Of Poseidon by Anna Banks (Review)

  Series: Syrena Legacy

Genre: Fantasy

Book Length: 324 pages

Publication Date: May 22nd, 2012

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Format: Hardcover




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Synopsis:

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

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I think like some of you, I was hesitate picking this book up; I mean, mermaids have never, or rarely, clicked with me. I did want to read it because it sounded interesting, and I thought I was just going to like this and nothing more.

Boy was I wrong.

But before I get into the things that I liked, I want to discuss the writing and the dual point of view. We see from both Emma and Galen's point of views. Now, I have no problem with dual point-of-view, look at the Legend trilogy, it has dual POV and it's one of my favorite trilogies ever, but there is one problem that really annoys me: Emma's is in first, Galen's is in third. I was not a fan of that. It did not work with me, a rule that I have (which is more directed towards my personal writing) is that if you have a dual POV, you should have both in either first of third. I could not connect with Galen as much as Emma and I wish I could because in this first installment I really preferred Galen over Emma.

Okay, enough with the negatives, let's focus on the positives.

Probably the main thing that I love about the Syrena legacy, is the mythology and world-building of the Syrena world. I loved how Anna Banks developed it. She didn't rush and info-dump us when Emma first discovered it and Galen introduced her. It was given gradually and we got information at the right times. I really praise Anna Banks for that, especially since I learned I didn't like info-dumps in a certain book.

There were some interesting plot twists in this book, especially the one at the end of the story. That one, it definitely left you wanting the sequel immediately because it was intense and surprising and I will say that if you want to read this, I recommend you get the first two books so you won't die waiting for the first book.

Next, I want to talk about the characters. I personally found the characters to be basically the same person, but with some differences. That annoyed me because I love a variety of personalities in the characters of a novel, but they were basically the same person. I think Chloe would have been a great person and maybe some comic-relief (not that Toraf wasn't full of it I did chuckle occasionally at what he said (and since I am a book emo that's a good thing)), but I was not happy that Chloe literally died within the first 20 pages. I would have loved to develop and learn more about her. But, take note that I did love the characters, except for Rayna, she did annoy me a lot of the time (especially in the beginning). My favorite characters would have to be Toraf filled with comic-relief, and Rachel with her helpfulness to Galen and Rayna and Emma. And one more thing I want to say before I move onto the relationship aspect, is how annoying it was for Emma to constantly say 'Ohmysweetgoodness' and 'Fan-flipping-tastic'. Now, they both annoyed me, but the former was just more aggravating than the latter. Honestly, does it sound like something most people would say that in real life? No, and she says that like once in every chapter and I really hate it.

Lastly, I am going to discuss the relationships. Now, I want to talk about Rayna and Toraf's quickly before moving to Galen and Emma. Now, it is said in the beginning they are to be mated, or married, and Rayna doesn't like that. So, something happens and Rayna wants to be with Toraf. Don't get me wrong, I do ship them, but I find that unrealisitc because she doesn't want to be with Toraf and suddenly she does. I didn't like that at all.

Now Galen and Emma. I loved and ship them together, HOWEVER, in a way, their relationship was almost insta-lovey, but that didn't annoy me too much because they did start out as friends and gradually grew into a couple. However, Galen kind of reminds me of Daemon Black from the Luxen series, I am currently reading Onyx, the second book, from that series, and how Daemon is acting reminds me of Galen from this installment.

Overall, I give Of Poseidon a 4/5 stars from me. It was the perfect fun, light-hearted read that is just perfect for summer. The mythology was intriguing, the characters were fun and if you need a beach read for this last full month of summer, pick this up and you won't be disappointed.