Of Poseidon (Of Poseidon #1) by Anna Banks

The prince of Syrena, Galen, is sent to land to find Emma. He's heard that she has the special power to communicate with fish and is therefore royal. However, things are more complicated than he thought and Galen and Emma have to figure out which world they belong in. 

I'll start with the positives. The cover is beautiful and I really like the idea of the story. I also really like the name Galen. I'm always reading and searching for really cool names to name my future children. At first I thought, "Whoa! Galen! That's an awesome name!". But then I thought more about how he would probably get made fun of... But anyways! Emma was a fresh voice and I liked how she and Galen interacted. This book made me laugh out loud at multiple times because of the clever wording and characters of Rayna and Toraf.

Now to the negatives. First, I found it very disturbing that **SPOILER** Emma's BEST FRIEND dies, and she seems hardly affected by it throughout the book. I mean, that's pretty traumatizing. I just don't think the author fully reflected the devastation, guilt, and confusion that Emma should have felt. I also disliked how the story was told. The flap claims that it is "Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view", however Emma's is told from a 1st POV and Galen's is a 3rd POV. That is really confusing and I don't know why the author did that. I think she should have done one of those story tellings that is so popular now where the characters alternate but their name is at the top of the chapter and they both speak in 1st. My last complaint is about the plot. Or the lack of it. There was literally nothing going on because they got next to nothing accomplished. It was clear that the author was planning a sequel, which is no excuse to make your first book go nowhere!

I wish that there had been more description of the Syrenans and their world and customs and everything. Sadly, I have to give this book 3 out of 5 stars. It really does have a lot of promise, so I think I'll be reading the next book and see if that redeems it. 

Lost Voices (Lost Voices #1) by Sarah Porter

Luce has lived with her alcoholic uncle ever since her father went out to sea during a storm and never returned. Her mother died a long time ago, and she is very alone. She doesn't have any friends and chooses to spend her time alone. She dreads coming home to her uncle, unknowing of what he might do to her. One night, when he uncle is especially drunk and tries to rape her, she runs away and is contemplating jumping off a cliff into the ocean. Before she can think any more, she falls off the cliff. Instead of dying, she is turned into a mermaid who now has a home with a tribe of mermaids who eagerly accept her. These mermaids are all "lost girls", who have been cruelly mistreated. That's why they have become mermaids, so that that they can sing to ships and get revenge on the evil things humans have done to them. Luce has an extraordinary voice and quickly becomes second-in-command to the beautiful, mysterious queen Catarina. Luce is thrilled to have a home now, but she questions the morality of killing humans.

Lost Voices  was captivating! I loved the world they lived in, and I love mermaids, and I loved the whole idea of the story. Especially how they were like EVIL mermaids, and had such a dark side.

The writing is beautiful and haunting at the same time. It's cruel but lovely. I love the descriptions and the whole imagination part of this ocean world. And thumbs up to the author for the "larva". Even though I know they were just baby mermaids and I have no problems with babies, I still felt just as repulsed reading about them as the mermaids felt. The characters are fascinating and mysterious, and I wish the author would have focused on them as well as she had focused on the story. The plot is a bit slow, the exciting parts are mainly at the end. Argh, why do authors do this to us haha.

However, the ending ruined Lost Voices for me. How, you might ask? Well there basically was no ending. I almost felt like there was supposed to be some missing chapter that had fallen out of my book. The ending is a promise for another book, but I the problems of the novel are unsolved and a real let-down. I was very disappointed with how the story ended. Not because I'm impatient and I want to know what happens next (well, that too), but because I believe that books in series should also be a good stand alone novel. Like, if someone wanted to read the first book in a series, they would find a complete story and a promise for more. I felt like I had a missing ending and a promise for more.

The cover is beautiful <3 But if that mermaid is supposed to be Luce, the author didn't read the story because Luce has very short hair. And I adore the title. It goes perfectly with the story.

I really did like this story, but I think I would probably recommend the series in a whole rather that just this book. Because I liked the concept and the writing, but not so much the plot rate and the ending. I am looking forward to reading the other books in this trilogy :) This is a 4.5 star book for the overall concept, but  a 3.5 out of 5 stars for me because of the ending, the rate the plot progressed, and how I wanted more out of the characters. And I'm crossing my fingers for a male character in the next book! **cough** merman **cough**

Happy Reading! :)