Rowena’s review of Of Poseidon by Anna Banks.
Main Character: Emma
Love Interest: Galen
Series: Of Poseidon #1
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads
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.
I’ve never read a book about mermaids before. I’ve never really felt compelled to either but I’m glad that I decided to read this one. Even though this book threw me for a loop and made me want to smack someone from time to time, I enjoyed it. It was a good story with an ending that kicked me in the rear but overall, I enjoyed it.
This story follows the protagonist, Emma as she learns for the first time about being Syrena. Syrena are what humans call mermaids and Emma has a special bond with sea animals. When she stumbles into Galen (Prince Galen of Triton to the Syrena), she makes it onto his radar because he senses her abilities and is curious about her. He’s also attracted as all get out to her too. Not knowing enough about her after their first interaction, Galen gives up his fins for a bit until he can find out more about this Syrena girl who didn’t turn into a Syrena to save her friend from a shark.
The sparks fly between Galen and Emma all throughout this book. Galen’s attraction to Emma is complicated because if she’s who he thinks she is then he might have to stand back while his brother, Gromm takes Emma as his mate because of traditions and customs (and what not). Galen is pretty torn up about it since he’s pretty possessive over Emma and really wants her for himself and because of this, he keeps a part of him from Emma and it plays with her emotions. This is where I thought Galen would have been better off being honest with Emma right from the start (of their budding romance). It drove me a little crazy that he kept letting himself get caught up in moments that built one on top of the other, forging bonds with Emma that he couldn’t really act on because of his loyalty to his family and kingdom. But really, alls well that ends well and I was glad with the way that things worked out for them.
Emma’s personality was hard to take at times. She’s very stubborn and hardheaded and while it was cute to Galen…for me, all it did was make me want to punch her in the nose. He’s worried about her safety so he tells her not to go in the water while he’s away and what does she do? She goes in the water because she’s a tough girl and she can do what she wants. And then she senses an unfamiliar pulse in the water and gets scared and thinks, “So maybe Galen was right and I shouldn’t be in the water while he’s not here to protect me.”
Ugh, every time she disobeyed Galen, I wanted to smack her upside her head.
I will say that this book has a whole lot of things going on to keep it interesting. I wasn’t ever bored while reading this book but there were times when I had to put the book down because Emma was getting on my nerves or Rayna was getting on my nerves. Hell, even Galen got on my nerves but the one person that didn’t ride my nerves was Toraf. I adored him. I adored his love for Rayna, his persistence in chasing Rayna and his dogged determination to win her over. I totally adored him.
One thing that was a bit of a downer with this book was how easy it was for me to decipher who was who and what was going on and all that. I mean, I knew what was going to happen long before it actually comes to light in the story and while it wasn’t a big deal, what made it disappointing was the abrupt way the book ends. You’ll have to read it to understand what I mean but the way that this book ends made me narrow my eyes and think, “WTF kind of ending is that?” but aside from that, this book was a good read and I’m definitely interested in continuing with this story.
..and that’s your scoop!
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Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com
