Forget Me Not, My Dear

Expected Publication: March 12th, 2013

Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath # 2)

By: Anne Greenwood Brown

Random House/Delacorte

ISBN-13: 9780385742030

Once you dive into Deep Betrayal, the sequel to Lies Beneath,you won't come up for air!
It's been thirty days, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she's counting. And when Calder does return, it's not quite the reunion Lily hoped for. Especially after she lets her father in on a huge secret: he, like Calder, is a merman. Obsessed with his new identity, Lily's dad monopolizes Calder's time as the two of them spend every day in the water, leaving Lily behind.

Then dead bodies start washing ashore. Calder blames his mermaid sisters, but Lily fears her father has embraced the merman's natural need to kill. As the body count grows, everyone is pointing fingers. Lily doesn't know what to believe—only that whoever's responsible is sure to strike again. . . .

Review

     Lily Hancock has spent the last thirty days exiled from home, sent away to live with her best friend Lori in her old town.  All because her Dad wants her kept away from Calder, the boy she loves, and Lake Superior's depths - both of which hold dark secrets beyond his comprehension.  It has been thirty days since Lily saw Jack Petitt kill Tallulah, one of Calder's sisters and now his tainted family believes that revenge has been served - and Lily is dead, having taken her Dad's place as a sacrifice.  Then the body resurfaces and Lily returns to Superior, deciding to tell her Dad the truth - that he's half merman.  In the process the sisters discover Lily's presence and bodies begin to turn up again, with everything pointing to them being the killers. But is it really that simple?  It's up to Lily and Calder to investigate the murders and stop whoever is responsible, family or not.  With her burgeoning mermaid traits and the possibility of a mermaid creationist legend being true, things are about to get interesting.  Will they be able to fix the situation before a vengeful Jack exposes the existence of mermaids to the world?  I went into this one expecting it to be something I wouldn't get very into.  I was okay with the first one, which had a good premise but the follow-through less than impressed me.  So color me surprised when I sat down and got a third of the way through in my first sitting!  

     I liked the switch from Calder's narration, over to Lily's.  She was a lot easier to sympathize with and I enjoyed seeing her perspective.  It really fleshed her out as a character and gave me a motivation for her actions.  Not to say she was perfect.  Lily is a hothead, who does things on her own terms without always thinking about it rationally first.  But she's an individual which made her dumb decisions easier to read about.  The inclusion of a possible sea monster/creature of legend was interesting, but I felt like Brown waited until too late in the narrative for that plot twist to have a full effect on the readers.  The identity of the murderer was not at all surprising to me and I was bored by that mystery frankly.  I would have liked a more interesting resolution.  The family issues with Lily's parents and her Dad training to live with his Merman heritage was basically background noise.  The only thing Lily is fixated on in all intensity is Calder and being with him romantically.  Calder's sisters played practically no part in this one.  Including them as a threat hanging over everyone's heads was effective at first, but lost the thrill when they were shown to be starving and pretty much unable to care about revenge anymore.  The ending was okay, but not the best ever.  It did fit in with the rest of the novel though.  I hope the author leaves it at two books and doesn't feel the need to go further than that.  Overall, better than the first book in the series and worth the follow up to see what happens to the characters.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is March 12th, 2013.*

Evil Is Lurking Beneath the Surface

Expected Publication:  July 12th, 2012

Lies Beneath

By: Anne Greenwood Brown

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13:  9780385742016

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on ususpecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

Review

   Calder White is the only brother to four beautiful and mysterious sisters.  On the surface they are no different from most families - except for the fact they happen to be murderous mermaids on the prowl for human energy to steal.  But this summer they are after a specific person : Jason Hancock, because his Father reneged on a bargain and killed their Mother in the process.  Now the son has finally returned to the family's lake house with his wife and two daughters, giving the perfect opportunity for revenge.  They plan to get to him by using one of his daughters.  But when Calder starts to have feelings for Hancock's oldest daughter Lily, it begins to cause problems for his family's revenge plot.  Also, Lily is smarter than they thought and starts to realize the truth to the stories about monsters in the lake.  Calder's sisters are on the verge of taking over and getting revenge for themselves - the one thing that could ruin his rediscovered humanity.  Can he save Lily and her Father from the jaws his family's hatred or will they all be destroyed?  This seemed like a book that had a different viewpoint than most YA mermaid books - the mermaids were NOT the good guys in this one.  They consistently killed humans and stole their energy.  It was an interesting twist, but it led to some major disconnect from the main characters.  Also, Lily felt a bit 2D in terms of personality.  Calder was practically stalking her for most of the book and she still communicated with him and ended up falling for him.  Seriously, yet another girl with Bella Swan syndrome.  Calder was a decently fleshed out character, but most of the book was spent with him searching for a way to still get revenge and save Lily - not much time left to get to know him very well as an individual.  His sisters were stereotypes at best and I especially despised Maris.  But that seemed to be the point and is therefore acceptable I suppose.  Also the love triangle was annoyingly present in this one.  The two guys were both in love with the unremarkable, average in every way girl.  I am so sick and tired of the usage of this as a plot device in YA novels.  The resolution was totally predictable and while I did manage to read the whole book, I ended up very much unimpressed with it.  I would not recommend this to anyone, unless they are highly obsessed with books involving mermaids.  

VERDICT:  2.35/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 12th, 2012.*