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The Secret of the Emerald Sea

Heather Matthews (Goodreads Author)

3.82 · Rating details · 401 ratings · 23 reviews

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Kindle Edition, 1st Edition, 269 pages

Published August 18th 2010 by Sugar and Spice Press

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YA Mermaid Novels

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· 401 ratings · 23 reviews

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Sep 24, 2016 Rusty's Ghost Engine (also known as.......... Jinky Spring) marked it as dnf

Shelves: mermaids

This is the first book I've read on kindle and I don't think I'll carry on. I've read up to 14 chapters on this and although others have said it gets better I have failed to be sucked in. The writing style and characters are just so so strange and unrealistic. I think the author has meant to write this in the style of a fairytale or legend but this failed to work for me. I'm just not interested in the characters. At all.

This is a story about Roman gods and the sea God trying to find his daughte ...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Elizabeth(The Book Whisperer) rated it really liked it

The description of the book was a tad misleading. I thought it was mearly a mermaid story. It turned out to be a story about Roman gods and goddesses, the daughter of Neptune being the main heroine. I really enjoyed this story, it had a rocky begining, but got better. The only thing that prevents me from giving it four stars is it's poor editing. ...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Tee loves Kyle Jacobson rated it it was amazing

Beneath the waves of the glittering Emerald Sea, there is another world, filled with magic, strange and wondrous creatures, and many mysteries. When a young girl from a small seaside village decides to explore this hidden world one rainy night, she learns a shocking secret that leads to the adventure of a lifetime…

Warning: This book when you first start reading it is weird to say the least, but once you get past the first few chapters the book draws you in and you begin to really enjoy it.

My Rat Beneath the waves of the glittering Emerald Sea, there is another world, filled with magic, strange and wondrous creatures, and many mysteries. When a young girl from a small seaside village decides to explore this hidden world one rainy night, she learns a shocking secret that leads to the adventure of a lifetime…

Warning: This book when you first start reading it is weird to say the least, but once you get past the first few chapters the book draws you in and you begin to really enjoy it.

My Rating: 5 of 5

My Cover Thoughts: My first thoughts of the cover were HOLY COW! I loved it. There is a beautiful girl on the cover and she is wearing a white dress sitting on a rock in the middle of the sea. The cover is Emerald green and is absolutely eye catching!

My Thoughts/Review: I have to be real honest about this book……. Drum roll please…..
When I first started reading this book I did not like it. It was very weird to me until I got to chapter five. In the beginning There is a young girl who lives with her grandmother because her parents have died. She longs to go into the water but it is forbidden by her grandmother. One day she hears the rain coming down and longs to go to the water so she does. When she reaches the water’s edge she goes into the water even though she does not know how to swim. She keeps going into the water until she starts to swim magically. When she is down in the water she finds out she is the daughter of Neptune, King of The Sea. She does not want to live in the water so she tries to leave and Neptune has a fit and creates his huge storm that washes her out to sea. She roams the sea lost until she finds an island.
While on this island she learns how to feed herself and build shelter but every night she hears this crying like a baby. She finally decides to go see where the crying is coming from when she finds a baby of two years old crying. The two of them devise a plan to get off the island and get to somewhere safe. They build a boat and go to a small village where they live as brother and sister. Jane is her name and the little boy’s name is Cupid. They go to the small village where Jane reads fortunes to provide a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. Once there Jane falls in love with Lord Sterling and she aches to be with him but she knows that she needs to keep her identity a secret. Plus she has fallen in love with cupid.

While all this is going on Neptune is looking for his daughter and wants her back so enlists the help of Minerva The Goddess of Wisdom. Minerva goes to an oracle and looks in a crystal ball to see where Jane is only to find out the old crone wants to be young and beautiful in exchange for the info Minerva seeks. Only when Minerva tells her she will not do that the crone promises to find Jane and kill her. Minerva is distraught by this and goes on an adventure of her own to find Jane first before the old crone kills her.

There are a lot of action and side stories in this book that you will love. If you like Mythology you are going to love this book. Just remember what I said the first few chapters are hard to get through but stick with I and you will not regret it. Neptune, Jupiter, Pluto, Venus, Mercury, Proserpine, Hecate, Diana, are all in this book. Mythology 101 pure bliss! This book made me believe in endless love and the possibility of hope. In the end Parting is such sweet sorrow…..
Memorable Quotes: Page 143 Blake laughed and turned to go. ―Parting is such sweet sorrow, he whispered, turning back to kiss her again. She wished to stay there with him forever, but she broke their kiss and helped him as he took his coat off her shoulder and put it back on.
Moments later, Blake was gone. I kissed him, she thought wildly. I kissed him. My first kiss, and it was…everything one could ask for. For a moment, she remembered the Cupid‘s kiss, but quickly put it out of her mind.

Jane closed the door behind her, and plunked the Cupid, who was wide awake, onto the floor with a thump. She hugged herself and closed her eyes. He kissed me, she said to herself. I kissed him.
Advice: I love this book and if you love mythology you will LOVE this book to.
...more

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Jun 11, 2012 D.M. Dutcher rated it really liked it

Shelves: mythology

Edit: The author has responded and mentioned she had the book reformatted, so please disregard the old version of this review. My past review was giving this one star due to some format issues that made the book unreadable, but I removed the rating and I'll put the old part under spoilers just for history's sake. I'll update this review again and give it a proper star rating when I reread the book.

9/25/12. I finished it. I'd give it 3.5 stars. It's interesting in that it isn't what you'd expect- Edit: The author has responded and mentioned she had the book reformatted, so please disregard the old version of this review. My past review was giving this one star due to some format issues that made the book unreadable, but I removed the rating and I'll put the old part under spoilers just for history's sake. I'll update this review again and give it a proper star rating when I reread the book.

9/25/12. I finished it. I'd give it 3.5 stars. It's interesting in that it isn't what you'd expect-it reads more like a fairy tale than the usual YA mermaid book, and while I'm not sure on the way she tells it at times, there's some really fine ideas and situations that lift the book up.

Jane is a young girl who one day is called to the sea. Upon throwing herself into it, she finds that she is a demigod, and the half-daughter of King Neptune. However Neptune's wrath and violence drives her away, and she becomes an unwitting catalyst in the private drama of the gods of sky, sea, and hell. Accompanying her is the Cupid, a demigod who is both a cool angelic cherub, and a tormented man by night.

Some of the parts of the book were very well done indeed. The mythology was good, especially in the underworld, and the villainess Liesel and her cursed destiny overshadowed even Jane in my opinion. Cupid as well was an interesting take on an old legend, and the interactions between the gods felt like how the pantheon would react, even if the language was modernized a bit too much.

There's also some fine images. Prosperina, a prisoner in the halls of the dead, wearing a necklace of bird skulls with eyes of rubies. Hecate's malice, and Jane being blown by the force of Neptune's wrath to a deserted island, and now a mermaid afraid of the water.

However, there's a few flaws. One is that the book starts in one place, Jane's destiny, but soon becomes apparent that it's really about a whole pantheon of gods and demigods. It's not really foreshadowed that well, and almost feels like two books-the first part Jane's private quest, the second the Gods becoming involved and their own lives and motivations. I liked both halves, but I think the book would have been better focusing on one or the other. Or as multiple books.

There's also a lot of telling rather than showing. A lot of knowing what is inside of their heads. Sometimes it works-Liesel in particular is surprisingly complex, but other times not so much.

It's a decent book. I find myself wanting to see a sequel about Proserpina, as for me the underworld section and the villains shined. I'm glad she reformatted it, as it was better than I thought it would be.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Howard Parsons rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Young adults who enjoy fables.

It is the policy of this reviewer to NOT include spoilers and/or plot synopses in his reviews. (Neptune knows that there are enough other reviewers who do this.) Instead, this reviewer usually chooses to comment on the book as a whole or, perhaps, certain characters and/or points in the plot.

Unless otherwise noted, all reviews are based on the Kindle edition.

This is a fairly good story that's marred by a meandering and often slow-moving plot as well as an egregious amount of typos in the Kindle ...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Regina Tam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, i-own-this

It was lovely and magical.I got sucked into the story pretty quickly. I liked use of mythology and Jane is a sympathetic heroine. I have to admit that Cupid was my favorite character because of his complexity. I pretty much rooted for him even though he was in the form of a baby most of the story. JanexCupid is sweet.the story was more of a becoming of age and learning what it means to find yourself type than the regular YA. The love is secondary to the story in my opinion and the love triangle ...more

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May 08, 2014 Helen Dalgarno rated it it was ok

I'm sorry to say I got a sample of this from Amazon and you get 6 chapters and I just couldn't get into it. It seems like it could be a really good book but not for me, I want something that grabs your attention from the get go or at least earlier than chapter 6. ...more

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Jul 05, 2019 Andy G. rated it it was amazing

The book was so interesting and such a page turner! I wanted Jane to be with the cupid and towards the end of the book I was afraid she wasn't! SPOILER ALERT: I am so happy she got with the cupid. I felt like some parts of the book was a little scary like when Blake's dad gets turned to stone. I love this book and I recommend this book for you! The beginning is a little too fast paced but still very good. This is one of my favorite books! ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 Kelsey rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned-dnf

DNF at 80%. Great idea for a story, but terrible writing made this book extremely hard to get through. Huge disappointment! :/

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Sep 09, 2017 Rose rated it really liked it

Shelves: adventure, bad-family-relations, creepy-disturbing, fairy-tales, fantasy, love-story, pirates-or-sailing, mythical-creatures, unlikely-couple, young-adult

An unusual fantasy story based on Roman and Greek mythology. The daughter of Neptune falls in love with a young man who is shot by Cupid's arrow, but Cupid is the better match for her. ...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Debbie rated it really liked it

This is an official review from The Romance Review

Who doesn't like a good fantasy story? A story that also includes a great adventure and romance. Heather Matthews has done a marvelous job of writing such a descriptive story that I actually felt like I was part of it. I could see the scenery and the magical beauty under the surface of the sea in my mind as I was reading. Thus begins this truly captivating tale that will draw young and adult alike and you have to keep reading to see what is goin ...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Heidi rated it liked it

The Secret of the Emerald Sea was a very difficult book to embrace. For me, I felt as though the story was unrelatable and lacked depth. I was under the opinion that the book was trying to force the reader to sense the emotions, rather than having the emotions develop naturally. I felt no real attachment or innocence/morality in any character. Perhaps, this is the way of the gods but it makes for a difficult read. Sadly, in my opinion, the only saving grace of this book was that the story line b ...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Steffi rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle-books-2013, read-2013, read-in-english, awesome-covers

I am actually torn between 2 and 3 stars.
When I read the first 20% of this book, I thought "WTF is this?!"...the writing style was totally childish and the story just weird. Reviews on here said it will get better, so I continued reading it. The book did get better, story and writing style. Still I couldnt really connect with the book nor the characters. It might be a problem that I expected a totally different story. ...more

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May 14, 2012 M G rated it liked it

The beginning of this book was terrible. Honestly. I was appalled and almost gave up on it. It really struck me as melodramatic, teenage wish fulfillment writing. I know it's a YA novel, but...

That said, I stuck it out and it got better. It's not an amazing read but it's entertaining and interesting.

Keep reading, it gets better. ...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Lorelle rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: everone but especially tweens and teens

Shelves: young-adult-fiction

My interest in this book grew as a read it. I found that by the last third of the book, I had a hard time putting it down. These Roman were woven into a unique story about good, evil, love and heartbreak. I found myself most interested in cupid, his character and his behavior.

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Aug 02, 2012 Jessi rated it did not like it

An interesting story idea, but the kindle edition is incredibly hard to read due to strange structure (no quotation marks at all for speakers) and several typos. I also did not connect with any of the characters and found them to be far too melodramatic for my tastes.

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Feb 13, 2012 Ⓛeah ✿εїз✾ marked it as to-read

I love the cover!

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Feb 28, 2014 elin rated it did not like it

Shelves: mythology

0 stars really it was just soo bad

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Feb 21, 2011 Dana Wright rated it liked it

Shelves: mermaid

Check out my review on:
http://danasyabookpile.blogspot.com/
...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Amanda rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, y-a, mythology

2.5 stars

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Nov 27, 2012 Yuska Vonita rated it really liked it

It's magical and full of surprises. I was blown away.
Thanks for writing such a beautiful work. ...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Heather rated it it was ok

Shelves: kindle

not a bad plot, just not my cup of tea....

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Jan 16, 2013 Magen Despain rated it it was ok

I am surprised that I wasn't into this book more. I love mythelogy, but I think there were too many characters and the writing was really elementary. Kind of lame. ...more

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