The ocean is uncontrollable and dangerous. But to the sirens who swim the warm island waters, it’s a home more than worth protecting from the humans and their steam-propelled ships. Between their hypnotic voices and the strength of their powerful tails, sirens have little to fear.

That is, until the ruthless pirate captain, Kian, creates a device to cancel out their songs.

Perle was the first siren captured, and while all since have either been sold or killed, Kian still keeps them prisoner. Though their song is muted and their tail paralyzed, Perle’s hope for escape rekindles as another pirating vessel seizes Kian’s ship. This new captain seems different, with his brilliant smile and his promises that Kian will never again be Perle’s master. But he’s still a human, and a captor in his own way. The compassion he and his rag-tag human family show can’t be sincere… or can it?

Soon it becomes clear that Kian will hunt Perle relentlessly, taking down any siren in her path. As the tides turn, Perle must decide whether to run from Kian forever, or ride the forming wave into battle, hoping their newfound human companions will fight with them.

So, let’s talk a little about review requests. I don’t get many…maybe one per week, maybe not. Point being, my inbox isn’t flooded with requests, so that’s not what I’m talking about.

What I am talking about are the requests that just make you feel…not super great. There are some common ways this goes. The one that gets to me the most is:

1. Someone follows my Bookstagram

2. They like five pictures.

3. They DM to say they’ve been a big fan of my account & would I review their book?

To me, this is annoying as fuck. So is not referring to me by my name in the message. I mean…really? And I totally get it if someone has a cut & paste request message they send around. I’m not looking for a fucking penpal letter here. But at the very least…use my name.

And then like…how about some basic information about the book, no? A synopsis or…anything. Some messages are literally just “Hi, my new book was just released, would you read & review it?” with an Amazon link. That’s a hard pass from me.

Anyway, on one of those days where I got a review request that had me feeling kinda shitty, I also got a request from D.N. Bryn (Danny) about reading their self-published fantasy novel, Our Bloody Pearl.

And it was the KINDEST. REQUEST. EVER!!!!

It was thoughtful, super friendly, and very informative. There was some great info about the content of the book in more general terms, along with the full official blurb. And Danny also included the whole first page of the book for me to check out! On top of how thrilled I was to get such a great email, the book sounded like a blast, and so here we are.

Our Bloody Pearl tells the story of Perle, a siren who has been captured & is being held against their will in a small tub aboard a pirate ship. They’ve been horribly abused, and their tail has been completely immobilized by a crushing weight. And Kian, the cutthroat pirate who captured Perle, has developed a technology to block the effects of a siren’s song.

But a rival pirate ship, led by a man named Dejean, soon overtakes Kian’s ship. Dejean is kind to Perle, and deeply curious about sirens. Which is unusual, because of the history of sirens, you know…eating people. Perle is incredibly (and understandably) mistrustful of all humans, but the heart of this book is the developing relationship between Dejean and Perle.

Our Bloody Pearl is a book that sort’ve defies classification. It’s a little bit of a lot of different things. There’s some steampunky elements, which is something I’m always a fan of. And as Danny mentioned in their email to me, the book also has some YA crossover appeal. There are some romantic elements as well, but I don’t think you’d necessarily call it a romance.

This is a book that’s probably a little bit outside of what I typically read, and I really enjoyed it. Bryn writes with confidence, and Perle’s voice (the book is first-person) is incredibly unique. And based on what I read on their website, Our Bloody Pearl will function as a standalone, but there are more books in this world on the way, and they all feature some fucking radical fantasy sea creatures!

There’s a playfulness to this book that I really enjoyed…there are certainly some gripping, harrowing action sequences, but there’s just an overall fun vibe to Our Bloody Pearl. And of course one of the books’ greatest strengths is how incredibly diverse & representative it is for so many different kinds of folks. There’s a disabled protagonist…and the book is queer af…the sirens are all nonbinary, there’s lesbian characters, asexual characters…clearly D.N. Bryn values inclusivity as much as any author I’ve encountered, and that made me feel really happy to be reading their book!

Oh, it’s definitely worth mentioning that Our Bloody Pearl was a semi-finalist in the ongoing SPFBO!! Even though the book didn’t advance to the top ten finals, it still beat out LOTS of books to become a semi-finalist, so big congrats to Danny!! The SPFBO begins with 300 books, so that’s an awesome achievement for their first published book!

This was just such a cool experience overall…like I mentioned, Danny could give lessons on how to send a review request to a blogger! But beyond that, I really enjoyed Our Bloody Pearl, and it serves as a great reminder to step (slightly) out of your comfort zone from time to time!