Today I’m reviewing Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton, which is very accurately likened to The Cruel Prince and To Kill a Kingdom. Dangerous sirens and fae? Check, with a little bit of enemies-to-lovers and a lot of morally grey thrown in!
As a little bit of a sucker for enemies-to-lovers and morally grey characters, I really enjoyed this one.
Read on for my full review!
About the Book
Title: Sing Me to Sleep
Series: Sing Me to Sleep #1
Author: Gabi Burton
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: June 27th 2023
Pages: 400
Source: Physical ARC provided by the publisher (this in no way affects my review which is honest and unbiased)
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis
Words sting. Songs kill.
The Cruel Prince meets To Kill a Kingdom in this seductive YA fantasy debut, in which a siren must choose between protecting her family and following her heart in a prejudiced kingdom where her existence is illegal.
Saoirse Sorkova survives on secrets. As the last siren in her kingdom, she can sing any man to an early grave – but her very existence is illegal, and if her true identity were ever discovered, it would be her life on the line.
By day, Saoirse disguises herself as a fae, pretending to be the perfect soldier-in-training. By night, she satisfies her darker urges working as an assassin for dangerous mercenaries. And all the while, she keeps the biggest secret of all: that she is not always in control of her Siren powers, or her desire to kill.
Then a blackmailer threatens her sister, and Saoirse’s investigation takes her to the royal palace, and her most dangerous job yet: personal bodyguard to the Crown Prince.
Saoirse expects to despise Prince Hayes. But he is kind, thoughtful, and charming, and she finds herself increasingly drawn to him . . . until he tasks her with investigating a killer plaguing the kingdom. The problem: the killer is Saoirse.
Trapped by her deadly double life, Saoirse can’t leave the palace until she saves her sister . . . but who will save her from herself?
Review
Sing Me to Sleep is told in first person from the point of view of Saoirse, a siren trapped in a world ruled by prejudiced fae who think they are basically the “better” species.
To start, the world-building for this book is really cool. Saoirse, and everyone else, is trapped within a magical barrier that surrounds the kingdom, keeping in fae, witches and humans. Unfairness is rife, the kingdom is ruled and ran by fae who think they’re superior, whilst wanting the witches around so they can use magical items and needing the humans to carry out all labour.
Sirens aren’t really supposed to exist within the barrier, so Saoirse makes use of magic to disguise herself as a non-magical fae instead, with a scar on her face to make people feel too uncomfortable to see her beauty. Without the disguise, she catches the attention of all those around her, using this to her advantage to operate as an assassin when she isn’t in training.
As far as our main character is concerned, as long as she can best the rest of the recruits and gain a well-paid job then she’ll be happy, earning enough to keep her little sister, Rain, safe. Saoirse is straight-to-the-point and seems like a hard headed person, but where Rain is concerned she’d do anything to keep her happy and safe.
Sing Me to Sleep kicks off straight away with our main character on the job, and the pace doesn’t really slow much throughout the story. When Saoirse ends up having to take a position as part of the Prince’s guard though, to keep Rain safe, that’s when the pressure really begins for her.
Will she help those wanting to bring down the barrier, to see what’s on the other side? Or will she fall for the absolutely adorable cinnamon roll Prince Hayes?
This was a great read from start to finish, and I’m very excited to read the next book! The ending was fantastic for the first book, but it’s clear that there’s so much potential for the next part of the story.
‘The ocean sang to me, and I echoed its mournful tune.’
Will you be preordering this?
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