The Siren’s Last Song (The war of six years #1) by Jordan Heikkinen
Genre: Fantasy
TW: Minor gore, mention of rape
As bitter winter winds begin to sweep across the lands of Neuterran, three of the Ruling Lords of the Four Kingdoms receive letters with word of the King’s Death.
The letter sent to the fourth Lord—the King’s son, Prince Leeroy—tells only of his father’s ailing health, nothing more. With that omission, decades of peace between the Four Kingdoms start to unravel and unlikely paths begin to converge.
A girl of sixteen tends to her jealous heart in a black castle perched above the sea. A woman plagued by a grief she will not name finds relief, if not true solace, in the arms of an executioner. A Lord’s daughter agrees to marry a Prince not for love, nor gold, but to distance herself from an overly familiar knight. And deep within the lush green Swamplands of the South, a soon-to-be Queen loses sleep at the thought of her husband ruling above all.
Following the King’s death, the fate of Neuterran comes to rest on the unknowing Prince Leeroy’s shoulders. And with the crown without a King, the once-peaceful Neuterran is at risk of slipping back into wars of the past.
Fun fact: I didn’t see the cover of the book until I finished it and I was truly blown away by how awesome it is!! Don’t you agree?!
I really enjoyed reading The Siren’s Last Song and I can’t wait to read the sequel once it is available! It was beautiful and bittersweet.
I liked how even though there are multiple POVs, there was little to no confusion to understand what’s going on (apart from when I was confused at first because I thought there a time lapse but then discovered it’s not :)).
Each character was rather complicated in its own way. I absolutely hated how women were perceived in the book in general (as in the relationships between characters), but since this has a little historical touch to it, I guess that should be expected.
One thing that I didn’t like, though it didn’t necessarily hinder my reading experience, was that the ecopy I got has some glaring typos. I don’t know if there was another round of proofreading done after the copy was sent to me, so… yeah.
I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but prepare yourself for a lot of pain, betrayal, loss, and drama. The end is unexpected, I mean there were some hints here and there BUT WHY? That was harsh!
I just–I’m still not sure what to feel about that… I mean,
librorum in sempiternum 