Deep Betrayal

by Anne Greenwood Brown

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

While I wasn't blown away by Lies Beneath, I was still interested in what would come next for Calder and Lily in Deep Betrayal. Unfortunately, this one wasn't quite as interesting as the the first book. The story starts out about a month later, with Lily getting ready for graduation with her best friend. Of course, her parents are there and want her back home in Wisconsin for the summer. Lily also feels like her father needs to know about his mermaid heritage so he stops thinking he's crazy. Being the only merman around, Calder helps Lily's dad with his transitions and trains him. Then people start getting injured and murdered in the lake. Is it Calder's sisters, too overcome by their grief to hunt effectively? Maybe Lily's dad can't control himself yet? Or is it something else entirely?

My first issue with Deep Betrayal was Lily. I was very disappoint to have this book be from her perspective. Part of why I enjoyed Lies Beneath was because we got a male POV and inside the mind of an actual mermaid. Lily isn't nearly as interesting a narrator as Calder. It doesn't really help that she spends most of the book moping around and whining about how much she misses him. The first part is just really boring. Then things get annoying when Lily throws a temper tantrum after Calder tells her he'll be leaving with her dad for three days to help him with his change. She feels like he's stealing her father away! It's only three days, and it was HER idea to tell him he's a merman, so of course he needs to head to the lake and adjust. It was very frustrating. I would much rather have been in Calder's head, and watching the training process with Lily's dad.

This brings me to my next issue. I loved the mermaid mythology set up in the first book, but we don't get much expansion on it in Deep Betrayal. I do think this is mostly in part due to Lily being our narrator. She doesn't know much at all. What new information we do get takes place in the dialogue. I am really not a fan of world-building in conversations. It's kind of awkward to read. Also, the murder mystery plot somehow adds in a new sea monster. There's an ancient water spirit who might be the one killing the tourists, but this isn't very developed. It seemed random and added in just to throw us off the trail of the real culprit. I think switching to Lily's POV was a really bad choice as it distanced us from the mermaids and trapped us on land where not much was happening plot wise.

In the end, Deep Betrayal was a disappointing sequel. I really wanted more out of the mermaid mythology since it's one of the more captivating ones that I've come across. Unfortunately, Lily's POV proved boring and annoying at times. I also didn't understand her little sister's involvement, and frankly, she creeps me out. The romance was also lacking. Lily and Calder don't spend much alone time together outside of trying to figure out what's killing people, so her declaration of love felt forced. The ending was also quite sudden. It's not a cliffhanger, but it did feel incomplete. I'll probably still read the next book to see what happens next.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.