Siren by Tricia Rayburn

Synopsis:
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 Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day.

Though her parents hope that they’ll be able to find closure back in Boston, Vanessa can’t help feeling that her sister’s death wasn’t an accident. After discovering that Justine was keeping a lot of secrets, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor, hoping that Justine’s boyfriend might know more. But Caleb has been missing since Justine’s death.

Soon, it’s not just Vanessa who’s afraid. All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes host to a string of fatal, water-related accidents in which all the victims are found, horrifically, grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa turns to Caleb’s brother, Simon, for help, and begins to find herself drawn to him. As the pair try to understand the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance—and will change her life forever.

My Review:
I really liked this story! The only thing I have read involving sirens was in Greek mythology but nothing set in modern times. I thought this was a very original story and found it refreshing to read a new spin on an old mythological creature. It was a mystery with elements of romance, loss, and coming of age. I thought the pacing was great and I really enjoyed how the story unraveled. I even found it hard to find a stopping place because I wanted to keep on reading. Vanessa is a dynamic main character who struggles with the loss of her sister while trying to discover who she is in the mist of all these mysterious deaths taking place in Winter Harbor. Rayburn has a gift for writing in such a way that you feel like you are therewith the characters in Winter Harbor smelling the salty sea water and surrounded by powerful and unexplainable things. While I understand this is a trilogy, my only complaint is the way it ended because I felt the main character was unsettled on the last page and consequently so was I. But I found it really entertaining and I know I will have to read the others to answer all my lingering questions. Read it!