Book Review: Of Neptune

Emma and Galen’s kingdom and their love is threatened by long-lost Syrena in the brilliant conclusion to Anna Banks bestselling trilogy.

Emma, half human and half Syrena, and her Syrena love, Galen, need time together alone. Away from the kingdoms of Poseidon and Triton. Emma’s grandfather, the Poseidon king, suggests the two visit a small town called Neptune.
Neptune is home to both Syrena and Half-Breeds alike. But Emma and Galen didn’t sign up to be peacemakers between the ocean and the land-dwelling, freshwater Syrena. They didn’t bargain for meeting a charming Half-Breed named Reed, who can barely disguise his feelings for Emma. And they especially didn’t expect to find themselves in the middle of a power struggle that threatens not only their love but their ocean kingdoms.  Quoted from Goodreads

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I went into this book completely blind---again the case of not reading the blurb, but I figured, what's the point?  I already read and liked the first two, so of course I was going to read the third one.  The interesting thing about this series is that it easily could have ended at book two. I had no idea where this book was going in this third installment.  Basically Galen and Emma had everything they wanted, so what was next?

I actually loved this format because it made the second book VERY relevant to the series instead of a placeholder like so many middle books.  Plus, it left this third one open to a new (sort of) adventure.  Don't get me wrong, everything is still connected to the first two books, but we get new places, new people, and it doesn't matter that I read the second book a year before because half of this book is new stuff anyway.

This actually was a delightful little adventure. It didn't feel quite as earth-shattering as the end of book two but it was much more personal and in Emma and Galen's scope. The town of Neptune was a perfect blend of welcoming small town with secret, sinister undertones, so you never quite knew who to trust.  Plus, Galen and Emma saw everything differently, so each brought their own viewpoint and suspicion to what and who they should believe.  Emma and Galen also spend a good portion of the book apart. While I'm generally not a bit fan of this, I loved it here.  We've already established them as a couple, so the romance didn't have a lot of suspense left, but the creepy factor of the town certainly did. Separating them, contrasting Galen's experiences with Emma's, made for a much more exciting story.

As for the love triangle? Meh.  Honestly, it wasn't really much of a factor. It's not like you don't know what's going to happen there from the beginning. Mostly I was just worried Emma would do something stupid (which she occasionally did, but so did Galen), resulting in drama and taking away from the book's more exciting and mysterious plot lines.  I think the whole plot line was more designed to create problems (really, the purpose of all love triangles) and to show that Emma had options before committing to Galen.

So if you've read the first two books and enjoyed them but didn't know how you felt about reading this one because the ending of the second one was so perfect, I would absolutely pick it up.  I'm bumping it up to a surprised 4 stars.  I sort of had low expectations, and this totally exceeded them.  Mermaid books are hard, and while this one is a far cry from perfect, this series is probably the best I've read so far.

Book Review: Of Triton

In this sequel to OF POSEIDON, Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she’s a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. Syrena law states that all Half- Breeds should be put to death.As if that’s not bad enough, her mother’s reappearance among the Syrena turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen’s request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she’s never known?  Quoted from Goodreads

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Okay, so you want to know hands down what the best part of this book is?  It's that it actually resolves and ties everything up kind of nicely.  Not everything is perfect, but things are worked out.  And it's only the second book. Seriously, I was wondering whether or not there was going to be a third on to this series (which there is) it ties up so nicely. I love that.  So many second books are torture to read because they a) suffer from sophomore slump or b) leave you with a cliff-hanger ending so horrible you want to curse the author's name for making you wait a year or more to find out what happens. Fortunately this book doesn't do that.

In fact, this book is pretty much up to par with the first one, if not better.  Anna is a bit more mature about the way she handles things, and she's not so traumatized by her best friend's death.  Granted, she has all sorts of other issues she has to deal with, but I feel like she handled things a bit better in this book.  Plus, there was very little (maybe even no) high school drama, which sort of distracted from the whole underwater plot that was going on.

Plus, we get a bit more action in this book. Of Poseidon was all about the mystery of where Emma came from and discovering her heritage/abilities.  This book  has more conflict.  First we get Nalia running away from Grom (who she is convinced is dead and that she's wanted for murder), having tied of Reyna and kidnapped Emma.  After that, we have a political conflict involving Nalia's return and the position of all the royals, really, and their right to rule.  Finally, we have the whole humans discovering the Syrena problem.  All in all, it keeps the book moving.

I just have one major complaint.  It's sort of established that the two underwater kingdoms (Triton and Poseidon) are having conflicts.  But when Nalia comes back there's not the conflict between them like the synopses suggests.  Instead, a slimy political maneuver sort of puts all the royals on trial for their right to rule, and you can't really tell where one kingdom ends and another begins.  It didn't really make sense, especially if they really are two kingdoms.  Maybe they didn't explain enough about the underwater society in the first book, but half of it is from Galen's POV, so that's not really an excuse.   

All in all, this is a great 3.5 stars for me.  It's also one of the better mermaid/sea creature type book I've read recently.  So if you're looking for a great beach read, you really should check this out.  I'll admit, I kind of wish I had waited to read this by the ocean.  Then I wouldn't have to be so jealous  reading about sand between their toes and swimming in the ocean.