I’m a sucker for mermaids and mermaid stories so I was completely stoked when I got this from the library. And I liked it. It was a fun read. Lily’s an interesting character. Very human despite only being able to claim half of herself as just that (heh). And her interactions with Quince are a lot of fun to read. He’s like that annoying kid in kindergarten who used to pull your pigtails because that was the only way he knew to express his affections. The book does not spend too much time lingering on the tragedy that took the life of Lily’s mother. Maybe the author’s saving it for a later book? Secret group with hidden agendas etc? Who knows. Anyway, since this is fluff, I read it as such but there were a few inconsistencies that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. Firstly, Lily’s always talking about how she’s going to return to the Underwater Kingdom once her year (two years?) on land are done. She talks about the freedom of being in water and she manages to make you believe that it is what she loves. Contradictory to these emotions, she very quickly decides to leave her position and the underwater kingdom to be on land. I know it’s for the boy she loves and all but I remained unconvinced. This made Lily seem rather fickle and without much depth. It also felt as though the author was looking for a tidy (and quick) resolution to the story. I wouldn’t have minded a different ending (even if it were a wistful sad one) rather than this one as she would have had the sequels to come up with a decent ending. Another thing that rather turned me of was Lily’s insistence on Brody despite the fact that a one eyed bat could have figured out that the boy just wasn’t who she thought him to be. And when she does find out, it’s a snap your fingers and she’s convinced. You’d think it would take a lot more for her to let go of all the assumptions/blind love she had for the guy considering how long she had held on to them. Not well done, in my opinion, that.But that’s just me being critical. On the whole though, it was an interesting read.
