Review: Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore

Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore

Published: October 25th 2011
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Page Count: Hardcover, 240
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Find the Author: Website, Good Reads, Twitter, Blog
Buy This Book: Amazon, Book Depository
Add It To Your Good Reads Shelf

For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air. - Good Reads

The cover of Between the Sea and Sky is absolutely beautiful. I actually have the Kindle version of the cover pictured - the hardback cover is much more bluer than this one, but both are equally beautiful. I'm such a sucker for a beautiful cover!


I've read three mermaid novels now and I think I enjoyed this one the best out of the ones I've read so far, but I'm starting to feel worried that perhaps mermaid novels aren't exactly my cup of tea. This book was beautifully written though. With the third person perspective it did make me feel a little distant from an already distant feeling Esmerine. I did admire what I could see of her: she had a sweet disposition, a little on the innocent side, but she was strong willed and determined and had a fierce love for her family that I loved to see. 


The love story fell a little flat for me though. I think it warmed up more towards the end, but it still didn't grab a hold of me like I was hoping it would. 


Between the Sea and Sky basically was a story of a girl getting to know herself and the family and friends she thinks she knows and learning to live with her own expectations, not the expectations of others. I was definitely satisfied with the ending though. No cliffhanger and it looks like this is a stand alone. WOW, right? A stand alone!  


I definitely think Between the Sea and Sky would appeal to certain people. Especially those who love mermaids. There is a nice, clean romance, an interesting fantasy world and a sweet lesson as a reminder to stay true to what you want to do. 


                                    3 out of 5 Hello Kitties

A e-ARC was provided by NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA! Thank you!

Review: Between the Land and the Sea (Marina's Tales #1) by Derrolyn Anderson

Between the Land and the Sea (Marina's Tales #1) by Derrolyn Anderson 

Published: March 19th 2011
Publisher: Self Published
Page Count: Kindle Editon, 261
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Find the Author: Website, Good Reads
Buy This Book: Amazon Kindle

Add It To Your Good Reads Shelf

Something extraordinary is lurking in the deep ocean waters off the coast of Aptos, California. Just a few weeks after moving to the beach town, sixteen year-old Marina has nearly drowned twice, enchanted the hottest guy in high school, and discovered a supernatural creature. If she can manage to survive her increasingly dangerous encounters with unpredictable mermaids, she might just be able to unlock the mystery of her past and learn how to appease the mysterious forces that seem to want something from her... and maybe even find true love along the way. - Good Reads

This was sent to me by the author for an honest review. 

I'd seen the covers of the Marina's Tales series floating around blogs for a while now and have read nothing but good reviews, so when Derrolyn Anderson e-mailed me I was excited that she invited me to read and review the series for myself. I'm interested in mermaids, but I haven't found a mermaid novel I've been able to really enjoy yet, so I was hoping this would be the one. And I'm happy to say I enjoyed it much more than I have enjoyed other mermaid novels I've read. 


The premise was interesting, the characters enjoyable, there was a sweet love story and there was an intriguing storyline. And I only saw two typos throughout reading, so those who have complaints about independently published books having a lack of good editing: this isn't one of them. Two typos is comparable with the typos I find in novels put out by the big boys. But there were a few issues I had:


1. The language sometimes felt very out of place and unnatural. Here are a few examples of quotes from the book:


"He was the handsomest boy I had ever laid eyes on."


"I had to find Lorelei, for now I was truly desperate to know more about my mother."


"The more I got to know Ethan the more impressed I was, for he was totally unlike any of the other boys at school."


"I felt terrible, for now he knew that I had lied to him. Lies of omission."


"I beamed at him, for his joy was infectious, and delighted me as if it were my own."


which leads me to what else bothered me:


2. Marina. She was a lovable character, but felt a little pretentious at times. I've lived in numerous countries and I've travelled to quite a few as well. When I was 16 I spent a summer in Thailand doing volunteer work, when I was 14 it was the Darien Jungle in Panama and the list goes on. I was also taught at home. It in no way caused me to talk like I jumped out of the 19th century like it was shown to affect Marina. The only way my life experiences have affected my speech are silly things, like I mix Arabic in quite a bit and my normal speech is a  mix between Russian and English or when I go to the supermarket and see the girl from Thailand we greet each other in Thai or I see the Turkish man who sells mobile accessories in the mall, I say "Marhaba!" My daughter started out with an English accent, but now has an American accent. I have an American accent, but I've been known to pronounce certain words the English way, usually because I learned to pronounce them that way. I also say things like lift instead of elevator, fringe instead of bangs, boot instead of trunk, etc. So, no, in my experience and from what I've seen of my other friends who grew up as expats: we do not talk as if we've time travelled out of another century. I actually even feel a little pretentious right now. 

But other than that, the book was actually good. The love story was very slow developing. It's funny because I always bitch about instalove and this time I was like GEEZ YOU GUYS, YOU LOVE EACH OTHER, YOU WANT EACH OTHER GOGOGOGOGOGO! -- It developed at a snail pace and I didn't exactly feel the sparks I hoped for, but the development did feel realistic and I still was able to enjoy it.


The mermaid side of the story moved a little slow throughout the book, but reared its head majorly towards the end. I really liked the descriptions and the background that we did learn in this installment of the series and I look forward to getting to know more about the world of the mermaids in future books and I definitely plan on reading more! 


I definitely recommend this for mermaid lovers or anyone who wants a clean, slow growing young adult romance mixed with some fantasy. It only costs 99 cents for the Kindle edition and I can honestly say that's a steal! 


                                           3 out of 5 Hello Kitties!

Review: Forgive My Fins (Fins #1) by Tera Lynn Childs

Forgive My Fins (Fins #1) by Tera Lynn Childs

Buy This Book | Website 

Release Date: May 19th 2010

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Page Count: Hardcover, 293 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy

Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush. 
Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life. 
When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned. - Good Reads

I was excited to read this - I love mermaids and seeing as how this book is all about a mermaid, I was into it. And it didn't disappoint me horribly, but I didn't love it as much as I expected.

There is a lot of "sea slang" used and I didn't really care for that. I felt it was bordering on being too cute and juvenile, maybe more suited for a preteen. I also couldn't really relate to the heroine Lily much. She was a little too stubborn for my tastes and more often than not I was rolling my eyes at her attitude. Stubborn is good, but there is a fine line and then you're just being stupid. She was also a little more naive than I would expect a nearly 18 year old to be. If I wanted to sum up this book, it was basically about a girl who is stupidly stubborn and wrong and everyone but her can see it and that it drags out that way until the end. There was really nothing else to this story: no action, no other storylines. At the end though, there is an epilogue, which points that there will be a second book out, and it in fact out now: Fins Are Forever.

It seems like the story could get more interesting in the next book, but I'm honestly not really jumping out of my seat to go get it. I will end up reading it most likely, but I didn't get caught up in the story enough to really get involved. I think Forgive My Fins could have easily been one book, despite the ending being slightly unsatisfactory for the feelings invested.