Book Review Tempted: Fated To Die By The Witch’s Hand By Ada Griffith

This story is a young adult fantasy with a definite romantic edge. It centers around a young woman named Erina trying to manage both her human and siren sides. She tries to balance school, work, magical powers, love, and a war in which she is fighting against The Venandi for her life and the life of her sisters! This story is a tale of the power of good versus evil. It contains sirens, witches, visions, stolen kisses, stolen agency, and a father who is not what he appears to be.

Erina recently moved with her father from Texas to a Maine so he could be a fisherman. The move didn’t make sense to Erina and she didn’t want to be there. She had a part-time job at a local bookstore called Mystic Books. This is where she meets Caspian, a young man looking for nonfiction, historical books about sirens. He accuses her of being lonely and grabs her to inquire if she had noticed anything odd recently. When Caspian shows up at her high school, he warns Erina that sirens are everywhere.

Bella introduces herself to Erina at school and invites her to hang out sometime. The two decide to explore a local lighthouse together after school. It was while she was at the lighthouse that Erina started noticing strange things going on around her.

Caspian warns Erina that her new friend is dangerous and wants her dead. Caspian’s focus is on finding sirens and proving that they exist. While on a walk to the beach Caspian shows up and saves Erina from an attack by a siren. Erina begins to rely on Caspian to teach her about sirens and to protect herself from them. Eventually Caspian teaches her about her newfound magical skills. Unfortunately, Erina does not master these skills before she is lured into the ocean by a siren by a dying siren and who turns Erina into the Living Blood.

One of her new found powers allows Erina to see the deepest desires of people’s hearts, but she isn’t able to determine Caspian’s desires. Erina didn’t want the magic and wants more than anything to get rid of it. Caspian is also impervious to the song of the siren—it repels him instead of drawing him in.

Although it does include magic, this book is not your typical fairy tale. It is on the dark side and contains more violence and gore than I would expect. Sirens are the nightmare—seductive witches that satisfy their own hunger through temptation and lies.

I really enjoyed the magical world Ada created. I also enjoyed the characters that she created and was interested in the fact that the sirens in her story took on different forms. The basic storyline is intriguing, but the execution felt a bit unpolished. This book could use an editor to help smooth transitions and improve punctuation.

If you are into dark, young adult, fantasy, and can overlook a few rough transitions, you may enjoy this book. However, if you don’t care to read about violence and gore, and prefer smooth-flowing transitions, and perfect punctuation, you may prefer to pass on this one.

On a 1 to 5 scale, I would personally give this book 3 stars.