{AD|GIFTED} SING ME TO SLEEP tells the tale of the last siren in Keirdre and her new role as bodyguard to the Crown Prince. Saoirse appears to be irritable, aloof, and arrogant but she represses a lot of her emotions due to self-loathing and the numerous secrets she is forced to keep. She's also a murderer (and sometimes an assassin) thanks to her irresistible Siren nature luring her to kill. It's hard not to feel sorry for a child/teenager left without any kind of training to control her impulses though.

I loved the relationship between Saoirse and her sister Rain. Both are adopted by a Fae couple and both are viewed as lesser beings. The dynamic between Saoirse and her parents was also fascinating as they both love and, at times, fear her because of the choices she makes. I look forward to seeing if this is developed more in the next book as they sometimes fail to realise how difficult it must be for Saoirse to navigate life as a Siren without any guidance or even any knowledge of the history of her species.

As Saoirse grows closer to Prince Hayes, she also finds herself in danger of losing her heart. Together they search for a murderer threatening the royal family which is made all the more difficult as Saoirse is the culprit. The reader knows her secrets will eventually be revealed and this drives the tension as you turn the pages. The final chapters set the story for book two and it looks like the world-building will be expanding as Saoirse travels far away on a mission. This was an action-packed story populated by memorable characters and rich world-building.

Hands down, my favourite YA fantasy of the year... and in a while. It has everything I enjoy in a book with an interesting take on one of my favourite mythical creates. Cannot wait for the sequel!

This started off strong and ended just as strong. This had so many good aspects to it, despite being the fourth fae book I've read in basically a row. This was original, had a morally grey MC, and she wasn't annoying in the slightest. I can't wait to see where the sequel is going to go, seems like the world will expand a lot and I can't wait. I love the friendship between her and Jeune, I like how it was different to the typical female female rivalry I expected at the start

𝑩𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒚. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈.

Firstly I’d like to give my thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!Sing Me to Sleep is a brilliant YA fantasy debut from Gabi Burton featuring morally grey chracters, murder mystery, royalty and sirens! The premise of this book really intrigued me, and after reading this arc I was not disappointed! The highlight of this book for me was our main character, Saoirse! Saoirse is a siren who must keep her identity hidden in a kingdom where her very existence is illegal. Her character is absolutely fascinating- she is a really great example of a morally grey character. She is extremely clever and has a fierce love for her family (particularly her little sister) which makes her a really admirable character. However at the same time Saoirse battles her constant urge to kill and desire sing men to their deaths- she is literally a murderer yet you can sympathise with her because she has to constantly repress her nature as a siren and has nobody else in her life to guide her on how to control her natural urges. Saoirse is a brilliantly complex main character and I think she’s definitely one of my favourite ya fantasy heroines now! Also, the fact that she, and the majority of the characters, are all black is so great- it’s great to see more diverse characters in the ya genre! There’s also LGBTQ+ rep, which I’m sure everyone will appreciate!

Another thing I adored about this book was the world building. The world is full of mythical creatures- fae, witches, sirens and so many more. This world is dominated by the fae- all other species oppressed and some are even eliminated entirely (such as sirens.) It is a very interesting society, I would love to see more of it and how it develops in the second book! The magic systems in this book were easy to understand and unique- they really helped immerse you in this magical world! I loved the mystery in the plot, I didn’t see the twists coming and I thought it was done really well. The pacing is excellent and made the book nearly impossible to stop reading!

Of course, it wouldn’t be YA without romance and that brings me to our male MC, Hayes. I liked him for the most part- a relatively carefree, soft and sheltered princeling who has lost hope of ever inheriting his throne due to his tyrannical father. He worked well in the story- his personality contrasted nicely with Saoirse’s which gave the pair an entertaining dynamic. The only thing that sort of bothered me about this book is how Hayes is so infatuated and trusting towards Saoirse despite barely knowing her- yet Saoirse (who is shown to be a clever and talented seductress) is absolutely oblivious to it. Hayes naivety and blindness to things going on around him was frustrating at times- but I also get that he was sheltered and kept in the dark about a lot of things.

Overall this was an enthralling book, I would 100% recommend it to anyone who loves YA! Gabi Burton has done an amazing job at creating a gripping, magical story that draws you in like a sirens song- you won’t be able to put this book down!

Saoirse is a siren, but her people have been hunted and killed to the point of extinction by the wicked Fae king so her identity must remain a secret. However, a blackmail plot leads to her acting as bodyguard to the spoiled Prince and caught in a web of lies that she may struggle to untangle herself from ...

This book is such a brilliant, absorbing fantasy! The world building is perfect, and I fell head over heels for Saoirse, the morally grey, conflicted and nuanced MC of my dreams. Absolutely and whole heartedly loved this book.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

<i>I received this ARC thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. </i>
TW. Please beaware this book contains lead character k*ll*ng quite some people, and there are few 'seductive' scenes written quite disturbingly.

Well,
I usually do these reviews in more cheerful manner, but the disappointment I have over this particular book prevents me from it. 'The Cruel Prince meets To Kill a Kingdom'? I think I've read a different book.

I don't want to sound like a hater, but I feel like the book didn't deliver what it's promised to the reader. AND included some pretty disturbing plot points. I guess anyone checking the reviews knows the synopsis or at least has a rough concept over what this book is about. We get mediocre ya-fantasy story about one of a kind FL (Female Lead) and princeling ML (Male Lead). FL is a siren, last of her kind, and althou I was aware of that, the amount of... underwater type of content present made me reconsider the species we're talking about. The author focused on her luring-by-singing skill, but completely abandoned the 'under the sea' concept. Yes, the FL has to live in disguise but we'd still be given some splish-splash content. Instead we're simply told even presence of water makes FL go wild and it's a nono 90% of time. The rest 10% FL indeed goes wild, listens to water's simple command 'k*ll' and goes berserk on sometimes whoever's nearby. Yes, I do enjoy books with darker themes and even darker characters, close to lead characters being the villain, but here? We get clearly red flag FL which is described of more like a soft-morally-grey character because 'I do this all for my sister!! :('. Excuse me lady, I saw close to noneexistent character development to agree on the 'grey' aspect of your personality. The only moment Saoirse felt any bit human to me was when she was randomly betrayed by someone close, thou the 'villain reveal' itself didn't quite make sense to me so I didn't even shed a tear, sadly. Also I know she's meant to be tough and badass, but the way she's expressing herself made me quite opposed to enjoying her as the teller of the story.

On the other hand we get heavenly handsome ML, the only living prince to the ruling royals over a closed society consisting of different elemental faes, creatures which are same but magicless, and humans who're just lowly servants. All the other magical species are either opressed or... gone bloody way. Ofc ML father is descibed as personification of every bad trait one could have to lead to opressed country he rules, and on the contrary prince seems like perfect soon-to-be-leader that could change how things are with a snap of his finger ASAP he gets the crown. And he's instantly fascinated by FL because why not, it's YA. Skipping some part of the story where FL becomes his new guard to raise more money for her family and survive threats given on her by mysterious predator, we get FL being still red flag as ever, k*ll*ng even someone very close to the prince, still incognito in her assasinations, prince is deep in courting her. On the contrary FL is focused on her mission only, stupidly naive to his advances (really, at the very beginning of the book she's a perfect seducer at random clubs to get her preys fall under her spell, and now she can't understand he has big crush on her - hard to believe). Even so, quite moral out of her considering she's k*ll*ng off his kin one by one and keeping the 'they mass m*rdered my kind they need to pay!!!'. Thou the morality quickly dies over, as when (kinda spoiler but expected because the reveal is needed for plot to move forward lol) she's revealed as the assasin, she still demands ML to help her in her scheme because HER SISTER needs to be rescued. So it should cancel all her crimes, at least just for this moment, because it's all for her sisterrr ;--;. All I can say, poor boy he is. As he mentions later, he can't stand being mad at her as it breaks his heart. Dear Hayes, please, get some help.

The conclusion to this book makes me question if the author just couldn't decide on best way to finish stuff happening and discovered a perfect solution - le sequel, opening pandora's box completely unnecessary for the story to be done IMO. This book could've been saved by remaining a standalone, having dark ending for the FL but actually settling her crimes properly, not some lovey-dovey 'hope never dies' ending we got.

The idea was there, it had potential, but the poor execution, unlikeable characters (except maybe Hayes, I am ready to help with a fundraiser for his therapy over family trauma and stockholm syndrome), and very chaotic story made me as disappointed as you can see in this review. I was able to read the whole book, and after like 100 pages it was readable enough to get quite fast through it so my final rating is 2/5. I know it's just a debut of Gabi Burton, so I'm wishing her all the best she'd get better with time and get what it takes to tell her tales with bit more sparkle.

I started reading with lot of hopes, I was hooked by the story, how Saoirse's siren skills were done, etc. Then I lost bit by bit my interest due to the very slow pacing and a big chunck of the book felt like they were just puting bases and weren't that important, on top of being very repetitive on Saoirse's procedure to kill (there's words repeted, the writing style "first instinct: that / what I do: this" started bothering me the 5th time, or repeting stuff we learned 3 pages ago).

It went down up to the middle of the book, when FINALLY happens what's said in the blurb: Saoirse needing to help Prince Hayes investigate the murders she's responsible for. But sadly after the 50% mark, how interesting it was couldn't put back my esteem for Saoirse who succeeded boring me even with her character. And that's very sad because the actions and revelations at the ending were worth it, they fastened the pace, the story was finally captivating. But it was too late to put up the pacing and my liking for the book. And while the ending opens on a pretty intriguing thing for the next book, I don't think I'll be reading it.

The story was overall really interesting and can be appreciated by those who don't mind the "70% contemplating 30% action". Saoirse was interesting overall by I disliked her, hated how she kept repeting some thoughts and hated her obsession for her little sister. Hayes was so nice and loved him, but I'm sad how he acted with Saoirse's revelations, as it changes his character...


PS: there were 2 things bothering me.
1st is while we're inside Saoirse's head as 1st person POV, we're hidden her little sister Rain's species, and it's just super frustrating because we're supposed to understand Saoirse's fear for her, why she acts that way to protect her, but we can't understand it as we learn it just in the very end?? I don't understand why it's so important to hide it from us, readers, especially when we're in Saoirse's head and when big parts of the plot is supposed to hide that "secret" we don't know about.
2nd is, why and how can Saoirse know her eyes glows and become brighter etc? There's no explanation with her power (it could be easily explained if she feels the change, for example), so how can she know that when she never looks at a mirror or when she's into full action....

Loved how this debut fantasy makes you admire a morally grey siren for her desperation to keep a loved one safe while falling for a swoony prince she shouldn't protect in a prejudiced world she must be against. Full review will be posted on the blog on May 05th, 2023 and will be updated here too.

Sing Me To Sleep is a wonderfully magical new YA fantasy featuring sirens, romance and lots of action! It is Gabi Burton's debut book and I really enjoyed it. The morally grey main character, Saoirse, is a complex and entertaining character. The romance was very sweet and Hayes was the most adorable love interest ever! I loved the world building and thought it was very captivating. I don't read much YA these days so I found this book the be very refreshing and enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sing Me to Sleep was not for me. I was excited to start reading it because of the beautiful cover, and the synopsis sounded good too, but it didn't pull me in. I was hopeful after the first chapter, but the more I read, the more I felt indifferent. I was bored. The world-building wasn't interesting enough for me. Saoirse as the main character could have been interesting, but all her personality was to protect Rain and hate the royals.
The struggle between her instincts to kill, and the expectations of her loved ones were the only things that were interesting in her. I wouldn't say she was a morally grey character.
The writing style was not my favorite either. It was often repetitive. In the beginning, Saoirse mentioned the same conclusion about the blackmailer at least three times within a few pages. And I don't know how she knows when her eyes are flesh silver when she can't see herself, but it was mentioned a lot, and it became boring very quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an eARC copy. All thoughts are my own.

Initial Thoughts
Sing Me To Sleep is one of those stories you can enjoy as is. It has fantastic elements of magic, a morally grey FMC, enrichening world-building and great twists and turns along the way. However, the further I spent within the pages, I grew eager for more.

What's great about this book?
- It was refreshing that a fantasy brimming with magical creatures, such as elemental fae, sirens, and witches, could be engaging with the same twists and turns we expect from other fantasy novels without a single element of whiteness to the cast.
- The world-building is intriguing from the start. The kingdom of Keirdre is as deadly as it is enchanting, with factions between those who inhabit it. I liked the multi-faceted nuances of this setting, and how the main character, Saoirse, felt as if she didn't truly have a place in this world, due to being a hidden siren. I was impressed with the overall lore and felt as if the imagery was very easy to grasp at any given point in the read.
- I love that Saoirse is morally grey. This, coupled with the very YA tone since she is only seventeen, created a complex character who held very different standards than other more likable characters around her. I appreciated that she is prickly, especially with Prince Hayes, and has trouble trusting others, and even herself throughout. The warring between her feeling like a monster and embracing her siren calls was very well done.
- The storyline is good. I liked trying to guess things along the way, and whilst I did predict most of it, there were a couple of twists that caught me off guard, which I enjoyed. I also liked the tension that was built through the storyline of Saoirse being the killer she's tasked to find and how she navigated dealing with the pressure.
- The romance was just okay. I didn't hate or love it. I adore Hayes as the MMC, and love his golden retriever-like personality, especially when he has every placement for undermining the throne and Saoirse's ruse. He is uncomplicated, which contrasts Saoirse well.
- I also appreciated the side characters and the delicate balance between trust, connection and friendship for Saoirse with them.

Things I didn't quite enjoy
- There's a lot of convenience to this story, which is the main reason I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. Every time I'd get excited about something happening, the answer would come in a very convenient manner to aid a quicker path for Saoirse or the characters around her, which didn't acknowledge the rather valid consequences this convenience could have for the characters and plot. It weakened the fantastic concept of this world too many times for me to brush it off, sadly.
- Whilst I enjoyed Saoirse's character growth the longer I read on, I did struggle a lot with her and got quite exasperated at times. I liked that her morally ambiguous nature led to her doing a lot of this learning through making the wrong decisions and being reckless, but it felt a little too much at times and I really couldn't get on board with some of the really dramatic choices she made. She's very manipulative, which given her siren abilities makes sense, but I found it wasn't until you get more of a picture of her past, and her reasoning for coddling her sister Rain, that she made more sense overall. This doesn't happen within the first 60% of the book, so it was challenging to sit through her actions at times with little to no consequence.
- The pacing is either too slow or too fast for the first half of the book, and it's jarring. There is a lot of info-dumping, especially within the first 40%, that isn't placed well and makes the story dry at times. Whilst some of it was needed, it came at odd times, or when I really wanted to know something, it was moving too fast onto the next scene and it wasn't answered well enough.

Final thoughts
This truly could have been something spectacular. In saying that, it's still a wonderfully entrancing YA fantasy, and I'm looking forward to reading book two in the series.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sing Me To Sleep is a fantastical tale of a siren in a world that wants her dead, steeped in African-influenced culture and boasting a whole cast of memorable and likable characters.

What I loved:

- The world building had me intrigued from the get go, and kept me curious throughout
- The magical system had a lot of layers - witch magic, elemental fae magic and other creatures too
- The FMC is truly morally grey and a killer - she also reads like an accurate 17-year-old, which I hugely appreciate in YA
- I really enjoyed the diversity of the cast

What knocked a star off:

- At times the plot felt like it was dragging a little and didn't really pick up pace until the last 20% of the book
- Something about the delivery was at times a bit off
- Sometimes things felt a bit too convenient

All in all, this is a solid start to a series and has given me enough that I'm very interested to read the next book and see what happens next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WOW WOW WOW!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy.

I don’t think I have the words to explain how much I LOVED this book. This is honestly my favourite book of the year so far and I am already so excited for book two.

The world building is incredible, it eases you into it with such amazing descriptions but also moves the plot along at the same time.

Within the kingdom of Kierdre you have Fae being Water, Earth, Air and Fire, witches, sirens and lots more which play a crucial part in the story.

The main character Saoirse is your stereotypical morally grey character who does everything she can to prove herself worthy. The other main character is Hayes, a prince, who gives off the most incredible golden retriever energy. I love all the characters and the dynamic between them.

I would definitely recommend this book if you love:

👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻Grumpy/ sunshine
🗡️Action scenes
🧜🏼‍♀️Sirens
🧙‍♀️Fae
🗺️World Building
🫨Plot twist
🧗‍♀️Cliffhanger

Whilst the story was fast paced, and the world building was vivid, I struggled to stay invested in the story, mostly because I didn't have a particular favourite character. I liked that saoirse was morally grey, as it kept the book interesting and added a lot of tension to the story, but a lot of the book felt repetitive, and the character development struggled due to that.

The concept of the book was unique, and I did enjoy the overall story but it wasn't as exciting as I was hoping it would be.

I looooved this book! I never knew who was trustworthy. The main character is flawed (literally kills people) and the author made me love her anyway. Great writing and world building. A very fast paced and enjoyable read. Not a dull moment

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the arc of Sing me to Sleep by Gabi Burton in exchange for my honest and unbiased review..

If you loved Daughter of the Pirate King, To Kill a Kingdom or even The Cruel Prince, you will definitely want to read this book. It is as dark, sultry and seductive as a siren’s song.

Saoirse, is a siren who has lived her whole life with her adoptive parents and sister, hiding her true identity. She lives a dual life, academy trainee by day, her goal to graduate 1st and gain a placement that will bring financial security protection for her sister and parents, and siren assassin by night.

However, not everything goes to plan and Saoirse finds herself entering service as the crown prince’s guard. From this point the plot really grows, building layers of world and character building. Is Saoirse morally grey? Or can protecting yourself and your family within a corrupt society be deemed justified?

The world building for this book is cleverly done, creating a Kingdom overseen by a dominating and unjust king, discrimination against those who are not Fae, and established within a barrier that prevents entry and escape.

The characters are a mix of shades of grey, all with their own agenda that adds to the rich and interesting mix of this world, it’s politics and plots, plus there’s an enemies to lovers romance that is handled deftly, gradually developing and growing but, also appropriate to the plot.

If you’re looking for your next series, love mermaids and sirens, complex relationships, plots and politics, then this is the book for you. It was for me, and now I’m just waiting for book 2!

I absolutely loved this novel. Gripped me from the first page. I enjoyed everything about it.
Well written and I can't wait to read more from Gabi.

Thank you netgalley, the publishers and the author for letting me read this novel

4⭐️

This was so good!! I absolutely loved this, even though it took me a few chapters to get into it. I’m assuming there’s going to be a book two, and I do think I’d pick it up! It didn’t quite capture my heart, so that’s why it’s 4 and not 5 star for me. I’ve not read anything by this author before but I loved their writing style, it was so immersive!

My only real complaint is that this is marketed as YA and I think this more of a NA or Adult book just because of the mature themes—at the very least it’s very upper YA.

I’ve honestly been indecisive about giving 5 🌟 to this book because I honestly didn’t like the romance, but I loved everything else that in the end I decided for the max rate. First of all, I definitely need more books with mermaids because they make incredibly interesting and complicated characters. Saoirse knows she is a monster and that killing is wrong, but her nature makes it inevitable for her. She is very grumpy and protective with the people she loves even if it is almost impossible to trust others completely because she can’t reveal her true nature. Mermaids shouldn’t be present inside the barrier and she definitely doesn’t want to be discovered by the handsome prince that has given her a job as his personal guard. I say that I didn’t like the romance because basically for the prince it is love at first sight and he does everything to please her without the real connection that should be created in a relationship. Plus he is not even a prince that does everything to fight his father’s injustices, he know they are wrong but he doesn’t even care enough to act on it.. Saoirse on the other hand is a character I love because she is so very real, she struggles to contain her nature, she fails but you can see the good in her and you are inevitably connected. Of course, plot twists make the story even more good and it’s the kind of book where there’s not clear good and evil, everything has a mix of both as it happens in life and that’s what attracted me to it.
I really want to read the sequel because I’m curious to see more of the world in which the story is set.

From page one, this story lures you in like a Siren Song. It's mesmerizing, fast paced and keeps you on your toes.
If you think you know Sirens, you'll probably be surprised reading this book. Saoirse is indeed unique, in both her struggles and her affection. A truly interesting character you can't help but both root and fear for her despite her dark side.
There is exposition for this rich world in the first few chapters, but it's so cleverly strewn in that it didn't bother me at all. And then the story just unravels from there. Once the oh-so-handsome prince arrives, I had feared that Saoirse would lose her agenda and her edge, but it isn't the case at all. In fact, their relationship is quite interesting.
The book plays with many intriguing ideas, like the fact that Saoirse can taste emotions. Or that the Siren Song is both her weapon and her undoing.
I enjoyed the book very much, and there's potential for many more stories to come in this world.
4,5/5 stars
Thank you @netgalley and @hodderbooks for the eARC!
#SingMetoSleep