Fresh New Voice of YA- Siren by Tricia Rayburn

Siren by Tricia Rayburn
"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."- summary from Amazon

Siren gripped me from the beginning and I found it hard to put the book down, which happened a lot since I read it at work and could only read during breaks and lunch. While you do know who the paranormal creature is, Rayburn does a great job of sucking the reader in to the story with how she describes scenes and Vanessa's voice so that you forget that you know.

I thought it was interesting how Rayburn dealt with the siren mythology as well as the personal histories of the sirens involved. There were also some great twists and turns, especially one that I definitely wasn't expecting. The second half of the book is fantastic and such a page turner. It was very action-packed.

I enjoyed the romance aspect of the story too because I just love romances in most anything. The male love interest was very swoon-worthy and the scenes between them were touching and so romantic. Though one of the problems I had with Vanessa was that she wasn't able to go slap a siren for trying to steal her man. No joke, I was literally like "OMG GO SLAP HER!!" over and over in my head during those scenes. Because sometimes you just gotta slap a bitch.

Anyway, overall, this was a really good book with a very creepy cover. I highly suggest it along with most any Egmont book. I can't wait for the sequels.

FTC: Received ARC at BEA. Link above is Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.