The Sirens is a story of sisters, their bonds, their 'conditions' and the love and trust they have for one another.

It has a historical theme as Lucy and Jess are from the current day and Mary and Eliza are from the 1800's. Lucy seeks out her sister in a new town but discovers she is missing, the history and rumours of the town have Lucy worried , along with the fact that she and Jess have been having the same traumatic dreams.

Lucy has an allergy to water, one that the women in her dreams seem to share and the further Lucy investigates Jess' disappearance, the more this allergy makes sense.

I cannot say more without spoiling it for others but what I will say is the family secrets, the complicated relationships, the characters and the call of the sea makes The Sirens a story that will flood you with emotions.

Weyward was one of my top books of last year so I had ridiculously high hopes going into The Sirens. Which is what led my to be a little disappointed. In a similar vein to Weyward, we move between timelines & some how interlinked families. We are also following a third timeline with the reading of a diary in the most recent thread. This all got a little convoluted in places & I found myself rushing through chapters to move back to another POV.

But overall I really enjoyed the book, Emilia has become an insta-buy author for me, she writes complex female characters wonderfully, she deals with difficult themes in a conscious & measured way. And had Weyward not moved me in the way few books have ever done, leading to an unfair comparison, I’d have loved this book more.

I found the book captivating and it made me want to find out what was happening next. I finished reading The Sirens in two days.
I'm usually not a fan of dual timelines, but in this case it was orchestrated perfectly.
The themes in the book are very interesting: not only family, as well as a disease called aquagenic urticaria which is not usually talk about, mystery, assaults, women's power, the history of convicts shipped to Australia from Ireland in the 1800 and a bit a magic theme: sirens.
Would recommend it!

A transformative journey centred around the mystery of a small ocean town, where rumours cling to the buildings and their inhabitants, barnacles of truth forced through whispering waves on creatures as mysterious as the secrets they carry.

Mystery and magic combines with a dark history, woven together in dual timelines. We follow Sisters Mary and Eliza as they are transported aboard a convict ship in the 1800s as it sails farther from all they’ve grown up to know and love in Ireland. Their daunting and unknown new fate awaits them in Australia and, although the expedition towards their exile is anything but smooth sailing, they are plunged into a journey of self discovery.

A few hundred years later, Lucy struggles to come to terms with a recent life event that opens a whirlwind of uncertainty within herself as she is finally forced to confront the harrowing dreams that haunt her sleep. Struggling to keep her head above water and remain tethered to shore whilst conflicted over what is reality and what is merely only there when she closes her eyes, Lucy craves the familiarity of her older Sister Jess.

But upon arriving unannounced at Jess’s new home in Comber Bay, it becomes clear that Lucy’s dreams were a mere surface scratch of what the house and the waves that blanket it are willing to share with her if she looks hard enough.

Although this tale was not what I had anticipated prior to reading which did spark some initial disappointment, I was enticed by the mystery that began to unfold across the pages. Hart has managed to combine sisterhood, historical fiction and magical realism in an exquisitely crafted treasure chest full of myth and secrets with atmospheric and lyrical writing. The reader is offered pieces of the key with each page as we become equated with our well rounded Characters and the magic that bonds them.

Despite the predictability that often gave away some of the twists, this is still a unique tale of exploration and discovery that I would encourage readers to dive into.

That being said, if you are going into this expecting to be plunged into a mystical underwater adventure full of myths and wonder, you may be left in a similar boat as myself- disappointed and unsatisfied.

For all the ways in which the basis of the plot excelled in what I believe Hart intended to do, I was personally more captivated by the Epilogue and would have rather ventured forth on that journey instead. I craved more Siren song, less real world.. maybe that’s on me?

I enjoyed this book, it moved along at a good pace and I liked the duel timelines between the sets of characters. The mystery unfolded well though I did find a lot of it predictable and easy to guess. Despite this, I did really enjoy the book.

The Sirens is a beautifully drawn tale, with two interweaving timelines; the present day (2019) and the 1800s.
In the 1800s, we meet the sisters, Mary and Eliza, who are travelling to Australia on a ship as convicts from Ireland. Which was a tragically common practice at the time.
And in 2019, we have Lucy who is visiting her sister Jess, only to discover that Jess is apparently missing and has been keeping many secrets from her family.
The themes of family, water and secrets are prevelant throughout the story and magical realism plays a large role. I struggled with the concept of aquagenic urticaria and the link to mermaids but this does play into the storyline quite well.
An enjoyable and different tale, where events from the past are never far away

Emilia Hart has written a beautiful story about women, the water and the blurry line between dreams and reality. I thought that this was such an interesting novel with elements of mystery, the supernatural and a historical drama. It seems impossible to put it into one generic box because it manages to do so much.

I love that we are getting more books focused on women and the water. Throughout history and literature, there has been a strong connection between the two. There are numerous examples in mythology of women who live in the sea separate from mankind like mermaids, sirens and selkies. These women are often trapped on the shore by men and turned into objects of desire and forced to transform into a human shape. These themes are so recurrent that my university actually offered a course in women and the sea in 18th century literature (which I did take!). I love exploring the new modern takes on these stories.

One thing that I wasn’t sure about going into this book was the split timeline. I have never been a fan of stories that focus on two different eras and storylines. But in this story, I think that the mysteries in both parts of the novel were compelling enough to keep me reading and looking for connections.

I also loved the focus on dreams. This look at the subconscious and the internal world of the characters really allowed the reader to know the characters. We weren’t just swept away by the magical elements of the story but grounded in the women’s worlds.

I would recommend this novel to fans of mysteries, magical realism and watery women. I hope that more books like The Sirens, Our Wives Under the Sea and The Mermaid of Black Conch continue to be published so that we can read more about women and the sea.

Two timelines interweaving; the present day (2019) and the 1800s.
I felt my heart sink at Mary and Eliza’s story. I had not heard of the female convicts sent to Australia before. As a fan of magical realism, I enjoyed the mermaids incorporated into this story, which at its core is about the strength of women.
I was less interested in the plotline set in the present day, and would be happy reading solely the older timeline narrative.

Overall, this was a 3.5 star read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

It took me a while to understand where this book was going and i started to get into it around 20% which I don’t think it should’ve taken that long.

At the 30% mark it dragged again, I think there was just a lot thrown into this book and I didn’t like it. I finished it because I thought it’d feel like it all made sense in the end but it just wasn’t for me

This story was not at all what I expected. I really did like it though, really dark undertones but a great story with some unexpected turns! I’d definitely describe it more as a mystery story rather than fantasy (although it did have elements of a magical world) it was definitely more ghostly than the write up describes.

I enjoyed reading this. I liked the liminal nature of the story and how it combined several aspects of folklore. For me, it evoked memories of the selkies. The balance between the narratives was good and the epilogue answered some questions that had been niggling. Occasionally I felt things weren't well explained- for example, I don't understand some of what happened in the cave towards the end, as the timings didn't quite make sense to me. But a really enjoyable read

The Sirens is a captivating mix of historical fiction and fantasy that follows the lives of two sets of sisters across different timelines— Mary and Eliza in the early 1800s aboard a convict ship bound for Australia, and Lucy and Jess in the present day.
The dual timeline ties the threads together, making it a really compelling read. Personal preference - I did prefer Mary and Eliza‘s storyline aboard the female convict ship bound from Ireland to Australia the past though.

This novel is perfect for readers who love atmospheric stories with strong female characters and a touch of fantasy.

I'm not going to lie but the cover had me gripped, I'm a sucker for mermaids! I'm not usually a fantasy reader but am slowly getting into them I enjoyed this book, it had me gripped but I found it hard to read due to being a fantasy but I'm glad I read it.

There is something so special about the way Emilia Hart Writes. I love that she manages to make create a book based on multiple timelines, involving multiple characters, and still tie up all of the loose ends we find throughout her books.

I find that a lot of the time, multiple timelines can make a book hard to follow, but I’ve never had this issue with any of Emilia’s books, including the siren!

I cannot wait to see what she brings us next.

I loved the author’s Weyward, so it really pains me to say this but I didn’t enjoy this as much as Weyward😭

The story has two separate timelines, one from hundreds years ago focusing on a shipwreck associated with female convicts from Ireland sent to the land we call Australia now. The other is from the modern time focusing on two sisters and mystery surrounding disappearence of men by the sea. The two separate plots merge in the end, making sense of everything. And I really enjoyed the beginning and ending. But it’s the middle bit, mainly the modern time plot, that failed to keep me interested. The storyline from the past was really great, but the other one was too slow and unnecessarily long.

As historical fiction, I think this is a great story. I had never read anything about female convicts being shipped to Australia and how they were mistreated, so it was interesting to learn about that. But it is not enough for me to give more than 3.5 stars.

I really liked this book! The story was about two groups of sisters and how they got along with each other and the world. The writer was really good at showing how these sisters were connected.

Even though I guessed what would happen next a few times, I still loved every page. This book was even better than the last one the writer did, called "Weyward". It was a really good story.

I read The Sirens over a couple of evenings and kept repeating the same sentiment to my partner, 'I don't feel like much is happening and yet I'm not bored'.
I almost always need a decently paced plot, I'm not often one for slow burns but Hart drew me in. I cared for the historic fates of Eliza and Mary as much as I did present day Lucy and Jess.

Even though it takes us the entire novel to find out where Jess is, and both present day sister storylines are rather predictable- bearing all the characteristics of a generic domestic thriller, including diary excerpts to explain the past- the added mermaid fantasy held my attention.

The characters and setting aboard the female convict ship bound from Ireland to Australia had me engrossed. Full of emotion and beautiful description, I'd have preferred more of this content than the modern day timeline.

As someone with aquagenic urticaria I found it highly amusing this was the medical pretense for mermaids. Less amusing was the time it took for our characters to fully realise this eventuality. Though I suppose their transformations are the basis of the novel so this is intentional. The Sirens is very much character driven, the plot twists are transparent but the women, the writing and the convict ship setting make this worth reading.

She’s done it again! I loved Weyward and The Sirens is just as wonderful. A much heavier dose of magical realism in this one and in parts reminded me of Our Wives Under the Sea. Loved the dual timeline and thought it was the perfect mix of historical and fantasy.

This beautifully crafted novel resonates on multiple levels. It invites readers to ponder the bonds that connect us, the dreams that inspire us, and the mysteries that linger in the shadows of our past. Hart's ability to blend elements of magic realism with profound emotional truths makes this work stand out in contemporary literature, appealing to those who seek both depth and enchantment in their reading experience.

While the unfolding of the story itself was somewhat predictable to me, this should not deter readers from diving in.

Weyward is one of my favourite ever reads and made Emilia Hart one of my auto-buy authors. I found The Sirens intriguing but a little too predictable. The writing was superb as always, I just wish I hadn’t been able to guess every twist.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.