Disclaimer: I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Pros - strong female lead, an interesting mix of fantasy elements into a "real world" type story
Cons - the pacing seemed off, and the ending was not satisfying.

This is a quick read, it was in the okay but I won't read it again and I'm not looking for a sequel category.

Sirens call is a good supernatural story with a strong female lead character. It mixes different fairy tales and supernatural creatures smoothly. Only disappointment its a little too short ( )

(I took care to give no obvious spoilers about the story)

Title: Siren's Call (on Librarything)
Author: Leah Cutter
Language: English
Series: no
Format: e-book
Number of pages: 487 on my phone
Publisher: Book View Café Publishing Cooperative
Year published: original 2013, my edition 2013
ISBN number: 978-1-61138-330-0
Topic of the book: fantasy mystery
Reason for reading: I won it at Librarything Early Reviewers.
Recommended: No.

Summary (from the author's website, where you can also read the prologue and the first two chapters):
Kai never met Mama. But based on her own abilities, and those who call her kin, she knows Mama wasn’t human.
Kai finds things. In post-Katrina New Orleans, everyone’s lost something, though most can’t afford to pay.
Kai’s latest client, a siren, hires Kai to find her sister. Sirens need both men and water, and can call them.
The kidnapped sister is being held on dry ground…
…while another storm brews off the coast of New Orleans.

First paragraph of the prologue:
Is this love? Kai wondered, watching Tommy from the back of the bar. Tall speakers standing next to her blared hopped-up zydeco. Above the frenzied dancing, the air rolled blue with smoke. The only lights, besides those shining on the booze, were two huge red globes set on brass pillars in the corners, which cast weird shadows.
Or maybe it wasn’t the shadows that were weird, but the folks here. Kai was human—just special—while many in the crowd were xita, or other.

Comments on the first paragraph:
It is immediately explained that this world contains fantasy elements as well, which is good - it doesn't make the story confusing.

Review:
Story:
It started out as a mystery with fantasy elements, but suddenly there was a sex scene... Huh? That came entirely unexpected for me! After that I expected it, of course, and the sex scenes do make sense in the story (yes, even the first one, though it did surprise me).
If you look at the story as a whole, it was fun to read. The "others" were human-like demons (not all of them evil).
However, the ending came quite suddenly for me. I knew I was nearing the ending, as I was looking at the remaining number of pages, but the story just stopped in the middle of solving a problem... I can see why the author ended there, but it was more a "short story" ending than a "long story" ending - and I do think that this was a long story!

Writing style:
Easy to read, but I got the feeling it was written more as "spoken English" than as "written English".

Spelling errors/typos:
p. 355/487:
"You're the one who's good at finding thing," the prince said. >>
"You're the one who's good at finding things," the prince said.
p.474/487:
He was like ever bad date she'd ever had, ... >>
He was like every bad date she'd ever had, ...

Conclusion:
The idea was interesting, but I didn't like the moment in the story the author chose to end it.

Rereadability:
I'm not going to read it again.

On my weblog here.

I got this as an ER book.

It felt very uneven to me. The pacing seemed uneven, the characters oddly motivated and somehow it wanted to be sexy and about sex but left me feeling like it was uncomfortable talking about healthy sex.

Kai's not particularly likable but not in interesting and complex ways, more in a I want to shake you until your teeth rattle way.

I appreciate a diverse cast of characters, and there were a couple moments of interesting takes on fairy mythologies.

An exciting fun read!

I found ‘Siren’s Call’ to be an exciting and entertaining read. The main character Kai is a strong, independent young woman who is just trying to make a living in post-Katrina New Orleans. Raised alone by her father after her mother abruptly abandoned them both after Kai’s birth. In Kai’s world there is a secretive magical race of the ‘xita’ who have their own society hidden from the world. Kai has often suspected her mother was xita but no one in her family has ever wanted to talk about her. Regardless, Kai considers herself fully human with a little something ‘extra’ on the side and she has set up her own business to put that extra skill to use. Kai can find lost things. Not just lost car keys but more important items like missing people by relying on her senses and intuition. Kai is currently eking out a living as business has been down lately. Kai’s skills had been extremely useful in the aftermath of Katrina, an experience she does not want to ever repeat. So when Rilke, her new client, a siren, comes to her to help find her twin sister and explains that sirens cannot be away from water for any length of time and if unable to get to water they will instinctively call water to them no matter where they are - even if it means flooding a city to get to them Kai realizes what this could mean for her 10 year post Katrina city. Kai realizes that to find her missing siren she will have to interact with various ‘xita’ as she searches for who has the siren and where she is being held and answer the big question of why anyone would want to flood the city again.

Kai is an interesting character as she discovers more about herself, her relationships and the mysterious xita. She is independent and knows how to take care of herself but is able to accept help where she finds it. She is also interested in finding out about her Mama and her side of the family and how she fits in. Kai has two men in her life who each assist her in their own way. One is a human techno genius and the other is a xita shapeshifter. But this is not a romance. Kai is perfectly happy with the status quo and is not looking to settle down with either of them although she cares for them both very much.

I really enjoyed the book and felt the mounting pressure Kai was experiencing to prevent another hurricane in New Orleans. I liked the way the lead character problem-solved her way through the twists and turns her search took her. I could see the book being classified as ‘young adult’ but I think there was more going on in this story to limit it so. Kai’s world is vividly drawn out and easily envisioned and the story and its characters keep you involved to the very end. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for an involving adventure incorporating New Orleans of today with supernatural elements. The book holds your attention all the way through Kai’s increasingly desperate quest.

I received this ebook for free in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )