Book Review–Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy #1) by Anna Banks

 

This is the 8th book from my 115 in 2015 Reading Challenge.

 

Picture Source: Goodreads.com

Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy #1) by Anna Banks
Published May 22nd, 2012 by Feiwel & Friends

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he’s heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma’s gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom…

Told from both Emma and Galen’s points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

 

 

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Plot:

Basically, it reminded me of Twilight, except with mermaids. Excuse me–Syrena. That’s what they are called. They’re like mermaids but have more of a shark-like tail and fin. Right. One of the most promising, if stereotyped characters, is killed off in the beginning and then the rest of the book is a drawn out torture-fest between the Syrena male and the human girl he is attracted to (who, of course, has a deep, dark secret).

The plot itself is okay for the most part, but seemed to drag on a lot. Props for keeping a good bit of it realistic.

Setting:

I would have liked to see more of the Syrena territories. The rest of the book is set at Jersey Shore, although Florida and Europe make brief appearances. Overall the settings seemed to be described realistically.

Characters:

There are two main characters–Emma, the human, and Galen, the Syrena (who is also Royalty). I wanted to like Emma. She had this sweet yet stubborn/hard-headed thing going on but most of the time I wanted to shake her because she seemed so clueless about things. Really obvious things. She is also really clumsy, blushes a gazillion times, and seems to have these odd blackouts that are never quite explained. I did like her situation with the fish, though.

I didn’t much care for Galen. He seemed really possessive, clingy, and easily jealous. It seemed like he was always all over Emma, no matter what he did.

I probably liked Galen’s sister, Rayna, the best out of all of them though one decision she made left me shaking my head.

The other minor characters ranged from okay to meh.

Relationships:

Basically Syrena males get to pick their mates, especially the ones in Royalty, but the females don’t. This really explains why Galen is possessive, I suppose.

I honestly didn’t like any of the relationships. I found Galen and Emma to be boring together, probably because it reeked of too much insta-love for me.

Writing/Voice:

Characters and plot aside, this is what really got me.

I kept tripping over the first few lines. Some lines made me read them out loud to my fiance’, who is probably glad I am finally finished with the book. I particularly like this one part where Emma describes ocean water going down her friend’s throat and describing the tonsils as–wait for it– “hangy ball.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really been close enough to see my friend’s tonsils, and calling it a “hangy ball” is just weird.

Besides that, it annoyed me that Emma’s POV is in first person and Galen’s is in third. It made it difficult to switch gears and also made the story seem choppy. Please just stick with either first or third, not both. They don’t work well together in most cases.

While I’m not really a fan of the writing, there were a few lines that came across as being funny.

Ending:

I kind of saw the cliffhanger ending and its “twist” coming several chapters before the last one. And while I admit that it still does make me curious as to what happens next, I’m just not sure I am willing to read any more books in this series.

Overall:

As a lover of mermaid fiction, I really wanted to like this, but there was too much that kept me from being able to. It had potential, though, so I’d actually give it 1.5 Stars. I’ve decided not to continue with the sequel.