2.5 stars.

Honestly, I was tempted to DNF at so many points — the writing style really doesn’t work for me (in my mind it reads as awkward, stilted rather than lyrical) and that’s often a dealbreaker, as is the fact that it’s quite hard to tell the narrators’ voices apart without a little more context. (Props for the confidence it takes not to label the POV for each chapter, but it would’ve helped significantly.) Honestly, Lira and Elian not only sound the same but think the same, with their royal arrogance and entitlement and reluctant bloodlust; maybe it’s purposeful, but it doesn’t work for me. There’s also far too much philosophizing, on all the topics and in all the progressions you’d expect given the context.

That said, the story itself is interesting — loosely inspired by The Little Mermaid, but with pirates and sirens (and mermaids an afterthought) and royalty and treasure and magic and violence, even mild gore. It’s not nearly as sensual as I think it‘s trying to be, which is probably for the better because brute force is a much stronger motif throughout the story.