TIDAL

It’s a race against the clock for 16-year-old Gemma in the third installment of the Watersong series.

Still desperate to stave off her thirst for a beating heart (preferably one belonging to a hot teenage boy) and to protect the ones she loves from the wrath of her evil siren sisters, Gemma must figure out how to break the siren curse before Penn finds a more suitable and willing replacement and kills Gemma herself. If only it were as exciting as that all sounds. The aptly titled novel ebbs and flows between present and a mythical past in a failed attempt to anchor the story and the characters in a history that may or may not be destined to repeat itself. While Penn is still deliciously evil, and her love-hate relationship with Daniel remains one of the best parts of the series, most of the characters feel two-dimensional at best. Others, including Lexi and Alex, who are absent for the bulk of the novel, feel like afterthoughts. As for the plotlines, far too little time is spent on Penn’s search for a replacement siren and too much time spent digging around in the sirens’ past. The result is that the urgency of Gemma’s situation is given good lip service, but readers will be hard-pressed to actually feel it.

There are plenty of other (and far better) fish in the sea.