This story was beautifully written and the history and legends involved were intriguing. The curse was definitely an interesting part of the story, it made the story so much better. Without the curse it would have just been another mermaid story where a mermaid falls in love with a human and wants to become human to be with him, but the curse added another interesting layer to the story. The characters were all interesting and I really liked Syranka. The book goes back and forth between Syranka's story which takes place in the 1800's and Hester's story which takes place modern day. I typically don't like it when a story does that because I get so interested in one character's story and then it switches to another character. In this case I was way more interested in Syranka's story and what was happening with her and I keep getting frustrated when they kept going back to Hester's story. I didn't really get into Hester's story until near the end when she started figuring stuff out about her family. Overall I really liked the book and give a 4 out 5 stars. ( )

CW: Rape of mermaid

2.5 Stars ( )

How did I manage to read another book this year where a guy goes from the past to the present via magical means and makes out with the great-great-great-granddaughter of his previous love interest? Once again no one acknowledges how creepy this is.

As for the rest of the book I liked the mermaid and supernatural stuff ok, but overall I just wasnt that into it. I guessed what was up with the mystery pretty early on and then proceeded to get frustrated with the other characters for not catching on. Unfair of me but thats the way my brain was working I guess.

There was also quite a bit of unpleasantness...a pretty graphic and unexpected rape scene, multiple scenes of sexual harassment/assault, and some grisly deaths. The sexual violence bothered me a lot more than the murder. ( )

I think my expectations were too high. This is really more of a 2.8ish for me than a solid 3 stars. I read a bunch of reviews raving about this awesome, gothic, more adult sounding, young adult paranormal novel. It just didn't do it for me. That's not to say the book was bad, I read it straight through in a day or so, it kept my attention, I wanted to know what happened, but....something fell flat. I think I've become jaded, (Is 22 too young to become jaded?) anytime a hint of romance shows up in YA (which it almost always inevitably does) I cringe. This actually relates to all stories, I am simply not a romantic person and you have simply got to give me more than, "they felt drawn together" for me to buy it. The whole Hester/Ezra relationship felt like that too me. I just didn't buy it and I didn't give a shit. The mermaid myths were cool, as was how the whole murder/suicide thing played out, but it just wasn't enough for me. I still liked parts of it, but it had a lot more potential. Maybe I have officially outgrown most YA novels. ( )

Mermaids, Ghosts, Curses. Hocus Pocus-esque. ( )