Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - A Duet with the Siren Duke

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A Duet with the Siren Duke by Elise Kova

8 reviews

taryn_g's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted to carry on with this series because I have been enjoying it so far. I was excited to go into this book, but this book had a lot of repeated information and had a really slow storyline that was like a chore to finish.

This book is based on Victoria and she risks everything to leave a dangerous marriage and gain a second chance at life. But when her escape goes awry, she finds herself caught in the strong embrace of a mysterious siren, forced to choose between temporary salvation or immediate death. And so, a cursed deal is struck. Five years later, Victoria is alive and the world’s finest ship captain. But hr debt to the siren looms while her conniving ex has demanded a king’s ransom as the final price of her freedom to suffer any more on her behalf, and is determined to make things right before her time is up. But that time is cut short, the siren comes for her, six months early. Taken to the magical and deadly Eversea, home of the sirens, Victoria discovers she’s the sacrifice upon which all sirens pin their hopes. If they want to appease an angry god and save a world of brink of destruction, then they need her. Which gives her the perfect leverage. Victoria strikes a new bargain: the Siren Duke will help save her family, and she’ll fulfil his demands. It's a good bargain until a flicker of passion ignites in the scarred remnants of Victoria’s heart, threatening all she’s worked for.

The first part was really interesting, it shows Victoria getting out of a broken and abusive marriage and building a life for herself with her team and being a captain. Even though we knew that the siren was going to take Victoria, I thought the storyline would be Victoria fighting the Siren instead of just accepting to go with him and then worrying about her family. It had such a strong start and then it just lost the plot, and I spent the rest 85% of this book confused and bored.

For one of the biggest books of the series, nothing happened. Once she got out of the marriage and was dead, it was just lifeless – no punt intended. There was no grab to keep you hooked, it was just a lot of words, and songs. There was no world building, the main love interest just seemed weak that I kept forgetting who was supposed to be the big brave hero, I get him being patient because he is a siren and Victoria was a human, but he was boring. More and more people kept getting introduced and then would disappear and then make a reappearance that I forgot who they were. There was world building but also wasn’t world building, it was just all over the place. The spice felt forced, and I ended up skimming most of the last chapters just to get through the books and I still didn’t get the ending – did she live? Or is she the new anchor being?

Hopefully this book will end on a high, but this book was very disappointing, and this seemed to be the most important book to the author, but it was just not done well.

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siche_0325's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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pitoufas_bookish_corner's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Out of all the books in this series following the first installment, this was the one I was most excited about. Sadly, I did not enjoy it as I expected I would.

Ilryth was first presented as a mysterious and ruthless siren who'd given Victoria the chance at a "new life" for the duration of five years, then came to collect her when "it was time" Unnecessarily causing the passing of her whole crew. Then he flipped a 180 and became a soft — downright boring — supportive — albeit stubborn — "loving" partner, which partly — if not completely — fell flat, due to how rushed their relationship felt compared to the story's pacing.

Victoria chose to erase her marriage memories. I understood her wish to let go of pain and conserve joyful moments for last. But by doing so, everything that constituted her identity after severing bonds with her husband had ceased to exist — at least, for a while — As she regained them all later on, which imo, made the event all the more pointless. Why erase them in the first place? It didn't seem like she'd gained any semblance of personal growth or self-empowerment. Accepting her fate during and after her marriage, not really trying to find alternatives to her predicament.

The intimacy scenes between the two felt more like fillers to compensate for the lack of depth in their relationship. The development of their feelings for one another was unconvincing. Ilryth immediately offered himself as a sacrifice after Victoria had fulfilled her duty— knowing it took them months to prepare her and for her to cut ties with the mortal realm — which did not make sense. And neither did this quote: "We only existed as we were because we couldn't exist." 🤷🏻‍♀️

And what was the purpose of Kevin's appearance if a reunion with his children was not going to be delivered? His character literally served no purpose to the story, and should have emerged two books ago, where he belonged. The ending was all over the place, and the writing quality seemed to have decreased in this book, which was very disappointing.

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status_meh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I love Elise Kova's books, and especially the Married to Magic series. But this is probably my least favorite in this series. I was actually really excited for this book, despite it taking me a year to get around to reading it. I've always loved mermaids/sirens since I was young (what young girl isn't?). Not to mention, I've been playing Love and Deepspace where my favorite is a merman.

But I just wasn't super into this book. It wasn't bad, and it's kind of hard to describe what exactly I didn't enjoy. I think that

the main character having to loose all her memories, especially of her ex was pretty cheap

and I'm not sure, I guess a lot of it felt kinda pointless. Plus I felt this book had a lot more abstract ideas which was hard for me to picture.

I think the book had it's good sides. I think the characters are pretty likable, and the plot is pretty interesting. I just can't get over the

her loosing her memories, especially since they continued a sexual relationship while she forgot everything

. Not to mention

the ending where they both became Gods, just wasn't very satisfying to me

.

On a more lighthearted note, I think my biggest complaint, and what bummed me out the most, was that there was no mermaid sex. Like, I don't read books for the smut, it's not what I enjoy the most, but how are you going to have a monster/supernatural romance with a literal merman, and they only have sex when both in human form. That was kind of a huge disapointment. Mainly because one of my biggest questions going in was "how is this going to work physically? how do merfolk even reproduce?". So the whole

merfolk actually only have sex in human form, on a magical love island

felt both silly and like a let down lol.

Overall, it definitely wasn't bad, I think it was good, just not my preference. I'm super excited for the last book in this series, I've already ordered a copy and will probably read it in October.

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