The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren

by Wendy Toliver

Dedication: "For Lynn Gray: my mom, my inspiration, my hero"

First paragraph: "I want to kiss Zach Parker. Just once. Is that too much to ask?"

Review: Roxy Zimmerman is just a normal teenage band geek trying to survive high school until her 16th birthday rolls around and transforms her into a beautiful siren. She is told that the sky is the limit with her new powers and that there are only two rules. One, don't tell anyone about being a siren. And two, never fall in love.

This book was exactly what I expected it to be. Totally cheesy, a bit far-fetched, and yet, it was still entertaining. My only problem was that there were way too many typos in the book. I'm not an editor by any means, but I think this book had more typos than any other book I've ever read.

Other than that this book was cute. There were even some things that were a bit unexpected. I don't think it gives off the best message. It focuses so much on getting what you want because you're beautiful. It also talked about having inner beauty, etc. but the focus was definitely on the idea that beauty=success.

I did like the greek references to Thelxiepia, the Siren. As stated before, I love Greek mythology so reading about it in modern form is always fun. Besides it brings back great memories of 6th grade recess. Also, did I mention she's a band geek. Yeah, I related to this story way too much. Minus the whole, being a siren thing, that is.

The passage of time in the book isn't very clearly stated. What I thought was a day turned out to be weeks, etc. So that threw me out of my immersion a bit but not enough to make me stop reading.

Not much else to say. Average story with less than average editing but still an enjoyable read if you've got it lying around.

Click here for Wendy Oliver's website of The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren.