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Format: Hardback
Publishers: Little Brown Books for Younger Readers
Published: 4th September 2012
Pages: 294
Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance
Main Characters: Celia, Lo
Date Read: 3rd June - 7th June 2014
Rating Given:
Synopsis:
Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo.
Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality.
When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.
“The cruelest thing, hope, the way it strings you along, the way it makes you believe.”
When this first came out I never even knew about this book but as soon as I found out about it and that it was a Little Mermaid retelling I jumped at the chance at getting myself a copy. The only thing is it wasn't nearly as good as the first two books in this series...
I love the new covers for this series I just wish they wouldn't change them halfway through the series as now mine don't match what so ever. The reason why I prefer these covers to the old ones is because of the muted colours and they have a metallic look about them as well. I love the hint of red in the cover as it is relevant to the story which is always a plus for me.
With The Little Mermaid being one of my all time favourite Disney film I was so excited to finally have a retelling as to my knowledge there hasn't been one but for me this book fell flat. I couldn't really get into it from the start but there was times throughout the book that did have glimmers of what could be a great book it just didn't continue it that way. I felt bored throughout most of this book as for me there wasn't much interesting going on. The romance side of the story was just as boring as the rest of the book as I just didn't find it believable one bit. I did like the some of the parts in which it was more about self discovery as that was what held my interest (barely). I loved the different take on the mermaids as I have not read about them in this manner. There was no scales or fins they just lived in the sea but they were born human that turned into the ocean girls. I also liked the way in which Celia and her sisters where human yet they where able to see the past, present and future. I'm not too sure about the ending as it was ok in the way in which there was a lot more action happening that got me very excited but for the most part it felt more like a cliff hanger waiting for the next book to find out what happens, but the next book in this series is a different fairytale retelling (which I will still read as the first two books where really good).
I think that the main problem with this book was the unlikeable characters as most of them was selfish. There was times when each of the characters had there good moments but for the most part I just didn't like them. Out of all the characters I would say the most likeable would be Celia as she was the one I felt most sorry for as everyone around her was lying to her or not treating her like an equal but on the other had she was the same with the others just not as much. I never knew if Celia could trust Lo as she did go behind her back a lot. The love interest wasn't really in it enough for me to get anything from him but what I did know was he was a bit of a hypocrite.
Overall I should have known that I wasn't going to love this book as I haven't loved a mermaid book yet but I'm still holding out that there is one out there that I will love it's just sad that this wasn't the one that did it for me.
“The song sounds like the ocean- it rises and falls, notes splash forward and harmonize with the sea behind me.”
