Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy, #1) in The Wide Web of Friends in YA Books

May 09, 2013 Tracy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hilarious, physical-books-i-own, holy-sizzle-batman, mermaids

Yippee!! A mermaid novel I finally really enjoyed! Now, I would normally give this one a 4 star, because I "really liked it" and it wasn't "amazing" but I decided to bump it up to 5 because of how many times I found myself laughing OUT LOUD. (All alone - which feels ridiculous, right??) So, thank you Anna Banks for yanking the usually-suppressed giggles from my throat!

Okay, so this book is funny. Point made. It's also a great story. A bit slow in parts, however the humor made up for it. I loved ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Tamara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: suprised-me, fell-in-love-with-the-characters, young-adult, paranormal, mythology, 2014-reads

Crap, I hope that (the ending) doesnt mean they cant be together. My OTP belongs together!!!

My first mermaid novel wow (The Little Mermaid doesnt count, right?). I freaking loved it!!! Review to come shortly ;) ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Rachel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: own-kindle, young-adult, mythology, series-unfinished, first-in-a-series, fantasy, audiobook

I've been wanting to read this for a while now, especially once Of Triton was released, so when I found out it was one of the selections for the free SYNC audiobook selections during the summer event, I was really excited. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed in Of Poseidon.

Honestly, one of the reasons I didn't enjoy it may have been the narrator. I found her accents to be annoying and distracting. The most atrocious voices were those of Chloe, Rachel, and Toraf. All for different reasons, I've been wanting to read this for a while now, especially once Of Triton was released, so when I found out it was one of the selections for the free SYNC audiobook selections during the summer event, I was really excited. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed in Of Poseidon.

Honestly, one of the reasons I didn't enjoy it may have been the narrator. I found her accents to be annoying and distracting. The most atrocious voices were those of Chloe, Rachel, and Toraf. All for different reasons, but all equally bad. Another thing that drove me crazy about this book, although this was certainly not the narrator's fault, was the phrases that are so overused I wanted to scream when I heard them! "Ohmysweetgoodness," for instance. Oh yeah, and "Triton's trident." And the word "angelfish."

Now that I'm thinking about the book more, I am remembering more things that I disliked about the actual writing. It started with the very beginning. Chloe is Emma's best friend, and she is also black. I am not easily offended, but the walking stereotype named Chloe (who dies a terrible death) really bothered me. First of all, Emma makes it very clear Chloe is black when she is complaining about Chloe asking to borrow her ID to get a tattoo, and Emma says there is no way anyone would believe the ID is Chloe's because she is black and Emma is white. Then, she fantasizes about ripping one of Chloe's new weaves out after Chloe embarasses her when they meet Galen. Also, I find it wierd that after making it perfectly clear that Chloe is black, she still goes on to mention her beautiful chocolate-milk skin. Just weird to me. Soon after, Chloe complains because Emma got her new hair wet. In between that and the next offense, we get our first "Ohmysweetgoodness" out of Emma. And finally, as a shark is beginning to attack Chloe by biting her leg, Emma notices that Chloe grabs her leg so hard that one of her fake nail pops off, and then another. And this is all by page 17.

Also, Emma seems to get over her best friend from childhood's violent death rather easily. The first chapter after Chloe's death, Emma sadly thinks of how things remind her of Chloe, but once Galen comes into the picture she hardly mentions her again. So already, I'm not a big fan of Emma. Plus, she is supposed to be this kind little meek girl, yet she throws Rayna through hurricane-proof glass? I am just confused about who Emma really is.

If I dislike Emma, then I greatly dislike Galen. He is pompous, and all he cares about it finding a nice girl to take care of him and to mate with him. I found it crazy that Emma would find anything attractive about him after how appalled she was when she heard him talking about finding a mate. She still manages to fall in love with him, despite knowing how he feels about women and being disgusted by it.

As for the rest of the book, I was never really excited about listening to more of it. There wasn't really a feeling of suspense for me. It took me a month to listen to a 9 hour book. The twist at the very end wasn't really shocking for me, but the age difference thing was a little creepy, in my opinion. (view spoiler)

Honestly, I don't really know who I could recommend this to. I know some people really loved Of Poseidon, but it wasn't for me. I may read the beginning of Of Triton to see if I feel any differently about it since I would be reading it instead of listening, but if I get the same vibe from it, I think I'm done with this series. That makes me sad because this is my first attempt at reading a mermaid book and I really hoped that I would love it. The cover is certainly beautiful, although I have no idea who that girl is supposed to be. Probably Emma, but I never recall her swimming in a white Greek-goddess-like outfit like that. Anyway. Give it a try, if you don't like it by the first few chapters, you are already rolling your eyes, then move on. It doesn't get any better from there.
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Jun 10, 2014 Angeline Joseph rated it it was ok

Shelves: good-but-not-that-good, read-2014

Many grammatical mistakes but for the most part, I enjoyed the story though it seemed like Emma has a bipolar disorder and that every character in the book tends to overreact or underreact at times. Lke the time Emma plunged herself and Rayna in a HURRICANE-PROOF window and Galen and Toraf just stood there, not reacting. That would aslo count as overreacting on Emma's part because WHO DOES THAT?
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Apr 08, 2013 Angele | adominiquereads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, mythology, ebooks, r-opposites-attract, mermaids-sirens

Finally! Something new and refreshing! I've been getting a little bit overwhelmed with all the other YA books that are about dystopian societies, vampires, and other mythological creatures. But I haven't read a book about mermaids yet, so it is definitely a new experience.

The whole story's unique and amazing. It's not really following the typical "Little Mermaid" scenarios, so it's cool. But there are things that bothered me a little, like as the story goes, I find it a bit too predictable. I me ...more

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