Of Poseidon (Syrena Legacy, #1)

by Anna Banks

[Ashley]

As posted on booknook - book reviews and hot chocolate!

Of Poseidon is my first mermaid book and I’m glad I started with this one because I absolutely loved it!

The story starts off with Emma at the beach with her friend. She lives a normal teenage life.. and then she meets Galen. Galen is a Syrena prince.. that’s a mermaid for you (but don’t call them that!). When Galen meets Emma he knows there’s something different about her. He’s pretty sure she’s also a Syrena but 1) she doesn’t know it, and 2) she has a few traits that make him doubt. For one thing, she has blonde hair. It’s completely unheard of for Syrena to have blonde hair! But she does have the unique eye colour found only in Syrena and she can talk to fish… so surely she must be one of them?

From there, Emma starts to learn about the lives of Syrena — the good and the bad. For example, if a female Syrena hasn’t chosen a mate by a certain time, she can just be “handed over” to a male! Eeek! That one certainly made Emma scream in protest.

This book made me laugh out loud so many times! Emma and Galen had some great dialogue, Emma’s temper took her to crazy places, and her overbearing mother was absolutely hilarious! Also, I absolutely loved Rachel and Toraf. These were two of the side characters. Rachel is Galen’s human assistant and is absolutely awesome. She’s sort of a “do everything” kind of girl and she’s super nice. Toraf is one of Galen’s best friends and he’s a hilarious character. He seems like a really friendly, funny, and secretly sensitive “big brother” kind of guy.

This story comes down to Emma settling into her “Gifts” and Galen struggling between his feelings for Emma and his duty to his race. It’s an incredibly beautiful story about mermaids, but also just about teenage life and falling in love for the first time. Galen and Emma’s relationship is very slow-brewing. No insta-love! From early on they do have to pretend that they’re dating, but their true feelings slowly develop over the entire course of the book. They have a very unique, fresh, and beautiful relationship.

When I got to the last page of Of Poseidon I screamed. Literally. I couldn’t believe it was over! If I’m not enjoying a book I’m always aware of how close I am to the end. But if I’m loving the book, I’m so in the zone that I often have no idea when I’m getting close to the end. I’m happy to just let it continue forever. That’s why the ending of the book caught me off guard. And man… there is a crazy cliff hanger that makes me DYING to read book #2 (which is called Of Triton).

Thank you Anna for this amazing read! You made my first mermaid book experience an awesome one!!