Where to begin with this one? Well, I did like this book. I thought it was an entertaining, light read. It wasn't great, though. The plot was not original--it's a tried and true fairytale (complete with dragons and damsels in distress, except in this case it was the heroine's brother who needed to be rescued).

The main love-story between Darius and Grace was plausible in the beginning but it plunges into the territory of ridiculous very quickly. And I mean QUICKLY. The characters were not rounded enough throughout the book to make any of the emotions--or anything about them, for that matter--real. The author sacrifices her character for the sake of fast paced narration. For the most part, with the slight exception of Darius, the characters were nothing more than names throughout the novel. They were very generic in a project-yourself-onto-them kind of way (especially for the main female protagonist).

Although the formation of convincing characters was overlooked in this book, I didn't feel that it suffered too much from it. Like I said, these are characters so familiar Showalter might as well have named them 'Quintessential Male Hero' and 'Slightly Flawed Yet Attractive Heroine' and the minor characters 'Atlantean Warrior #1', 'Human Thug #2', etc. The storyline was enjoyable because it is as familiar as its characters. The setting is one that isn't used often and it is a huge redeeming factor. It captures the imagination and makes the book worth reading.

If you are looking for something quick and fun, I would definitely recommend this to you. I read this during my commute on the subway and it was perfect to pass the time. I like it enough to want to read the other books in the series because I do have to do more commuting. As long as you don't take it too seriously and expect too much from it, you'll be fine.

If you're planning to pick up this book my only suggestion is to take it for what it is and enjoy it! It's like a catchy pop song. There's no deep message behind it but it's entertaining as hell. :)