Review: Everblue by Brenda Pandos (6.5/10)

HELLO!!!

I am SO sorry that I have been gone for all this time! I had a concussion at the end of the year from lacrosse, so no computadora for me:( ....And THEN, everything just got crazy with make-up work, sports, and about anything else overwhelming that you don't want to deal with. I'll try to post like a bazillion and one reviews over the next couple of days to make up for my suckishness. To begin: here is a review about a little read I just recently finished--which just happens to be FREE ON AMAZON at the moment! (Therefore, no excuses not to move those fingers around the keyboard and download this book!)

Review:

    

      Everblue ((Mer Tales-Book One), by Brenda Pandos, was not one I was expecting to like. It wasn't so much that I have learned that mermaid books usually don't live up to my expectations and tend to fall towards cheesy--of course there are exceptions, *Cough*, Of Poseidon, *Cough*--and I definitely didn't judge this book by its cover, which is beautiful. In actuality, the beginning of the book just didn't do it for me. You understand, I read a lot of books, and I go through even more samples, trying to filter out the good from the great so that I can bring you all the great. So when I'm going through all of these samples, I cannot buy every single one and must decide based on the short quantity that I've read whether it is worth continuing. This particular read didn't excite me. I found it almost slow, and the main character, a redhead named Ashlyn (Ash for short), whiny and tedious. I like my alpha females to exhibit depth and spunk, two qualities lacking from Ash and he start of Everblue. However, I couldn't have been more wrong to discard this one as just nother boring mermaid book. New ideas and mer-concepts that I have never encountered in YA reads, such as "promising", which is basically the mermaid version of Twilight's "imprinting", and the thought of a world thriving with life hiding under the Earth's mantle. There were alluring sirens, Irish brutes with a soft side, and stinging barbs protruding from mer tails. Truly, this read is innovative among its fellow mer books, thriving with as many creative ideas as a true underwater landscape. I was wrong to put it down after a few chapters, because the story really heats up about a third of the way through, when there are some accidental and romantic and some not so accidental and far-from mushy promisings that occur between Ash, her neighbors and best friends Fin and Tatiana, and the mer prince, slimy Azor. The story heats up even more when aspects from human life, like a cute boy who has a thing for Ash, a best friend who is endearing and annoying all at once, and an accident that could rock Ash's swimming scholarship and plans for the future, come into play. This read is free right now, and it isn't especially long, so I do recommend it. It's hopeful and creative--a breath of fresh air after being trapped under dark waters. I give Everblue a 6.5 out of 10.

Summary:

     She wanted her life to change ... he wanted his to stay the same.Seventeen-year-old Ashlyn Lanski is tired of her boring, single life. Swimming and spending time with Tatiana, her best friend, are her only sanctuary. The girls plan to leave their drab lakeside town far behind for college, and Ash hopes to finally ditch her longtime crush for Finley, Tatiana's twin brother. But when Tatiana and her family fail to return home after a family emergency, Ashlyn chooses to do something drastic to find them.Finley Helton and his family are good at blending in as they run their sailing charter business in Lake Tahoe. But together, they guard an ancient secret. When a not so routine meeting forces Finley, Tatiana and their mother to return to Natatoria and Fin's father on a dangerous mission, Fin can't stay caged up for long.Secrets lurk beneath the deep blue waters of Lake Tahoe, and a simple lifesaving kiss could change their lives forever.