Of Poseidon (Syrena Legacy, #1)

by Anna Banks

[ladygrey]

At first [b:Of Poseidon|12425532|Of Poseidon (Of Poseidon, #1)|Anna Banks|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327879889s/12425532.jpg|17375535] was all funny and exciting and really fun to read. Full of YA tropes, sure, but YA tropes I like and characters I enjoyed. Plus it has a quirky and amusing sense of humor. And then 2/3 of the way through it had all the fun sucked out of it and I was just waiting for it to get to the part where everything changed. And it totally got there too late.

Also, the chapters from Galen's point of view were written in third person-present which was just really awkward.

I'm embarrassed how long it took me to figure out that the things that made Emma different were because she's half human. I mean, I knew she was half human but I hadn't made the connection between that and her ability to shift..

Galen and Emma really were the fun of this story; they're fighting and almost being together and accidentally tormenting each other was really the only conflict in the book and it was enough to keep me interested. So when they "broke up" it lost its spark of fun and when they were together there was no conflict. But you know why this book really started so much better than it ended?

I knew she was Nalia from like chapter 3 or wherever the story of Grom and Nalia was first told. It was so obvious that it made the whole last third of the book slow just waiting page after page for them to figure it out. And it's a really bad cliffhanger when I've known the entire book.

Of course I'll read the next one even though I secretly hate that this is a trilogy (I don't know but they're all trilogies these days, aren't they?). So much more of the story could have been told in this book and made it much more interesting, especially since its such a fast read. But instead of being excited for the next one I'm kind of rolling my eyes because I'm frustrated with the ending.

ETA: I've read a lot of reviews that were bothered by the horrible patriarchal nature of the mermaid society. And it is. It probably would have bothered me more if Emma didn't spend the whole book railing against it. Also, patriarchal societies in fictional novels don't inherently bother me because they exist. It's how characters react within them that determines how troublesome it is for me. And in this novel, so much else about the characters is one dimensional, I didn't cry foul when that aspect was also so narrow. There were huge flaws with the characters being stupid, and there are flat notes in the story. But they didn't get in the way of me enjoying the flirting and bickering in the beginning while Emma explores the newness of her revelation.