Evermore by Brenda Pandos

Evermore (Mer Tales, #4)

by Brenda Pandos

Mother knows best.

The underwater world of Natatoria is enjoying a long awaited period of peace -- and with it, the merpeople’s very first chance to visit human civilization. Ash and Fin’s wedding marks the perfect opportunity for the mers to celebrate their newfound freedom. But when they return home to Tahoe to prepare, Ash’s absence from the human world has raised more than a few questions about where she’s been. When blaming fingers point to Ash and Fin as the culprits who burned down Fin’s home, even his mind-jacking mojo hasn’t stopped the authorities from issuing the happy couple an early wedding gift—a matching pair of arrest warrants.

Instead of bringing their families together, Ash and Fin’s upcoming wedding drives a wedge between the very cultures they’re trying to bridge. And when their reality takes an unexpected twist, Ash realizes her dual existence comes with a hefty price. Neither her human nor her mer family understand the sacrifices they’re asking of her, and as much as she wants to please both her mer and human mothers, she knows she’s one misstep away from breaking two maternal hearts. But with humans becoming aware of the mer, Ash and Fin must scramble to save their families, their societies . . . and their love.

The only thing they know for sure is that when it comes to Natatorians, old habits die hard. And a royal should never get too comfortable.

Reviewed by Raven on

3 of 5 stars

Share
This series started strong for me, but it's been slowly going downhill since the second book. More and more about it has been annoying me, and this one really took the cake for it. At the end of my review copy, it's made fairly clear that the author is open to making this a much longer series if the fans want it, but I really hope she doesn't. This gives all the resolution that is needed and there is no need to keep going with this story past this.

Most of this book takes place on land, and there isn't much need for an eye in the undersea kingdom with how the plot works out. The characters continue to grow more and more annoying and I still find myself hating Galadriel and Jax. The plot, while decent, is rather annoying. Much of the beginning of the book drags along and is annoying. I was 70% in before I started feeling hooked at all, and if this weren't a review copy that I had committed to reviewing, as well as a series I had already invested so much time into, I would've DNF'd it. I've only DNF'd one book in the nearly three decades I've known how to read. I hate not finishing a story.

My problem with this story I think, was that every cliche that could happen, happened. All of the bad, roll your eyes, young adult tropes were in here for me. The only thing missing was a love triangle. Everything I ever hate in a story was here. I was so disappointed. It's not a bad book, probably a 4 star, but I rate books based on how they are for me and this was a 2 star book for me. I only gave it a 3 star because I couldn't, in good conscience, give it anything lower as it isn't a bad book. It was just bad for me. I want to rant about all the horrible and annoying things. Screech about all the times where I just wanted to smack Ash for not having learned a damn thing from the previous books, or to kick Fin for not handling things better. It was mostly Ash ruining things for me, really. Too often there were times she was just awful. I'm not buying the excuses, especially since they didn't need to be there as excuses. Such a cliche to blame such actions on these sorts of things.

I won't spoil it, but you can probably guess all the things. I knew almost exactly what was going to happen really early in the story. There is next to no build up. It was more like being in a car and the book written on billboards. You can't read the next one completely clearly, but you know what it will say, or at least have a good idea based on the blurry text you can see a few miles out. I found the whole bit very disappointing. While not a completely rubbish way to end the series, it was disappointing for me. I'm happy I wasn't more devoted to it or else I might be truly upset. This is worth picking up if you've already dove into the series so you can gain closure, but go in with low expectations.


This review was originally posted on Fictively

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • Finished reading
  • 6 December, 2015: Reviewed