This sweeping, feminist tale weaves together past and present, following two pairs of sisters—one in modern Australia and the other aboard a convict ship in 1788—whose lives seem mysteriously intertwined. Rich in folklore and history, it explores resilience, sisterhood, and the lingering echoes of the past in a gripping and atmospheric narrative.

I really enjoyed this book!

Giving us a different angle on Sirens, this book was both intriguing and beguiling. I loved the characters and the ways in which the author really brought them to life for us readers, and the in depth personalities they each possessed.

The storyline was captivating and had me fully invested throughout.

*Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Emilia Hart for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.*

Thank you for approving me for an early copy of The Sirens. Unfortunately I have not been able to connect with the story in the way I was hoping and for the time being I've set it to one side as it could simply be my reading mood.

If I return to this in a few weeks I will post a full review then.

Again, my thanks.

I seen so many mixed reviews on this one but still went for it as Weyward was so good!

This was fantastic! I adored the writing and the dual storyline. We have 2 sisters who have been shipped from Ireland to Australia after committing a crime back in 1800. Then we have 2 sisters in 2019 finding there way back to each other in Australia. There are secrets, lies and a mystical element to this. Also some diary entries to keep the story flowing.

This is a beautiful and haunting story from Emilia Hart. As in Weyward, she writes about such strong women and their fight for their place in their world.
Each story in The Sirens is an emotional one and each shows the resilience of these women in such a tough world. The links between the three stories were wonderfully written.
I think my favourite was Mary - so young to be sent away on such a voyage and to be aware of the changes happening around and to her must have been so frightening. Her loyalty and resilience shone through at every stage.

⭐⭐⭐.75
I really enjoyed this book. Loved the dark eerie vibes and the mystery that continued to unfold. I really did not expect the book to go in the direction it went it was 100% not what I was expecting, however I still really did enjoy it.

I did find it slightly slow at the beginning, and although it wasn't difficult to get into, I found I lacked some motivation to continue, but once I reached about the halfway mark, I found I really wanted to know what was going to happen and couldn't put it down.

Overall, I did enjoy it, and if you're feeling for a little bit of a mystery with some eerie vibes I'd definitely recommend this.

🎧Audiobook Review🎧

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I want to thank NetGalley for approving me for an ARC of this book. Special shout out to my buddy reading pal @wendyreadsbooks. It was great to read this with you.

Told from multiple POV and spanning many centuries, we are thrown into the lives of Lucy, Jess, Mary and Eliza. I enjoyed getting to know these four chaacegrs throughout the story and kept trying to work out how they were all connected.

Whilst I did guess some of the twists I loved the unravelling of the story and learning about Jess through her diary.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

I struggled getting into this, and my motivation was so bad for a while, and the time jump really didn’t help my focus. When I really got into the story, it was much better, and I got pretty invested. My friend and I had so many theories and probably made this more complicated than it was, but it was fun. That being said, it all felt a bit underwhelming when I was done? It was a fun read, but I just think I expected more out of the story.

3,5⭐️

I loved Weyward last year so I was so excited for The Sirens!
It was so different but also so similar as well and I just love how Emilia Hart writes! It feels so emotional yet powerful at the same time!
Hoping everyone will get to read this and enjoy it as much as I did!

The premise of The Sirens intrigued me and I was really hoping to enjoy this book but unfortunately, it wasn’t for me.

I enjoyed the setting and how the dual timelines were woven into the story through dreams and diary entries. However, I didn’t feel completely connected to the characters and it took a little while for the story to really start.

This was such a stunning book that even though I know it was technically YA the writing was so superb that it made me forget. The atmosphere was exquisite, and the characters SWOON worthy. Overall a great time hidden in this book.

Epic feminist tale, spanning centuries, and set partly in Australia and partly aboard a convict ship destined for New South Wales.

Lucy has been having strange dreams that she can't explain, but it is when she wakes to find herself in her boyfriend's room with her hands strangling him that she decides she needs to get away. But when she gets to her sister's house, she finds that she has also disappeared, leaving her phone and personal possessions behind and the house unlocked. And why did she choose to move to such a run down house and to this maligned area?

As the days go by, she starts to look for clues to try to explain where her sister has gone, at the same time trying to understand the vivid dreams she is experiencing.

In 1788, sisters Mary and Eliza's undergo a difficult and claustrophobic journey from Ireland to Australia aboard a prisoner ship, and echoes of this time seem to resonate through to sisters Lucy and Jess in the present day.

There are a number of threads, but female strength, supportiveness and community are at the heart of this well-written and absorbing book, along with folklore and legend.

This book is about the bond between sisters and family secrets, told from two narratives, the past actions influencing the present, until everything comes together for the climax. The book is part historical fiction, part fantasy. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I LOVED Weyward and so I was really excited to read Sirens – I started it as soon as my request was approved on Netgalley and got about a quarter of the way through before I gave up. It just didn’t grip me in the same way. But then a fellow reader convinced me to persevere and I managed to get to the end. Although I thought the scenes on the boat were well imagined, I wasn’t really invested in any of the characters and I didn't feel all elements hung together that effectively. OK but not remarkable.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for this eCopy to review

I recently read The Sirens by Emilia Hart, this spellbinding novel weaves together the lives of women across different centuries, all bound by the sea and mysterious transformations.

The story is divided into three timelines:

2019: Lucy awakens from a vivid nightmare to find herself with her hands around her ex-lover's throat. Horrified, she flees to her sister Jess's house on the Australian coast, only to find Jess missing. As Lucy waits for her return, she uncovers strange rumours about the town and its history of missing men.

1999: Jess, a lonely sixteen-year-old diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, finds solace in her art. Her young art teacher takes an interest in her, seeing a power in her drawings that no one else does.

1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza are torn from their home in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. As they journey across the ocean, they begin to notice unexplainable changes in their bodies and feel a mysterious connection to the sea.

The novel's strengths lie in its atmospheric writing and the intricate weaving of the three timelines. The Sirens is a captivating and thought-provoking read that I would recommend to fans of historical fiction and magical realism.

DNF
I feel very guilty while DNFing Arcs, but 2025 is my year of not suffering through a book I don't want to read. I don't think I'm in the right headspace for this. I was excited to be reading a historical fantasy with multiple intertwining narratives, but this doesn't stand out to me.

Told in two timelines, The Sirens was a thought provoking book about sisters, strength, secrets, and determination. I really enjoyed The Sirens despite it being a tad slow in the beginning. I enjoyed the 'finding out who you are' aspect of this book. I also enjoyed the relationships and the themes of family, family secrets, female friendships and sisterhood. Not to mention the look at how women are/were persecuted yet remained strong throughout history. I also enjoyed the atmosphere and the feeling of being called to the sea, feeling a part of it, and being drawn to it. I liked how Mary and Eliza in the past (1800), had a strong bond and how they changed on the convict ship. I also enjoyed how Lucy (2019) (went searching for Jess, her sister and found out the truth of who she and Jess truly are.

Pulls you deep into the belly of the sea and makes you fall in love with it.

After the runaway success of her scintillating debut Weyward, Emilia Hart is back with another enchanting novel that portrays sisterhood spanning centuries, exploring their intrinsic connection to the shores of a remote bay in the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Thanks HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for the ARC

Synopsis -

2019 - Lucy finds herself awake from a nightmare with her hands around her ex-lover’s throat. She has no choice but to seek refuge in her sister, Jess’ “Cliffhouse” in Comber Bay.

1800 - Twin sisters Mary and Eliza leave Ireland and their father on an Australian bound convict ship that transports English prisoners.
The sea and it’s pristine waters are the only common factors that will intertwine these sisters lives across continents and generations.

Review -

First of all, it is the writing that makes a world of difference to this book. @emiliahart has a way with words - as she blends the threads of these sisters’ lives, with the beauty and magic of the ocean, describing its sights and smells, sounds and melodies.

Secondly it is the atmospheric evocation and the exotic settings - Hart creates an all immersive, bewitching world both in Ireland and Australia that provides a pure, heightened sensory pleasure and sheer escapisim for us readers.

Embedded into the story are decades old family secrets, powerful sisterly bond that can withstand the test of times, history and horrors of convict transportation during those times from England to Australia -everything sprinkled with a bit of mythology, magical realism and hints of fantastical elements.

#TheSirens bring out a perspective shifting new dimension of feminism, shadowing resilience and the true essence of female relationships through rich characterisation, vivid imagination and eloquent storytelling.

Highly recommend if you love historical fiction and magical realism!

Wayward was one of my favorite reads from 2023, so I was really happy to receive a review copy of "The Sirens".
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much. I found it hard to keep reading. I didn't really like the characters and there wasn't really a story for a long time, just a setting:
Lucy is a journalist student. After an event where she attacked her ex-lover while she was sleepwalking, she flees from the University to her sister. When she arrives, her sister is missing. She stays at the house and wants to find out about her sisters past to learn about her sleepwalking and why she has those dreams, where she is on a convict ship together with her sister on the way to Australia.
There are several perspectives: Lucy's, then the woman on the ship and the diary entries of Lucy's sister. The diary entries I found much more engaging than the main story.
The story sounded so good at first, but sadly the execution wasn't really working for me.

Emilia Hart you have done it again, what an exceptional book. Full of feminine rage, steeped in history and fantasy, the subtle changes to the main characters throughout the story was honestly beautifully done. A twist I genuinely didn't see coming even though it was right in front of me and the epilogue?! I am honestly obsessed with this book, just as I was when I read Weyward. I got to about halfway through and was suddenly absolutely gripped and couldn't put it down, staying awake waaay past bedtime most nights needing to take it all in. I loved every second of it and honestly can't wait to see what Emilia does next.