Of Triton Review

Title: Of Triton (Of Poseidon #2)
Author: Anna Banks
Publisher:  Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: May 28th 2013
Source: ARC for Review
Rating: 3.5

In this sequel to OF POSEIDON, Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she’s a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. Syrena law states that all Half- Breeds should be put to death.

As if that’s not bad enough, her mother’s reappearance among the Syrena turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen’s request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she’s never known?

Review:

 

Of Triton pick up right where Of Poseidon left off, confronting Emma's mom about her secret. The first few opening chapters a quite climatic and gets you sucked back into the story. As always Anna Banks writes a well written book jammed packed with humour that I sure will be a laugh or at least a smile to your face.

I loved the romance that Galen and Emma had in Of Poseidon and even though they may be apart for a large potion of the book, I loved the romance in this instalment even more. There's more commitment from them that will melt your heart. I can't wait to see what the next step in their relationship will be.

As much as I wanted to absolutely love this novel as much as I did the first I just couldn't. To me Of Triton seemed like a filler book; something small to give us because there needed to be a book released in 2013 but with no real progression in the plot. The book physically is very small and not a whole lot goes of, there is some pretty dramatic scenes that do make up for it though.

Even though Of Triton wasn't as good as Of Poseidon I still love this series and highly recommend it to anyone. I really look forward to reading more in this unique mermaid series.

Wake Review

Title: Wake (Watersong #1)
Author: Amanda Hocking
Publisher: St.Martins Griffin
Release Date: August 7th 2012
Source: ARC for review (Thanks Raincoast)
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository

Summary:

Beautiful. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Thea, and Lexi have caught everyone's attention, including the eye of pratical Harper. But it's her sister, Gemma, they've chosen to be part of their group.

Sixteen-year-old Gemma seems to have it all - she's carefree, pretty and falling in love witht the boy next door. But her greatest passion has always been the water. She craves late-night swims under the stars, where she can be alone yet belong to the sea. Lately she's had company. Penn,Thea, and Lexi spend their nights dancing, singing, and partying on the cove - and one night Gemma joins them. When she wakes up groggy on the beach the next morning she knows something has changed.

Suddenly Gemma is stronger, faster, and more beautiful than ever. As she uncovers the truth about her new mythical powers. Gemma is forced to choose between staying with those she loves or entering a dark world brimming with unimaginable secrets.

Review:

Being new to Amanda Hocking's work and hearing how amazing her other series was I had high expectation going into Wake. It didn't disappoint but I did totally fall in love with it either. The take on mermaids and the mythology behind them is what really makes Wake a great book.

I have declared this year the year of the mermaid becuase of all the mermaid book releases. So far I've read quite a few of them each have a new and interesting take on mermaids. Wake stands out to me because of the use of greek mythology that surrounds the creation of the sirens in this book, and how they got to be the way they are. Learning about this had me glued to the pages wanting to learn more.

I found the book to be a bit slow to start off with, but eventually picked right up and left off with an ending that insures a thrilling sequel. The writing style was also a bit odd in my opinion, it's written in third person but it's not a style I have ever seen before. You will have to pick up the book to see what exactly I'm talkin about. Also the writing was a bit too descriptive to my liking.

Now to the chatacters, some of them I really enjoyed and some I just wanted to slap sometimes. Gemma is a great, caring, and selfless at times characters that I really liked, her sister Harper not so much. Since their mother isn't with them Harper has taken on the role of "mother" and she is definitely a mother figure that I would not want to have, she's to protective and jumps to conclusions too fast. My favourite character by far would have to be Daniel, the boat dwelling can't get his life together guy whos is super sweet and is an amazing guy.

Wake definitely peaked my interested and had me flipping through the pages for the most part. I am really interested to see where Gemma and Harper stories go in the series. Although the writing style isn't anything I've seen before it isn't so unbearable that you can't get through the book, at times it really worked well with the story. These sirens have a really gorey and evil side to them as well so I can't wait to see more of that. Overall Wake is a good but not amazing book with a very interesting back story to the myth of the siren that should go onto your reading this stat.



Lies Beneath Review

Lies Beneath

Anne Greenwood Brown

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

June 12th 2012

A copy was provided for review by Random House Canada.

Summary:

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on unsuspecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

Review:

I've heard some mixed reviews on Lies Beneath, some not so good and some really good. I really don't understand the bad reviews, because this book is all kinds of awesome. These are the kind of mermaids I love, the killing frightening kind.

As I already stated the take on mermaids is awesome and very unique. Mermaids don't have to be the good kind for there to be romance and swooning. Calder and Lily prove that is Lies Beneath. I LOVED Calder, he was a great characters perspective to read from. He's hot, funny and a great guy for a murderous mermaid. I loved how he tried to hold onto his human side, since he wasn't born a mermaid but made one.

Lily as a love interest for Calder was a bit odd, but that just makes her all the more realistic, she has her flaws which is great to see in a book character. This is one of the few books that I actually liked the insta-love, to me it was really well done and not agonizing to read. In fact I loved it..

I absolutely enjoyed all the struggles that Calder and Lily have to go through, with Calders evil sisters, and the complications that stand between Calder and Lily being together. Towards the end of the book was the best part in my opinion. There is a bery shocking twist in the plot that is awesome, which leads to the heart wrenching conclusion. Cannot wait until the next book to see what happens next, I hear it will be told in Lily's point of view. That would be interesting to see, but a major reason why I loved the book as much as I did was because of Calder.

Lies Beneath is a must read book for fans of mermaids, romance, and of course the supernatural genre. Evil, murderous mermaids, a great main character, and get writing and story telling. What more could you possibly want in a book?

Of Poseidon Review

Of Poseidon

Anna Banks

Feiwel and Friends

May 22nd 2012

Summary:

Emma and her friend Chloe are spending vacation in Florida. When Emma (literally) runs into a hot guy named Galen on the beach, little does she know he’s a prince of the Syrena. Galen and Emma both feel something strange – is it attraction? – and Galen suspects that Emma might well be the girl he’s heard of – a human who can communicate with fish.

What follows is a deadly scene with a shark in which Galen witnesses Emma’s gifts. He must know more about her, and follows her back to New Jersey, and high school, to find out for sure if she’s the key to saving his kingdom. Soon, Emma can’t deny her feelings for him, but can’t explain them, either – and both she and Galen must learn more about where she comes from and what her powers are before they can trust one another and their feelings

Review:

Ohmysweetgoodness I loved this book! It's a fish out of water story, quite literally. Jammed pack with witty humour, mermaids, and a romance that is sure to steal your heart. Of Poseidon is a book that shouldn't be missed.

The book is told from both Emma and Galen's point of view in alternating chapters in both first and third person. It intersting how the change of characters also brings on a change in writing perspectives. As soon as Emma met Galen, by running into him, I fell in love. Galen is just the best, cute and funny, what more could a girl want?

Emma is a great main character, she has a real attitude that I can definitely relate to. I could totally imagine myself being friends with her is she were real despite her bad attitude. She is also quite funny as is Galen, when you read the book you will see that Ohmysweetgoodness is kind of her catch phrase.

Besides Of Poseidon being well written,humourus, and having a creative take on mermaids I loved the character interactment. They all play off of eachother so well and make this book awesome. You wont just want to read the book to see why Emma can talk to fish, you will also want to check out all the things I mentioned above.

Just something I found to be a bit funny, insults under the sea aren't like the ones we use here on land. To insult someone they call eachother some kind of sea creature that isn't something you want to be. Beware there is a bit of a cliffhanger that will make you ask "Where's book two? I need it now!" Anyways do yourself a favour and pick up Of Poseidon and fall in love with this masterpiece of a book.