ARC REVIEW: Songs of Vice by Nicole Bailey

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Only sirens had weapons so cloying. We were like carnivorous plants, beautiful and enchanting the moment before we ended a life.”

Lira is a soft-spoken, gentle woman desperate to escape her scheming mother. She’s also a siren who grew up among humans with no knowledge of the rest of the fae world. Now her mother is forcing her to accept a heady responsibility: find a man to impregnate her, kill him, and hand over the child to her mother to raise as the heir to her power.

Heart too kind to complete her task, Lira convinces a stranger named Sai to help her escape into the next town. Sai and his crew aren’t what they seem, and Lira soon finds herself deep in fae politics and intrigue.

Songs of Vice grabbed my attention from the first page and never let it go. I’m not usually a fan of multiple POVs, but the author handled it well and it work for the story rather than bog it down. Seeing through the eyes of four different characters allowed the reader to learn more about the world without the author info-dumping page upon page of exposition.

My favorite part of the book, though, was the depth of the side characters. Prince Lennox deserves his own story. He was kind and charming and you can tell there are so many things he wish he would have done differently. Margo has a wealth of potential, and I can see her joining Sai’s crew who were each engaging and propelled the plot.

The one jarring part of the novel was having Lira think about Luz’s character as “they” before ever meeting them. It completely took me out of my revelry and made me reread the page over and over. I couldn’t tell if Luz was a particular type of fae who was always referred to as “they,” if multiple characters had entered the scene, or if was a character who preferred to be referred to in that way and how Lira would have known to do so.

Even with that small issue, I would highly recommend Songs of Vice to all lovers of fantasy novels. It’s a quick read with notes of romance and suspense, and I look forward to reading more books with these characters!

Book Stats:

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Independently published (January 7, 2023)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0BRLYKLRS
• ISBN-13: 979-8372191648

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Books in The Siren’s call series in the order they should be read:
Songs of Vice
Songs of Sacrament (TBR)