Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Galen, a Syrena prince, searches land for a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. It’s while Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen's not fully convinced that Emma's the one he's been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves  that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help--no matter what the risk. ~ Goodreads

Review:Things got off to a great start with Of Poseidon. Feisty heroine. Check! Alternating POV with the hot hero. Check! Awesome mermaid mythology. Check! Action packed with a big twist right out of the gate. Check!

Emma started off as an incredible character. I fell in love with her right away. She's loyal, a great friend, just a tad awkward and funny. She meets a hunky guy on the beach after literally smashing into & sticking to his chest.

The boy she meets is Galen, a merman (please don't call him that though…he's Syrena and Syrena royalty at that!) who is serving as an ambassador between the human and Syrena worlds. Although humans don't yet know they exist, Galen is trying to study mankind and avoid confrontations between the two species.

After a tragic event Emma discovers that she’s not an ordinary human girl and has the Gift of Poseidon. She can talk to and control sea creatures. Very cool. According to tradition she should marry Galen's brother Grom to help join the Poseidon clan with Grom's Triton clan to save both kingdoms’s. This is a society of arranged matings where the girls don't have much (as in any) say. This may disturb some readers. I was kind of on the fence. It's how the Syrena society works so I get it but a few instances, particularly between Galen's sister and her mate, really ticked me off. I'm willing to see if the author is trying to make a bigger point later in the series and amps up the girl power. I sure hope so.

Galen knows it's his duty to bring Emma to his brother for a mating but starts feeling "the pull" towards Emma. It's a rare occurrence when two Syrena choose each other rather than an arranged mating. Of course, this is a problem for Galen with the whole Emma must mate with my brother thing. 

First the good! The story really does start off great. The main and supporting characters are all interesting, the mermaid mythology is fresh and original. The romance wasn't rushed.

Now the bad. Not necessarily bad but just not for me. The story is told in alternating POV between Emma & Galen. Emma's is told in first person while Galen's is in 3rd person - present tense. That took some getting used to.

Galen. Ahhh Galen. I want to love you. I know you are a good guy but he was such the typical YA hot boy; moody, arrogant, with ripped abs, that I couldn't quite get there. He would be so kind and understanding one minute, possessive the next, then cocky and taunting (my least favorite quality). Overall, I still like him and I do think he has a lot of potential but I’m not head over heels just yet. I did like how he makes an attempt to understand human dating rituals and overlooked his prejudices against humans as he grows closer to Emma.

While I loved Emma in the beginning, her actions really got on my nerves later on. Galen repeatedly tells – make that begs - her to stay out of the water or to stay home for her safety. With good reason. She knows why and she has gotten into trouble from not listening before but still goes out again and again. I like some rebellion in my girls but she was just being reckless and stupid at times.

In regards to Galen, all common sense flies out the window from his kisses. She says "I don't want to be THAT girl" but you know what? She is THAT girl. Forgetting everything when Galen walks in the room, willing to give up everything for this boy she just met. She shows glimpses of her earlier spunk but almost not enough to salvage her character for me.

Rating 2.5 out of 4: Despite my complaints about Of Poseidon, it has one hell of a cool twisty ending that left me saying whaaaaa??? But…… whaaaaa????? I will be picking up the second book to see if there is some growth to the characters because overall I still found the story interesting in that it delved deeper into mermaid mythology more than any book that I've read so far. It's also a tad darker than most mermaid tales. There are enough good things going on that despite it not being the book for me, I would still recommend it.

If you’re a fan of Tera Lynn Childs Forgive My Fins series then you’ll probably enjoy Of Poseidon although it’s not quite as light or "*punny*.

I think my problem was, that other than the mermaid mythology, Of Poseidon didn't stand out from the crowd when it came to the awkward girl falls for hot boy plotline prevalent in today's YA. At one time I would have adored it but it just doesn’t work for me now.

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Source: ARC copy provided from Feiwel and Friends for my honest review.
Buy the book! Of Poseidon


For a different opinion check out my friend Brooke’s review over at Brooke Reports.