Lady Imogen, I have eyes.
In the Veins of the Drowning
Kalie Cassidy
The Siren Mage, book one
Kindle edition, 377 pages
Published July 15, 2025
ASIN B0D1BMW3F3
ISBN 9780316587617
The monster is always slain…
Imogen Nel is in hiding. Hiding from a cruel kingdom that believes Sirens are monstrous, blood-hungry creatures. Hiding from a king and his captain who viciously hunt her kind. Hiding from her own alluring abilities. By keeping herself from the sea, Imogen’s bloodlust is dulled, and her black wings remain hidden beneath her skin.
When a neighboring king comes to visit, Imogen can no longer hide. He knows precisely what she is, and he believes she can save both their kingdoms from an even greater monster. But Imogen’s power threatens to violently reveal itself, and the two form a blood bond that protects them both. They flee the kingdom together, traversing waters teeming with the undead. As the lines between duty to their people and desire for each other begin to blur, Imogen worries her own ancestral powers may not be enough to kill what hunts her—the only way to defeat a monster may be to become one herself.
This book did not start out well for me. The first chapter alone was far too cryptic and downright depressing. Is the king her fiance? No. Is he her father? No. The captain is her fiance. King Nemea just adopted her, doing so for her inheritence after the death of her parents.
And the mysterious man atop the fortress walls is Theodore. The love interest? With that name. Gah.
The fiance, Evander, is... not awful. Except that his response to her being sick off the wine is to give her a chunk of bread and she's tired and short of breath, so his remedy is to take her to her room, remove her clothes, and have her dry mount his cock. What am I reading?!
I take it back. He's awful. But it's Imogen that disgusts me. And then she's going off on how Theo (Yes, Theo because Theodore is a chipmunk) has never done this and never done that. Uh, bitch, since when do you know him? How dare you make such assumptions while cleaving to a victim mentality.
I haven't been this repulsed by a FMC since Feyre.
She's been resigned to this pitiful existence for years, had accepted the fate as Evander's bride, but now, now, that she wants out, well *snap snap* everybody needs to throw caution and reason to the wind, tempt war and whatever else to give the poor, unfortunate siren what she demands. Save her, because for some damn reason she can't save herself.
Oh wait, she can. And I can't roll my damn eyes hard enough. Then if that wasn't the most anticlimactic death of a 'villain' I've endured in a long while. A man being lured to drown by a siren.
Perhaps I'm being unfairly harsh. This is my first siren story afterall. But... it is what it is. This is an honest blog.
“You killed your fiancé,” he said in a brutal whisper, “and then you came here moments later to beg me to leave in the middle of the night and take you with me?”
“No.” I looked him squarely in the eye—I had nothing left to lose. “I came to bind myself to you.”
The air around us thinned. His voice was deadly quiet. “You’re out of your mind.”
“Perhaps.” I didn’t bother to hide the desperation in my voice. “But I have nothing left to armor myself in except your protection and you refused to give it.”
His gaze was filled with the embers’ light, with incredulity. “I did not refuse. I said I needed time.”
“No.” I looked him squarely in the eye—I had nothing left to lose. “I came to bind myself to you.”
The air around us thinned. His voice was deadly quiet. “You’re out of your mind.”
“Perhaps.” I didn’t bother to hide the desperation in my voice. “But I have nothing left to armor myself in except your protection and you refused to give it.”
His gaze was filled with the embers’ light, with incredulity. “I did not refuse. I said I needed time.”
Out of her mind, or has the brain of a fish. Either way, I'm one hundred percent with Theo on this. And he did say he needed time. That's not a refusal despite what her twisted mind has concocted.
24% completed. And I'm done.
DNF
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