Devyn Quinn: DARK TIDES TRILOGY

Author: Devyn Quinn

Series: DARK TIDES TRILOGY
Plot Type: SMR

Ratings: V3-4, S3-4, H2-3

Publisher and Titles: Signet Eclipse

      Siren's Call (2010);

      Siren's Surrender (2011)

      Siren's Desire (2012) (FINAL BOOK)

     This ongoing post was revised and updated on 3/24/12 to include a review of the final book in the series: Siren's Desire. That review comes at the very end of this blog entry, following a brief overview of the world-building for the series and review of the first two books: 

                  WORLD-BUILDING                  
    This series follows the three Lonike sisters—Tess, Gwen, and Addison. They are all mermaids (aka Mer) who live in small-town coastal Maine—Port Rock, to be exact. As the series opens, the sisters' mermaid heritage is unknown to all but their closest friends, but as the series moves along, the secret gets out and the government soon becomes involved. The sisters are somewhat ambivalent about their Mer ancestry, each reacting to it in a slightly different manner. After their parents were killed in an automobile accident when the girls were in their teens, they had no one to teach them how to get in touch with their inner mermaid selves, so at this point they are winging it. The plot of each book tells one sister's romantic story as she finds her soul mate. The ongoing series plot involves the long-lost Mediterranean island of Ishaldi, a kind of Atlantis-esque place that is the ancient homeland of the Mer people. The sea gate to Ishaldi was sealed by the girls' grandmother, who feared that the Mer would destroy mortal life on earth. As the series progresses, one of the sisters opens the gate, not anticipating the devastating effects of her actions.

                  BOOK 1: Siren's Call                  
     Tess is the only one of the sisters living in their ancestral island home, where she operates the lighthouse and watches the coast for search-and-rescue situations—which is exactly how she discovers Kenneth Randall, a troubled (but handsome and sexy) man who stumbles into the sea one stormy day, intent on ending his own life. Several months later, when Kenneth turns up again on Tessa's island searching for the woman who saved him, she reluctantly agrees to let him stay on as a handyman. Eventually he discovers her Mer secret, and their relationship begins to heat up.  

     In the meantime, Tessa's ex-fiance (Jake Massey, a major jerk) shows up with proof that he has found the long-lost homeland of the Mer. Tess, Kenneth, and Jake go off on a recovery ship to bring back artifacts and find out more information about the ancient mermaid site. Needless to say, the trip does not go smoothly, and their adventures set up the major story line for the series. I don't want to say too much more about the plot, or there won't be any suspense left for the first-time reader. I will tell you, though, that Tess meets the villainous Mer queen, Magaera, during the final climactic scene and makes an instant enemy.

                  BOOK 2: Siren's Surrender                  

     Gwen, the sister who absolutely hates her mermaid self, is marking time as she runs her hotel on the mainland and goes home alone every night wishing she were a normal human. In the first scene, covert-ops agent Blake Whittaker heads back to his hometown of Port Rock to ask a few questions about the drama that ended the previous book. This means that he has to go out to Mer Island, which is a problem because Blake is aquaphobic—the result of his abusive mother's use of near-drowning episodes to punish him during his horrific childhood. Gwen offers to take Blake across to the island, and they immediately feel a connection. Unfortunately, as soon as they reach the island, a group of Queen Magaera's soldiers attack them in an effort to kidnap Tessa so that she can reopen the sea gate. (WARNING: If you haven't read the first book, you will have no idea what is going on here.) Although the good guys defeat the Mer warriors, Blake gets the government involved. You know...the Men in Black who have been turning up more and more frequently in paranormal fiction in recent months. As you can imagine, when the scientists get their hands on the Mer, things don't go well. The sisters, along with Kenneth and Blake, are placed in a detention facility, and the girls are subjected to interrogation and testing. In the meantime, Magaera, with the help of a familiar character from book 1, is trying to retrieve a powerful scepter that will allow her to control all of the world's lands and seas. Will Magaera get hold of the scepter? Will Blake spy on the girls to keep his job? Will this love story have a happy ending? (I think you know the answer to that last question.) This book ends with a major action scene that eventually results in the resolution of the sisters' situation with the government, but final settlement of the situation with Magaera will have to wait until book 3.

                 BOOK 3: Siren's Desire                  

     Addison, the youngest sister, has worked for several years as a search and rescue EMT in Port Rock. Most of her sea-going colleagues are aware of her Mer shape-shifting abilities, but life as a Mer is getting to be more and more difficult for the Lonike sisters because too many people now know their secret. The story follows two threads: First, Addison is recruited by the U.S. Navy to participate in ongoing negotiations with Queen Magaera and her soldiers. Second, Magaera is planning to capture and execute the three sisters and then take over the mortal world. So...we can expect that the negotiations won't go smoothly. Addison's soul mate turns out to be Mason McKenzie, the Navy captain who commands the ship that takes Addision to Ishaldi. The story follows the development of their romance while they battle Magaera and her troops. Addison is the toughest and most out-spoken of the three sisters, and she is more than a match for her sea captain lover. He has misgivings about life with a Mer, and she is torn between her desire for Mason and her duty to the Mer people. The story includes kidnapping, an attempted rape (of a male), and several bloody battles. Magaera is portrayed as an evil-to-the-core nut job, and that is always far less interesting than a villain with a few redeeming qualities.  

     The mermaid aspect of the series is new and different, but the romances themselves are by the book. Obviously, the series finds a soul mate for each Lonike sister, and each sister comes to terms with her Mer self. If you love middle-of-the-road paranormal romances, you'll probably like this series. Grab these up quickly, though, because Signet Eclipse books don't always stay in print very long (although your local library will probably have a copy).