hahaha. Thanks Lily! xx

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  13. The cover doesn’t exactly make me want to read this book, either. And with the issues you had with it, I don’t think I would like it. I actually haven’t seen any other reviews for this book, so I didn’t really have any thoughts about it before reading your review.

    And it’s always kind of frustrating when everyone loves a book and you end up not liking it. It makes me feel like I read it wrong or something, even though that’s not even possible (i think). 🙂

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    • Yes, you perfectly got it! It makes me feel as if maybe I wasn’t in the right mood or reading it without, you know, trying to feel something? XD At the same time I think it’s up to the author to make us feel something. Well, in my opinion, you’re not missing anything. HA. 😛

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  16. Ehhh the summary sounds a bit like been there done that, so I wasn’t all that interested in reading it. Too bad it wasn’t for you Lola! Hope your next read is better!

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  18. Hm. The synopsis doesn’t sound too original, in my opinion, but it is terrible when everyone else LOVES a book and you just…don’t. I don’t think I’ll bother with this one, but thank you for the great review.

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