This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Synopsis: 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 irresistable 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. -Goodreads

Review: I don’t read a lot of mermaid books, in fact I’m not entirely sure I had read any before Lies Beneath. I have to say that I’m a little disappointed. It’s possibly my own fault and that this was never a good fit for me, I saw mermaids and thought “why not?” before realizing that this sounds a little silly.

For me, Lies Beneath was somewhat predictable with more than a dash of the dreaded insta-love. I think this kind of story is becoming harder and harder to look past for most of us. Choosing between the love of your life and any sort of obligation never ends well, but it always seems to end pretty much the same.

Not to say that it was in any way all bad. I thought the world building was especially cool, and it would be hard to go wrong with killer mermaids (although, my brain automatically goes to sirens, even though they aren’t the same thing). While all of the mermaids were distinct individuals, there was also an animalistic element to them which is part of why I tend to enjoy reading werewolves. There was also a darker undertone in this book that makes sense with soul destroying mermaids but is always a little refreshing in the type of YA I tend to pick.

If you’re looking for a new take on mermaids, then by all means check out Lies Beneath which came out this week.

Buy the book @Amazon (US) @Amazon (CAN)

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Second Opinions:
@Supernatural Snark
@Birdbrain Book Blog
@So Many Books, So Little Time