Review: Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

Publication Date: Febuary 2nd, 2011
Finished Date: November 30th, 2013
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: Paperback
Pages: 273
Series: Gods & Monsters #1
My Rating: 3.5/5

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Blurb from Goodreads:
Ari can't help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can't be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is.

Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it's impossible to protect herself when she doesn't know what she's running from or why she is being pursued.

She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.

Ari won't stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.

My Review

“The house took my breath away. Yes, it was enormous and graceful, but it seemed to bleed emotions. Sadness. Loneliness. Like a beautiful lady left alone in a sea of gray, green, and black, protected only by oak matrons in their skeleton shawls.”

Kelly Keaton has a way with words that is very visual and poetic. I've always had a love for Greek myths and legends, and Keaton has put quite a modern twist to the entire Medusa legend that's atypical from most YA novels nowadays.

My Summary
Aristanae "Ari" Selkirk has always been the oddball in society - freakish, white hair and teal eyes. She's been an orphan since the tender age of four and been moved from foster home to foster home, finally finding a loving family in the Sandersons. To be part of Bruce and Casey Sandersons' Bonds & Bail company, she has to learn to be able to defend herself and that means being comfortable with headlocks, knives, and guns. Now that she's seventeen, she's determined to find out more about her past - why did her mom request to be admitted into an asylum? Why did she abandon her?

At the asylum, Ari's told that her mom exhibited occasional unusual behaviors and ultimately slit her own throat just before her twenty-first birthday (twenty-one yo?? I shall address this in a minute), and left a box of belongings to her. In the box, there's a letter addressed to her, telling her that there's danger for her in New 2 and to run.

Thirteen years ago, New Orleans was ravaged by a freak hurricane that blew through and wiped out the entire town. A group of nine families, who called themselves the Novem, came together, bought the town and rebuilt it. People do not travel into New 2; The ones that do come out with tales of the supernatural and paranormal. Ari was born there, surely they'd keep records that can lead to some answers about her biological family. Just a day to travel there and another to travel back. What's the worse that could happen?

My Take on DBH
First things first, that cover is a stunner! I love the moonlight quality of Ari's hair, and that purple flower-on-grail pattern is BEAUTIFUL. So mysterious and just perfect for the story! I've never been that interested in the gorgon legend, especially since it's the such a commonly used story that I sometimes find it overrated. But Keaton's take on it pulled on my heartstrings and was so haunting I'll probably remember this version of Medusa's tale every time I hear Medusa's name.

When we were first introduced to Ari, she's a relatable character and she's got character. However, something that did not sit well with me is her dislike of her beauty. I'm not going to your pity party just because you're sad that you're beautiful. Granted, it makes you outstanding (well now, it can't be that bad to have moonlight hair and teal eyes), but it's nothing to be so upset about. I don't think your friends will hate, ostracize or abuse you if you have strange but really nice physical traits now, would they? So stop kicking up such a fuss over it.

But yes, she can kick ass and it's such a joy to read about her confrontations with those who'd want to hurt (or kill) her! It gets even more interesting as we get to meet the rest of the cast in New 2 - twelve-yo quirky and independent Crank, Henri with his own brand of humor, little Violet with her quiet, disturbing yet endearing ways, and the (wait for it) tall, dark and handsome Sebastian. I love the interactions that Ari has with her new little family in their rundown mansion in New 2, and their camaraderie and loyalty. Violet's so adorable in her own ways, even though she may exhibit really strange behavior at times! She wears different Mardi Gras masks, goth dresses and has a baby albino alligator called Pascal for a pet. See, adorable.

Sebastian is...quite the typical hero you'd see in YA novels nowadays. I'd say he's a mix of Aiden from the Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout and maybe Nash from M. Leighton's Down to You (first instalment of the The Bad Boys series). He's a fighter too, he's brooding, he's a little mysterious, but he's diplomatic (most of the time) and he tries his best to help Ari uncover all her family's dark history. What I would have liked to see more of is development between Ari and Bastian. Their romance was almost of the insta-attraction variety, and that just does not inspire any warm and fuzzies in me.

The pacing of the story was very steady, with some ups and some downs. There were times when the story became a tad monotonous, and I was tempted to put it down several times. But I have been in a reading funk of late, so I was determined to get through this, and what do you know, the last one-third of the book was pretty exciting. The halfway mark has come and gone and we're still dangling with Ari on the lineage front. We've met the Novem and they seem to know all about Ari's cursed lineage (they are literally cursed. I'm not swearing just because I'm frustrated), so why doesn't one of them possess the initiative to TELL US WHAT IT IS? It got so frustrating because everyone just kept, "I knew your mother", "You look just like your mother", and gave her the sad, knowing eyes. The thing is, I knew that it was going to be about the gorgon curse so just get on with it.

Another part of the plot that did not sit well with me was the teen pregnancy. Ari's mom died before she turned twenty-one, when Ari was about four years of age. That means that Ari was conceived when her mom was sixteen/seventeen-ish. In the modern world, that's just wrong, and the wrong message to send out in the YA world. The plot is also a little simple and the world not very in-depth. The entire story mainly revolved around Ari, her friends, the Novem and the Big Bad Wolf. Other than that, we don't get to see much of the world or people outside of New 2 or their little group.

It wasn't until the entire instigator of the curse and fiasco was revealed that the story started to amp up its pace. I was shocked actually, cause I was expecting some other god(dess) to be the Big Bad. Spoiler --> Hera seemed the more plausible bitch than Athena. Cause I mean like, Athena, really? She's the goddess of wisdom and justice, I don't think she will be that petty and power-hungry. There were some things that happened in the story that were rather questionable and even in fiction and legends, there are some rules already set in place that are not meant to be broken. Spoiler --> For one, I don't think the Greek gods and goddesses are that easy to kill.And why do we only get to see one of the few existing gods? That's stingy... Haha, Kidding. One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the god(dess) swearing. There are too many F-words in this story, but that's fine, I guess. But when a god or goddess start to color the air blue, it just doesn't seem legitimate. They're gajillion years old with age-old knowledge and wisdom. Profanity should be below them. And where's the elegance?

However, I mentioned that I liked Keaton's take on Medusa's story, that what if Medusa was the victim and not the irreverent beauty that myths often portray her to be? What if she was the wronged victim forced to take the blame and suffer for the misdeeds of another god? The way that Keaton told her story was very vivid and heartwrenching.

There were many things I did like about DARKNESS BECOMES HER, but there were others that debilitated my enjoyment of it. I would still like to see where Keaton takes Ari and her misfit little family in New 2, out of curiosity or amusement or maybe they've grown on me. Just a little. ;)

Staunch (or anal) fans of Greek myths might not take very well to DBH due to some parts of the legend in here that strays from what y'all know of it.

My Rating

Review: Destined by Jessie Harrell

Published Date: November 17th, 2011
Finished Date: December 1st, 2011
Publisher: Mae Day Publishing
Format: Paperback
Pages: 260
My Rating: 3.5/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
When Psyche receives a prophecy gone horribly wrong, she learns that even the most beautiful girl in Greece can have a hideous future. Her fate? Fall in love with the one creature even the gods fear.

As she feels herself slipping closer into the arms of the prophecy, Psyche must choose between the terrifyingly tender touch she feels almost powerless to resist and the one constant she's come to expect out of life: you cannot escape what is destined.

Destined is a fresh and heartachingly romantic retelling of the Cupid & Psyche myth from debut novelist, Jessie Harrell.

My Review

First things first: I love the cover. Seriously, I mean, look at it! It has that very soft feel with that white and purple color combination, and the cushions.. And of course the model's absolutely beautiful. That cover is a real winner, I tell you. It was what caught my attention, then came the synopsis mentioning Greek mythology and I knew at that moment that I was a goner; I had to read DESTINED.

**Major spoiler ahead**

Psyche is the most beautiful girl of all Greece, and after having her portrait painted, she shot to stardom. Her beauty caught the attention of Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Aphrodite named Psyche her daughter, and in exchange for wealth and fame, she wanted Psyche to marry her immortal son, Eros (a.k.a. Cupid).

Eros, having been in love with a mortal girl once and brutally ditched, was furious when his mother proposed the idea in front of him and Psyche, who could be the very shadow of the girl he once loved. Psyche was adamant about opposing the idea of getting married so soon, and especially to a self-absorbed jerk like Eros. Since both of them disobeyed her so forthrightly, Aphrodite got mad and secretly commanded Eros to make Psyche fall in love with a hideous man who treated his woman badly. Eros would've done the deed gladly, thinking that beautiful women shouldn't be allowed to roam scot-free breaking men's hearts, but when he found Psyche crying in her garden (read the book to find out why she's crying), that gave him pause. He lowered his arrow of love/cupid arrow but accidentally nicked himself, and that made him fall in love with her with an all-consuming passion. HAH, all that historical Greek drama.

Anyway, since Eros can't let Psyche fall for another, he had to try his hand at meddling with Fate, and to circumvent his mother's orders and make Psyche fall in love with him. Kinda hard since her first impression of him is worse than bad and that she hates him already. But he did, and because of her listening to the advice of a petty, jealous kin, Psyche ruined Eros' plan and they had to go their separate ways. But Psyche can't let him go now, not when she has already lost her heart to him, so she embarks on a crazy adventure to win back Eros' trust, and to win the right to be by his side. Forever.

**End of spoiler zone**

Apart from a few flaws of the book (and they are pretty major), I did like DESTINED. It was a very beautiful narration of the historical fairytale of Cupid and Psyche.

I'll talk about the flaws first before I gush about the good. The biggest and most obvious flaw I spotted was the too-modern way of writing. I mean, you don't call someone a "twit" in Ancient Greece. The word hasn't even been invented in Ancient America! Lol, if there was such a thing. And you don't celebrate birthdays with cheesecakes. I mean, what? It's 2 generations after the epic Trojan War and you're bringing out cheesecakes? That's like 1900 B.C. we're talking about. And the way Psyche acted, she was practically a modern day American teenager. She was EIGHTEEN and she wasn't even married! Heck, her older sister wasn't even married. Girls in those days were eligible when they turn fifteen (or was that Ancient Egypt? But it shouldn't be far off)! The interactions were off and, well, just too modernised. If not for the modern language, I'd have gladly given this book a 4 or 4.5. I really liked it. A lot. But I do understand the dilemma that Harrell had because DESTINED is a YA novel, and to go with that genre, she couldn't use olden English.

Another thing I noticed, though significantly less important, is that Harrell switched between using the Greek gods and goddesses Roman and Greek names. For example, she used the name Aphrodite, which is the Greek counterpart to Venus, but she used the name Ceres, which was the Roman counterpart of Demeter. Really minor, but I saw it, so, just saying.

Thirdly, Helios wasn't the sun god anymore when Apollo was born. The titans were overthrown when the Olympians took over. In some texts, people believed that Apollo and Helios were one and the same, but in others, they believed that they were two separate entities. But even if they were two distinct gods, Apollo took over as sun god, so there couldn't be a Helios and an Apollo together in the book at the same time, and Apollo couldn't not be the sun god if he was in the story, which was what Harrell wrote.

Fourthly, even though the cover is gorgeous, it doesn't match the Ancient Greece setting. It was very misleading.

Anyway, now on to the things I did like. THE CHARACTERS!! I loved Eros and Psyche! Eros more because he was absolutely flawless, Psyche a little lesser because I'm not into pretty princesses. Much. Eros was, of course, drop-dead gorgeous and an impossible charmer, but under all that, he's just a guy suffering from a lost love and a really nice, kind, and loving romantic. Psyche, even though she indulges herself in crying when trouble comes along, she always stands up again, show the shit who's boss, always gets the job done and the problems solved. She's amazing, and she demonstrated great strength on her journey to find Eros after he left her. And when both of them are together, they are just one of the sweetest couples I have ever seen.

The first time I saw that our male protagonist would be Eros, I was thinking "isn't Cupid small, gay and so inconsequential"? And I saw reviewers gushing about him and his swoon-worthiness. I was so cynical about it all, but after I read DESTINED, I realised I was so wrong. Harrell made him sound so cheeky and so, well, sexy! And the way he wielded his arrows weren't gay at all. Trust me on this.

Other than their personalities, most of them had very human feelings. Like, for example, Chara, Psyche's older sister, felt jealousy and resentment towards Psyche when Chara was forced to marry an old king in the neighbouring, powerful country of Mycenae and Psyche got to have a handsome and charming god as her fiance. It made them seem more real and believable... More relatable.

The plot was fantastic. Harrell managed to balance romance, action, suspense, and all the other dynamics really well. I loved how she used the legend of Heracles' (or more commonly known as Hercules) 12 Labours and made a very clever imitation of it. The way Heracles was tricked into doing 12 instead of the original 10 labours because the person who ordered the labours done, who is King Eurystheus of Mycenae, managed to find loopholes. Harrell managed to do that. That, in itself, is a truly amazing feat. Subtle loopholes are difficult to create, and she actually incorporated her version of the 12 Labours (though Psyche's one was only 2) into DESTINED. Amazing, really amazing.

I have always harbored a deep interest in Greek mythology, and I loved how Harrell included some of the other gods and goddess as secondary characters. Hermes and Eros joked about stuff like brothers, Eros making Zeus fall for mortal women, and others. The only thing I was miffed about was that Hera wasn't such a philanthropist as Harrell depicted her to be. In all the history texts, Hera was, simply put, a B(itch).  Nicely put, unkind. But well, her being a saint at heart worked in the protagonists' favor so I was actually feeling thankful that Hera was nice.

DESTINED is a beautiful debut novel about love, strength, and familial ties, cleverly using Greek mythology to portray these values. Other than the overly-mordernised language that bugged me a lot, I loved the cover, I loved the story, and I loved the characters... What more can a bibliophile ask for? I'd recommend this to YA Lit and Greek mythology fans.

P.S. I REALLY want a sequel!!!!! Sigh, but Harrell has just replied my tweet saying that she's planning a companion novel featuring a new couple! Well, at least now I still have something to look forward to.:D

My Rating

                   

Review: 8: The Previously Untold Story of the Previously Unknown 8th Dwarf

DO NOT judge a book by its cover. Seriously, this book may seem middle-gradey and younger, but there are sexual innuendoes in here. I know I've got you at the sexual part, so read on, folks!

Published Date: November 11th, 2010
Finished Date: November 19th, 2011
Format: eBook from Author
My Rating: 3.75/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
Written in verse, this is the previously untold story of the previously unknown 8th dwarf, named Creepy. He is banished to the basement for being different and, well, weird. Yet he plays a vital - and of course previously unknown - role in the popular tale of Snow White (whose title character is an intruder Creepy refers to as "the Maid").

My Review

Ingenious! At first when I received the ebook from the author, well, being the Paranormal Geekfan that I am, I was thinking I wouldn't like the book, but was in a very What-the-Heck mood so I accepted it. I would never have expected myself capable of ever reading a book written in verse form (I would just faint from boredom), and then enjoy it as much as I had. It was way cool; A really modern and humorous way of retelling one of the world's most famous fairytales.

You see, there once lived 8 dwarfs in the little cottage, but the 8th one was a little different, and a little weird, so the others termed him "Creepy", and the name has stuck ever since. Creepy lived up to his name, eating insects and shaving his hair, till one day the others could stand him no more, and threw him into the cellar. Poor Creepy had a kind heart, just a little dirty, if you get what I mean. And in came Snow White one day, when his brother dwarfs were out at work, and when the old lady at the door starts coming everyday to do her wicked deeds, it's up to Creepy to save the day. But will he get accepted by the others in the end?

My summary's a little all over the place, plus the book's only 7 pages on the Adobe Digital Edition, so I couldn't divulge all the juicy contents now, could I?

Imagine creating a poem that has 2,200 words give or take... Yeah, daunting task, doesn't it seem so? But Mullin did it. Wow, I can't even conjure a 5 paragragh worth of a half-assed poem in my Literature class, and he wrote this... Lol, that is some talent there. Not only that, he incorporated wit, humor, and he even managed to address a very controversial societal subject - the message to "not judge a book by its cover" and to not ostracize anyone just because they're different or ugly came across quite clearly in a fun and engaging way.

There was humor and a subtle sexual innuendo in the book, and a child-like quality that kept it true to its origins. There was this particular part that I really, really liked:

[This is where Snow White enters the cottage of the supposedly seven dwarfs'.]
"While he sat there in silence beneath the wood floor, An unwelcome creature came in the front door.

“Hello?” it called out in a voice scared and thin.

A reply was not needed. She just let herself in.

“How rude!” thought Creepy in sheer disbelief,

“Unless she’s a criminal. Some kind of thief.

If that is the case then it serves those dopes right, The front door unlatched, yet mine is locked tight!”

He quietly moved to the place in his tomb

Where he got the best view of the ground-level room.

She walked overhead, and he opened his jaw,

Surprised and transfixed by the sight that he saw.

Her bare feet were covered with cuts and scrapes,

But beyond that were far more intriguing shapes.

A layer of wrinkled-up cotton and lace

Covered gentle curves in the negative space.

His mind raced with thoughts not entirely clean

Seeing that which was clearly not meant to be seen.

He thought that perhaps he should look well away

..."

Uh huh, y'think? Lol, that's about 1 and a half pages out of the 7 that I mentioned. I'm telling you, it was 7 pages worth of smiles and surprises. Little Creepy even knew sarcasm! I got a kick reading that part of the prose, it was absolutely hilarious. And unexpected.

8 was a really "hip" way of retelling the alternate history (or in this case, alternate fairytale) of Snow White, where one neglected dwarf tells his neglected story, and it also serves as a reminder to society to stop looking at what's on the outside and start looking on the inside. Oh, and to stop being biased to the good-looking, and harbouring prejudices against the uglies.

You see, there's just too much moral values that Mullin teaches inside this little book of 7 pages. So, what's stopping you from picking this book up?

My Rating

ARC Review: Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper

Published Date: November 25th, 2011
Finished Date: November 14th, 2011
Publisher: Rhemalda Publishing
Format: eARC from Publisher
Series: The Sea Monster Memoirs #1
My Rating: 4.5/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
Yara Jones doesn’t believe in sea monsters—until she becomes one.

When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people—until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process—or she might open the gateway to a love that’s deeper than the oceans.

Young Adult fans of Mermaids, Selkies, Sirens and Gorgons will love this tale of the sacrifice one makes for genuine love. Love that could be lost at any moment to the ever-changing tides.

My Review

TANGLED TIDES is a beautiful and enchanting story that swept me up in its currents, immersed me in a magical world filled with mythical creatures, and at the end left me gasping for more. It is truly every girl's childhood dream come true. Lol, at least for me it was. The Little Mermaid has always been my favourite Disney movie (I still watch it now and then), and to say that I am addicted to TT now is a gross understatement.

Yara Jones lives in Eden's Hammock, and recently, there were lots of freak storms happening there. She was having a hard time lifting, heaving and dragging one of her Uncle Lloyd's mermaid statues outside to board up her window so as to protect it from the crazy winds when one of the most handsome guys she's ever seen walks up to her front door and offers his help. Topless. Lol, just had to add that.

After Yara invited Hot Topless Guy, Treygan, into her house to weather the storm, Treygan told her to trust him and wish for him to bring her to some place safe. She feels this dreamy sort of lull, and did as she was told. After some time, Yara wakes up and finds herself underwater, breathing, and has grown a tail in place of where her legs used to be. All of a sudden, her wish for a safe place doesn't sound so good anymore.

The story now will be mostly about Yara discovering a whole new world that she was now, and had always been, a part of, a mystical place where everything seemed like magic. But all is not flowers, daisies and gayness - Yara's found out that her "human" boyfriend, Rownan, back at Eden's Hammock wasn't human at all, in fact, he was very much a part of her new fishy life, and that she actually has a destiny to fulfil, one that involves her dying at the end. Turns out that Yara's birth was never meant to be, but through some unwonted means, she was, but because her parents committed a grave mistake, almost half of the mermaids' and selkies' population have been thrust out of their paradise home, out into the modern world where they can only survive by smoking a special type of weed that was very limited in supply, and Yara must be the one to right that wrong.

Big destiny for a seemingly small mermaid to handle, huh, especially when Yara was just getting comfy with the idea of being one of the "monsters" herself, and of course, to a cobalt-eyed, sexy mermaid that had introduced himself in a storm and welcomed her into her new life, with new friends, and new love. A life that she will want to help save even if it means sacrificing her newly-found beloved fishy existence...

I seriously can't do this book any justice, it was so good! So good that I was hooked throughout the 3 days of reading it (I took so long because of my exams). And how did Edward Cullen phrase it again? Right, "you are my personal brand of heroine". Yep, that sounds about right. That was Tangled Tides to me.

One thing that stood out was Hooper's writing style. It was so smooth and flawless, so... appropriate! One example:

“Gentlemen.” I nodded.

Pango spit a mouthful of water at me and flicked me with his tail. “Don’t gentle man me. You two sped ahead so you could discuss our newest Goldilocks. You better share some juicy porridge with Papa Bear.”

“Pango, there isn’t that much to tell.”

Merrick rolled his eyes. “Even I’m declaring sharkshit on that one.”

Sharkshit? Lol, while I was reading it, her writing was so fluent that I didn't notice that oddity at first. And another one was, "She's tough as a seawall. She'll be fine." Loved the language; It matched the world that they were living in and made it all the more believable.

Yara was a very inquisitive and stubborn heroine. Even though she was new to the Greek-myth world, she showed no fear and kept asking questions and learning the mermaids' way of life. Treygan, her beau-to-be, and whose team I am very much in, was fiercely protective of Yara even though he refuses to admit it. He was so cool, those brooding guys with a mission in life, and who happens to be the fastest swimming merman alive. Yeah, he's so mine. HAH. Movin on.

What's even cooler is that not only is the male protagonist very macho-man and testosterone-y, even the side characters displayed similar traits! I don't want to quote it cause that part I'm thinking about is filled with surprises and humor, and of course that macho-man-ly goodness.

The plot was in no way simple or convenient. It was filled, absolutely jam-packed with suspense and action, and betrayals and such. I loved the second-guessing that everyone had to do. It was just that Hooper wrote TT in an alternating first-person/POV way, which switched from Yara's point of view, to Rownan's, to Treygan's, then back to Yara's. It wasn't confusing, not at all actually, but it took away some of thrill. For example if we didn't know what Treygan and Rownan were thinking, wouldn't you think it'd have made them all the more mysterious and, well, cool? I like that the male protagonists are usually an unknown element, someone who only the female protagonist had the ability to unlock. But the story's still cool, and I thought that Hooper's take on the gorgons and Medusa part of Greek myth is very different from the norm, and the input itself is awesome enough. And the ending! When all hope seemed lost and I had no inkling at all whatsoever of how the protagonists are going to save their sorry asses out of all that trouble and chaos, Hooper somehow made it work. And I loved it so much.

I have always, always loved mermaid novels, but have never been able to find the perfect story. Recently I've discovered THE MERMAID'S KNIGHT by Jill Myles, loved it to bits but I thought that I wouldn't be able to find any that would be able to hold a candle to it. But here I am, being proven wrong. TT is truly a beautiful underwater fairytale.

I absolutely adored the entire cast of TANGLED TIDES, and I think any YA fan would too. Try it out when it releases on November 25th, 2011.:)

My Rating

And add a .5 at the back of ^that!

Review: The Mermaid's Knight by Jill Myles

Published Date: August 29th, 2011
Finished Date: October 12th, 2011
Publishers: Pocket Books
Format: eBook

Blurb from Goodreads:
When a car accident takes Leah Sunderland's life, she finds herself in dire need of divine assistance. Her fairy godmother comes to the rescue, but her help comes with conditions. As a fairy godmother, the only assistance she can offer deals with (you guessed it) fairy tales. To win a second chance at life, Leah must play out the tale of The Little Mermaid.

Armed with a mermaid tail and nothing else (not even a voice!), she has one month to make a nobleman fall in love with her, or else she'll die permanently. But the nobleman she must seduce is a hard, fierce warlord who thinks she's a spy and the mistress of his enemy.

Can she win him over before the thirty days are up? Or is she in danger of losing her heart as well as her life?

My Review

      +       =ME

SHELLSHOCKED!

It isn't uncommon for the premise of books such as The Mermaid's Knight to be thought of as "Cliche", "Childish", and "Totally not worth the time". Well, ok I have to admit that: Cliche? Yes. Childish? A liiiittle bit. Totally not worth the time? Utter bullshit. Cause this book had my completely under its thrall throughout the reading process. It was, and is, THAT good. Hence, I was shellshocked.

Just a brief summary before I continue with my shellshocked ramblings - Leah died. It was a rather wronged way to go - drunk driver crashed into her, she died, he didn't. So while she was floating in the alternate dimension, her fairy godmother appeared.

Muffin is a plump, jovial woman. A little eccentric, but still possesses a genial disposition. She admitted that the accident was all her fault for not paying enough attention, and so grants her a second chance at life. Catch is (there will always be a catch. NO FREE LUNCH IN THIS WORLD!): She has to make a guy in another time and place fall in love with her - Fairytale-style.

So Muffin decides that Leah would take after Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Leah will be turned into a mermaid, and while she's on land as a human, she won't be able to talk. What's worse is that her intended target, one Lord Royce Northcliffe, is a weather-bitten, war-hardened warrior who doesn't indulge in things such as love. So how, oh how, will poor, mute-when-human Leah seduce old Royce's granite heart?

Well, I'm still reeling from the shock of having fallen in love with this book.. For one, I'm not big on the whole happy-gayness novels with an easy plot which I can breeze thru in no time. Nuh uh, no can do. But the thing is, this book, tho cliche in general, do have the elements of surprise that kept my eyeballs freaking glued to its pages. I assumed that this book would be very predictable, but Myles just kept the surprises rolling in, and I really liked that a lot.

Leah and Royce together, were just simply adorable. The suspicious nature of our dear warrior definitely did hinder their relationaship from progressing much, but well, it did liven up the atmosphere sometimes. For example when Leah was first found naked on shore (and subsequent times too), Royce was totally unamused to find, at that time he assumed to be, his enemy's leman or wench, or simpy, his prostitute, on his shore. So he immediately thought her a spy and was all macho-man, "What the hell are you doing here, girl?" Ok, not direct quote, but you get the point. And she fainted. LOL. So he threw her over his shoulder and carried her to camp. Wrapped in a cloak like a burrito.

The, um, I can't really say banters since Leah can't talk, but their exchanges are hilarious. I absolutely enjoyed them. Y'know, the fact that Myles could make it so engaging is phenomenal in itself. One party of the conversation can't freaking talk, for god's sake! But she did it. Oh, and I think she kinda made up for it by showing us what Leah was thinking in place of any verbal responses, so yep, it was still like a conversation. But whenever Royce said something Leah thought was ridiculous, Leah would stamp on his feet. It was real sweet. Haha. Albeit a little gay, but sweet all the same.

This book...is it under adult fiction or Young Adult? Um, it is childish in a YA way, but the sexuality of it is definitely adult fiction. Tho a LITTLE bit more childish than YA at the beginning (the rest was fine!), and a LITTLE bit less porny than adult fiction, so... To each his own.:)

To sum it all up, I am still shocked. Shocked that such a cliche fairytale story can be twisted and rewritten so well where all others have failed (and it wasn't because of the lack of attempts); Shocked that, well, I fell badly for such a gay story - but not the point; Shocked that the plot and storyline could be handled so well even when so much other problems were brewing in the background - made it all the more exciting that it's so eventful; Shocked that Myles could've made a mute's conversation so entertaining. List goes on. But all in all, I loved the story.

P.S. It kinda reminds me of The River of Times series because of the travelling back in time and falling for a lord of some castle, and Kathryn Lasky's Daughter of the Sea series which features women who can turn into mermaids when they come into any bodily contact with water. So, if you're a fan of either one, why not try this one?

My Rating