Sound of Sirens
(Tales of Skylge #1)
by Jen Minkman
An ancient land protected by a Tower of Light,
its people ever tempted by Siren song,
and a girl who falls for the wrong boy.
On the island of Skylge, electricity is only for the Currents - the rich ruling class who once came from across the sea and brought the holy fire of St. Brandan to Skylge. Ever since, the light in the Brandaris Tower has protected the islanders. Heeding the Siren's call will drown your body and steal your soul, but the sacred light in the Tower will chase the merfolk away.
When Skylger girl Enna welcomes her brother back from a long sea voyage, he gives her a special present from the mainland - an electronic record only playable on a Current device. The problem is that Royce Bolton, Current heartthrob and the town's most gifted pianist, wants it too. After she stubbornly refuses to sell the LP featuring his favorite artist, he suggests sharing the record by secretly meeting up in his private summer house. Taken aback yet thrilled, Enna agrees - and discovers that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to Current society and the history of Skylge. Why do the Sirens tempt the islanders to give themselves up to the sea? And where does the Currents' monopoly on electricity really come from?
While struggling with these questions, Enna begins to fall for Royce, risking everything to be with a guy who is clearly wrong for her. She will learn that the sound of Sirens isn't the most treacherous thing out there to haunt her dreams.
“Well, I brought something to cheer you up anyway ,” Sytse continues, opening his bag so I can sneak a peek inside. My heart trips when I spot at least five new records. “Here, why don’t you hold on to these things for now? I have to help the crew. There’s lots of unloading to do, and I bet those Currents hovering around the harbor want to inspect the goods as soon as they can.” He winks.
I grin. “I won’t unpack this until we get home,” I promise.
“Good girl,” Sytse says with a sunny smile. “But I want to show you one thing now. I brought it especially for you. Here, wait.” He snatches the sack from my hands again and digs up a flat, square cardboard sleeve with a picture on it. A Long Play record?
“These women sing like the Nixen,” Sytse tells me . “The lead singer’s name is Jyoti. You’ll love her music. She plays the piano like she’s putting a spell on the keys, and her partner Maya plays the cello . Unbelievably beautiful. I heard these songs outside a brown café near the Krummhorn harbor and I knew I had to get this for you.”
The two red-haired women depicted on the front chasing a fiery bird stare at the animal with wide, slightly slanted eyes. They look mesmerizing; almost witch-like. I’m intrigued, but Sytse’s gift makes me painfully aware of the things we can never have.
“How will I ever listen to this?” I say, sounding disheartened.
“We’ll figure out a way,” he replies, resting his hand on my shoulder. “Who knows, you might win a day’s supply of electricity this year during Oorol. Don’t give up hope.”
I received a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Enna lives on the island of Skylge she has lived there all her life and has never been off the island as with most everyone else who lives there. She lives with her dad and her brother Sytse. Sytse and her dad worry about Enna a lot as she is afflicted with the sadness at times like their mother was. They are afraid that the sadness will one day take over Enna and she will hear the call of the Sirens like her mother and they will lose her as well.
The only ones who get to leave the island are the marines. Sytse gets a job as a marine so that he can sail the seas and get off the island to see what is out there in the world and so he can visit different places across the water. He also became a sailor for the money so that he could help take care of Enna and their dad too. When Sytse goes away on the ship Enna misses him very much and is always waiting for his return. He always brings her presents from across the water. Enna loves listening to music and collecting records. One day on his return from the place across the water he brings her a new record of two women that he had heard singing while he was there. He loved listening to these ladies and knew Enna would love them too but there was one little problem with the record she would never be able to listen to it. She couldn't play the new record on her phonograph. To play the record she would need a new record player that only worked with electricity.
Enna lives on the part of the island where there is no electricity. Only the Currents who live on the other part of the island have and can use electricity. Enna was upset that she would never get to hear her record. But it just so happened that there was this guy there who wanted her record. He wanted hers because it was the only copy that was brought back from the place across the water on the ship. Royce loves music too and he offers to buy her record but Enna won't sell it. So they strike up a deal where both of them can listen to the record. They meet in private at Royce's cottage where he has electricity and the machine to play it on. It is forbidden for a Skylger and a Current to be together and if they are caught they could be arrested.
Enna and Royce keep meeting each other in spite of what the consequences could be. They both find out that neither one of them are the people they were raised to be. Enna and Royce start to have feelings for each other that they shouldn't. They try to ignore what they are feeling because of who they are and what they have each been taught about the other.
One day when Enna slipped away to go meet Royce she sees and finds something that she was never supposed to see or know about. This starts Enna to thinking about everything she has been taught. According to what she has learned everything she knows or has been taught may be a lie. Enna doesn't know what to do about what she has found out. Should she keep it a secret? Would anyone believe her if she told them? What will she do with all of this information that she has found?
I have read quite a few of Jen's books and have loved each and every one of them. I love her way of writing and how she tells a story. It is like she is trying to tell a story within a story and I absolutely love it. I really enjoyed reading Sound of Sirens and I think you will too. Oh but there is one thing you may want to keep in mind while reading it; you might want to watch out for the call of the Sirens, they just might pull you right into their world with them.
Jen Minkman (1978) was born in Holland, in the town of Alphen aan den Rijn. When she was 19, she moved between The Hague, Salzburg (Austria), Brussels (Belgium) and Cambridge (UK) to complete her studies in intercultural communication. She is currently a teacher of English, career counsellor and teenage coach at a secondary school in Voorburg, Holland. She tries to read at least 100 books a year (and write a few, too!). She is a published author in her own country, and translates her own books from Dutch into English for self-publication.
In her spare time, she plays the piano, the guitar and the violin. For every novel she writes, she creates a soundtrack.
'I have always been drawn to writing. My first book was a sci-fi novel at the age of eight, which I painstakingly typed out on my dad's typewriter and illustrated myself. Nowadays, I stick to poetry, paranormal romance, chick lit and/or fantasy. In my home country, I am the first-ever published writer of paranormal romance, and I will gradually make my books also available in English (seeing I have to re-write and translate the books myself, this will take some time!).
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