Sirensong (Faeriewalker #3) by Jenna Black

Sirensong (Faeriewalker #3) by Jenna Black
July 5, 2011; St. Martin's Press

Summary

When Dana is invited to Faerie to be officially presented at the Seelie Court, it’s no easy decision. After all, everyone knows Titania, the Seelie Queen, wants her dead. But Titania claims not to be the one behind the death threats; and her son, Prince Henry, makes the decision a whole lot easier when he suggests Dana might be arrested for (supposedly) conspiring with her aunt Grace to usurp the Seelie throne. So she and her father better do as they're told . . .

The journey through Faerie is long—and treacherous. Dana thought it would be a good idea to have friends along, but her sort-of-boyfriend, Ethan, and her bodyguard’s son, Keane, just can’t seem to get along, and Kimber’s crush on Keane isn’t making things any easier. When a violent attack separates Dana from their caravan, the sexy Erlking saves her just in the nick of time . . . and makes it clear that he hasn’t given up on making her his own.

Arriving at Titania’s beautiful palace should be a relief. But Dana is soon implicated in an assassination attempt against Titania’s granddaughter, and is suddenly a fugitive, forced to leave her father behind as she and her friends flee for their lives. Will she be able to prove her innocence before the forces of the Seelie Court—or, worse, the Erlking—catch up with her? And will she save her father before he pays the ultimate price in her stead?(courtesy of Goodreads)

Review

Sirensong finishes off Jennie Black's Faeriewalker series with a whimper. There are things I liked about the novel, but also many parts that were highly disappointing.

On the bright side, the setting is moved from Avalon to Faerie in this book. This freshens up the series and enriches Black's world-building. It's a somewhat stereotypical journey plot, where the characters make a dangerous trip, encountering obstacles along their way, and see relationships fall apart and grow. There's another commonly used plot point - the scapegoat. When the queen's granddaughter is nearly killed, Dana gets unfairly blamed. She has to run for her life and hopefully find out who actually committed the crime in order to clear her name. While the plot is nothing original and relatively predictable, there were enough twists along the way that I remained interested.

Dana's love life is a downer. We finished out Book 2 (Shadowspell) with a love rectangle - 3 guys were drooling over Dana (I'm waiting for a love hectagon someday). My favorite was not Dana's professed love Ethan, but rather the sexy, smoldering, powerful, dangerous but with the hint of a softer side Erlking. Even though he repeatedly has Dana's back, she wants nothing to do with him. Sure, he's manipulative and evil, but he's so hot! Dumb girl. Instead, she's dedicated to Ethan the playboy dud. Ethan spends much of the book in a jealous sulk over the presence of Keane, Love Interest #3. Keane is a much better and more interesting guy than Ethan, but his character was also undeveloped in Sirensong.

Many of Dana's issues are of her own making. She trusts no one. She tries to take on the world - to protect everyone around her because no one else is capable of taking care of things. As irritating as this was, I liked it. It was in keeping with life as the daughter of an alcoholic, an absent father, and also a largely friendless childhood. The personality traits held steady throughout the series. I found Dana and interesting character, if not always likable.

Sirensong is an okay book, but could have been so much better. It's rare that I dislike the romance element this much in a novel. The plot itself was interesting and sometimes exciting, but the book ended the series on a down point.

Rating: 2.5 / 5