Rating: 4 Stars
Format: eBook (Kickstarter)
Publisher: Bonkers Romance
“You need to know you can do it yourself. It’s yours to give before it’s ever mine to take.”
I enjoyed the books from the Peculiar Tastes Kickstarter (created by the Bonkers Romance podcast team), so it was super exciting to hear about their latest Kickstarter, Dangerous Tides. Jenny Nordbak’s The Death God’s Sacrifice was one of my favorites in the first set, and her newest book To Seduce a Siren did not disappoint.
Talon and Astrid’s relationship suffers from a boatload of miscommunications. From the first night they are set to be married, to the night circumstances tear them apart, and finally to their inevitable reunion years later, it’s one miscommunication setback after another. Usually, this would be annoying for me as a reader. However, it worked for the story and it made the eventual resolution so much sweeter. Specifically, if you know anything about Jenny Nordbak’s books, you can rest assured that the reunion between the berserker and his siren is capital H-O-T.
Like the books from the Peculiar Tastes Kickstarter, the books from the Dangerous Tides Kickstarter exist in the same universe and share worldbuilding. With both Talon and Astrid having their own pirate commands, a lot of the book takes place on the open water and readers don’t get to actually visit the much anticipated Atlantis until towards the end of the book. That was a little disappointing to me since I wanted to get more on-page time for the pre-introduced characters like Eloise and Seiko. Thankfully, the time we did get was a nice little snippet (especially with the Kickstarter bonus epilogue) and I’m excited to see their appearances in the other books.
Overall, To Seduce a Siren was another entertaining and steamy read from Jenny Nordbak. I recommend this book to those who enjoy mature romance books with elements of fantasy thrown in. I’m excited to read about the stories of Talon’s siblings, Thorin and Sigrid when the author releases them in the future. I believe Sigrid’s story, To Wed a Warrior Queen, is projected to come out later this year.
CONTENT WARNINGS (Courtesy of the Author): Explicit sex, violence, murder, the threat of sexual assault (non-explicit, briefly mentioned), threats of torture, aphrodisiac sex magic (doesn’t compel anyone to do anything they don’t want to do), kidnapping
About the Book
Astrid is a lowly tavern wench on an island ruled by pirates. If anyone discovers what she really is, she’ll be executed. Her world is turned upside down when her father bargains her to pay a debt, and she's forced to marry Talon the Destroyer, a ruthless pirate captain known for his brutality.
Talon Thorvald is an exiled prince of Daneland, a berserker who’s near-invincible in a fight. But he’s powerless to fight what he feels for his treacherous wife. She ran from him seven years ago, and now she’s a feared pirate captain in her own right.
Now he's hunting his wife...
Jenny Nordbak earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Archaeology from the University of Southern California. After graduating, she spent two years leading a double life, working in healthcare construction by day, while secretly working as a dominatrix at a dungeon in LA by night. Her memoir, The Scarlett Letters: My Secret Year of Men in an LA Dungeon (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) is a candid look at that time in her life.
Jenny is an advocate for sex positivity and intersectional feminism. She writes the Stocks and Bondage column for Penthouse magazine, cohosts the Bonkers Romance podcast, and delights in narrating the steamiest of audiobooks.
She lives in Southern California with her handsome Viking husband and two adorably feral children.
