Audiobook publishing March 4

This is more than dual timelines, it's also dual realities. The tale of sisters sent as convicts to Australia via ship in the 1800s and the story of Lucy, escaping university in 2019 after trying to strangle a man while sleepwalking, both start out believably and then transform into something more supernatural.

There are some fantastic moments of women saving themselves, and I did leave the book feeling that it made for an empowering read. I did find myself struggling, though, with the overlap of the stories. It was difficult for me to tell what was what for a chunk of this one.

Barrie Kreinik's narration was exquisite, as always!

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

If you liked Wayward, this one is even better. Much like this author’s other book, The Sirens focuses on the ways in which men can harm women and the women in this story find the opportunity fight back. Following characters in the past—sisters on a convict ship—and a present day woman fleeing her university after an incident and her missing sister. The women all have a skin condition, and there is a mystery as to how the stories are connected. The unspoken question of if mermaids are real really drives the story.

The Sirens is a stunning book about female strength and resilience. It's told in two timelines, that were interconnected in a thoughtful way. The story follows Mary and Eliza in the 1800s and Lucy and Jess in 2019. All of the women suffer from a skin condition when they come into contact with water, but still feel drawn to the water. I loved the strength and sisterly bond shared by Mary and Eliza. Lucy had a strained relationship with her sister, Jess and I enjoyed seeing their story play out. I absolutely loved the folklore surrounding mermaids that was included. The writing was gorgeous and lyrical. The story was a bit slow paced at times, but was full of intrigue and I found myself immersed in the story.

I listened to the audio and really enjoyed the narrator, Barrie Kreinik. Even though there were multiple timelines, it was easy to follow and distinct accents were used which was impressive.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advance copies.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book!

I have never read anything by Emilia Hart, so I did not know what to expect going into this read. Her book Weyward has been on my TBR and this has bumped it up to the top of the list.

Hart has perfected the balance between fantasy and reality with this book. The first half of the book I did not know whether to be a little bit scared or intrigued, so I was both. The way Hart tied the stories of Lucy, Jess, Mary, and Eliza together was a work of art. This book kept me on my toes, and I definitely did not expect the plot twist.

The Sirens is a haunting and melancholy tale of sisterhood. Two sisters from the present are linked to two sisters from the past. In present day, Lucy is looking for her sister Jess after a traumatic event at her college. In the past, sisters Eliza and Mary are bound on a convict ship heading to Australia. As the story progresses, Lucy discovers that there is more to Jess than she ever knew. Can the sisters find each other in time? Will Eliza and Mary escape their fate?

The Sirens swept me away! The story is atmospheric and I felt like I was walking along the coast with Lucy as she followed in Jess’ footsteps. Lucy and Jess have a complicated relationship with a major twist, which I thought was written well. As the sisters from the past dealt with their secrets on the ship and made connections with the other prisoners, I also learned about the real life bloody history of the convict ships. Emilia Hart writes beautifully about the danger and lure of the ocean. Water is something that connects us across generations and I loved how all of the women found safety in some way in the water. I listened to the audiobook and was spellbound by the narrator. Readers who enjoy stories about sisterhood, the power of water, and atmospheric writing will love The Sirens.

Thank you to Emilia Hart, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc.

You know those books you read that just feel like they become a part of you? This is one of those. A beautiful piece of magical realism, if you loved Weyward (Emilia Hart), Thistlefoot (GennaRose Nethercott), or Remarkably Bright Creatures (Shelby Van Pelt), you will absolutely love this one.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart follows the stories of two families - one broken apart when twin sisters Mary and Eliza are taken from their home and shipped across the sea as a punishment for their crimes, the other riddled with secrets as daughters Jess and Lucy try to untangle their pasts, and the reason their dreams are haunted by ghosts. It's a haunting story of parental love, of pain, and of the fierce strength, courage, and beauty in the face of the world's ugliness that binds women together.

I couldn't stop listening to this one. The narration was perfect, Barrie Kreinik does an amazing job of switching between voices and giving life to the characters, making it easy to tell which story in the dual timelines she is telling. Her singing is lovely too, and brings the feeling of the story's song to life.

The Sirens broke my heart, mended it, healed me, and made me feel a deep connection to the women around me and those who came before. An easy 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for a review!

Oof, I had a hard time getting into this one. I still wanted to know what would happen next, but I didn't love the way the multiple perspectives were done. The story was good, but this audiobook took me a surprising amount of time to finish. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillian Audio for this arc.

It's my first time reading women's fiction. In my opinion, it's a great experience, definitely not what I was expecting, and the three stories came out together beautifully in the end. The narration is so good and the voice actress can really sing

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I've always wanted to read "Weyward" but I didn't have the chance to read it yet. However, now I have the opportunity to listen to this beautiful audiobook thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio 💋

This was such an emotional and beautiful book. It was incredibly atmospheric, the eeriness of it highlighting the harshness of the female experiences narrated. I felt fascinated watching their stories unfold, following the thread tugging me on, leading to the reveal – which is easy to guess, but still so satisfying as a way to dissolve the emotional tension and finally reach a more peaceful stage of the characters’ lives.
The coldness, the darkness and dampness of the sea and caves permeated the entire story from beginning to end. Was it creepy? Often. But the narrator of the audiobook kept me thoroughly spelled. And the strength of the sisterhood made me root for all these women all along. Maybe this book wouldn’t have hit this hard without the incredible job done by the narrator, but she really made it an other-worldly experience; which was honestly so strange to reconcile with the very realness of the terrible experiences all the female characters went through, but still, amazingly, worked so well for me.
I will say however that I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more of an explanation for the sleepwalking. I had built such theories about that, that I felt let down that this wasn’t really explained.

After attacking her ex while sleepwalking, Lucy flees to her sister's house on the coast of New South Wales. But Jess is missing and Jess's paintings reflect the strange dreams Lucy has been having. Lucy dreams of two exiled Irish sisters sailing from England to Australia. Diving into her sister's past, Lucy begins to worry about Jess and to wonder about her family's past.

Having loved Weyward, I was highly anticipating Emilia Hart's newest book only for it to fall flat for me. Again writing about the injustices women have endured, The Sirens tries to praise the tenacity of women but fails to hook you with its characters. The weak connections between the characters and the constantly shifting timeline didn't feel compelling and I lacked the drive to keep reading. Instead of empowering, the magical realism just felt odd and I struggled to get through this one.

Lucy flees to her sister's seaside house in Comber Bay after getting into some trouble at her university. Lucy has always been different and feels the ocean's call. However, when she arrives at her sister's house, her sister is nowhere to be found. Strange stories and voices surround the history of Comber Bay surrounding the disappearance of her sister with intrigue.

Thank you Emilia Hart and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC copy of this book in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions here are mine and mine alone.

The atmosphere of this book was haunting and lovely, a perfect setting for the story. The dual story lines going from the historical past to the present added a lot to the story, but the lack of a truly gripping plot made the book somewhat bland. I was hoping for more.

The narrator has a wonderful reading voice and I greatly enjoyed listening to her read. I recommend this book to those who are historical fiction fans that love a touch of magical realism.

The Sirens was one of those offerings that demanded I sit with the story a bit before formulating a review. I needed time to think deeply about the themes and the way the story was woven, time also, to decide how an epilogue with a single piece of information might effect all the pages that came before. . The Sirens follows a fleeing Lucy in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic experience at university. She hopes to find Solace in Jess, her mysterious artist of a sister. When Lucy arrives at the small coastal town and the cliff side home that Jess resides in, things complicate further. With Jess nowhere to be found, Lucy begins to unravel a mystery that spans generations and is brimming with whimsy, rage, and lore.

Readers who loved Weyward will fall easily into Hart's newest depiction of the shared female experience. She's deftly woven a tale that is simultaneously nuanced and bold in it's exploration of both feminine rage and, on the softer end, how women hold each other in moments of joy and sorrow. Introspective readers will surely see themselves in at least one of these well crafted characters. The story is paces just perfectly, the plot moved at a swift pace but the evocative atmospheric snippets gave the writing and story room to breathe As a buddy read, The Sirens offered a tale that proved worthy of analysis, wild theories, and some seriously cathartic chatter!

I was luck enough to be able to read and listen to this story. I found the narration to be excellent, giving the story even more depth and intrigue! You can't go wrong with either version of this one!

Having read Weyward, I was excited to see a new feminine focused story. The Sirens follows a more fantasy driven storyline than Weyward but still stays on the theme of connectedness of women across time. You follow two sisters on a boat journey to New South Wales where conditions set a tone for oppression of the time and yet friendships can still be forged. The author parallels this journey with a contemporary timeline of another two sisters who are unraveling a mystery of a physical ailment that plagues them and hidden family knowledge tangled with local folklore about women who were drowned in a ship in the bay. There you start to see where the stories might start to collide. As with Weyward, you jump back and forth in the stories trying to piece together where they are connected. This mystery will not be solved until the end and the descriptive writing will keep you reading on. Although I enjoyed Weyward more, the author matches the feel and complexity of Weyward and I am looking forward to her next.

Wow, wow, what a beautiful, mysterious ride The Sirens was!
I alternated between my kindle and audio and I felt the kindle narration aged up the characters a bit, but was still excellent. (I guess I couldn’t quite figure the ages of all the characters while reading with my eyeballs then I felt kind of shocked by the aged voice of the audio narrator.) This book takes on some tough topics - sexual assault, grooming, cyber-bullying, the historical mistreatment of female “prisoners”(TW) while incorporating beautiful views in a coastal town full of mysteries, flashbacks, and a podcast tackling cold cases.
There were some twists I definitely didn’t see coming and I genuinely couldn’t put this down. It’s real-world mixed with mythology and historical context in a deep, fast-paced entirely important book.

The Sirens is probably one of the most unique stories I have read in a long time. I found it to be a compelling and fascinating tale about sisters told over different time periods. Women whose journey leads them to discover a very unique difference about themselves and learning acceptance.

The story opens up in 2019 with Lucy awakening and find herself in her ex-lover’s room with her hands around his throat. Lately she has not only been sleepwalking but experiences vivid and wild nightmares about sisters and ships. In looking for answers Lucy needs her old sister Jess and escapes to the Cliff House in New South Wales. When she arrives, she finds that Jess is gone, her phone left behind and signs of a male visitor. As Lucy waits, she hears more and more haunting folklore stories of the sunken ship, men gone missing without a trace, a baby abandoned in a seaside cave and mysterious voices of women in the sea. Searching for clues to where Jess could have gone, Lucy finds nineteen year old Jess’s diary of a lonely teenage that always felt different with her rare skin condition called aquagenic urticaria and the affair with a twenty-four year old art teacher.

In 1800, two sisters, Mary and Eliza are forced to leave their home in Ireland on a convict ship heading to Australia. The strong bond of family and sisterhood will provide these two the strength to survive this unknown journey living in deplorable conditions as they witness baffling changes to their bodies and fight for survival .

It is here along the cliffs and sea surrounding Cliff House the stories of these sisters collide providing answers to Jess and Lucy’s heritage, revelation of family secrets, and how the bond of sisterhood and female friendship empowered them to accept what they could not change but made them beautiful.

While I found the story a tad slow in the beginning, I was intrigue. Emilia Hart writes a well-craft and fascinating novel that encompasses a little history, some magical realism and modest amount of mystery. Barre Kreinik was wonderful as the narrator.

Thank you, Emilia Hart, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Last year I read Emilia Harts novel Wayward, at the recommendation of a friend, and was drawn in by the writing and incredible story telling. When I saw that she had another story coming out I knew I was in for another amazing read.

I love the way that she portrays the stories of women, whether they are sisters, friends, or acquaintances. She is able to share the thoughts and emotions and actions of women in a way that pulls at your heart.

Women have historically been treated as lesser than men and looked down upon for their love and support of their fellow women. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times- women believe women. Women need to support women because if we don’t, no one else will.

This is a beautiful story of two sets of women, hundreds of years apart, living and surviving in a world made for men. Women who do whatever they can to help support the other women around them.

I could easily relate to the characters and quickly became attached to them. I was angry with them, for them and I cried for them.

I cannot recommend this beautiful story enough!

Thank you for the eARC!

If you love mermaids, lore, time-jumping, interesting family dynamics, and well-rounded characters, this book is for you!

I really love the premise of The Sirens and the author’s dedication for world building! The twists and turns of this novel kept me reading. It was however, a little slow to start.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover," they say.... but what if the cover is the very thing that draws you to the book?? In this case, this really worked out for me. I read Emilia Hart's first novel and was curious to see her follow up. This book is quite different, but in a way that really worked for me. The alternating timelines wove together in ways that you sort of guessed along the way, but weren't quite sure. This book was beautifully written and the narrator was a 10/10 for me. (Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers (Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press) for an eARC and a listening ARC-- I was lucky enough to have this novel in both formats which allowed me to get LOST in the story and not really do much else until I was done (if I wasn't reading, I was listening).

The Sirens publishes in May and if you're in the mood for something a little different with beautiful writing, this may be just what you're searching for.

They this multiple POV work combines historical fiction, mystery, and magical realism to tell the story of three women finding self confidence in a world where men hold all the power.

This work is split between Irish and Australian POVs and the narrator does a beautiful job switching between these dialects, making the plot much easier to follow.

Fans of Weyward will enjoy this novel, which follows a very similar structure.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for providing me with an advanced listening copy for review purposes.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Like Hart's previous book there is no doubt that she is a wonderful writer. There was great imagery and it was very easy to conjure this book in my head but it fell flat for a few different reasons. I wanted to love this book and the storyline seemed like something I was going to enjoy, but the pacing was dreadfully slow. There wasn't much character building and Lucy was a bit boring to me. I was a struggle to get through this one because nothing really happens that keeps you from putting it down. I pushed on waiting for it to pick up but only the last ten percent of the book really had any excitement. There was so much left unanswered in the storyline and I had the plot figured out pretty quickly. This one just wasn't for me.