Seen at Scott Reads It 
 Lies Beneath has been on my "To-Read" list for awhile and I kept putting off reading it. To tell you the truth I was convinced that I would hate based on the numerous negative reviews I read. I am glad that Lies Beneath really proved me wrong. 
 Calder is a mermaid who lives in Lake Superior and he lives with his sisters. Calder and his sisters hunt humans for food and they feed off their energy/aura. His sisters want to take revenge on a man who led to his mother's death. Calder has to get close to his daughter Lily, but the problem is that he manages to fall in love. 
 Calder was unlike any mermaid I have ever read about. I loved how the mermaids in Lies Beneath could read the emotions of the people around them. I also liked how these mermaids were not the sweet type of mermaids who collect forks and singing about being a part of the human world. The mermaids and mermen in Lies Beneath were deadly but still enchanting and alluring. The merpeople in this book really reminded me of the classic good ol' sirens who allured sailors to their death. Anne Greenwood Brown established an interesting and complex mythology in Lies Beneath. I'm really glad that Lies Beneath wasn't just one of those turn-of-the-mill YA books. 
 Lies Beneath is written from Calder's point of view and for the most part I enjoyed reading Calder's narration. Calder had a noteworthy narration because he is kind of twisted. On one side Calder is a cold-blooded mermaid killer but on the other hand he is a charming hopeless romantic. It was interesting to see how Calder really matured and grew as a character. Calder kind of reminded me of Jasper Dent from I Hunt Killers. I loved reading about Calder's struggle against his mermaid nature and inclination to kill. One of my only problems with Calder's narration was that Calder tended to over narrate a bit. I didn't really think a guy who describe so vividly what his girlfriend's hair and clothing look like. 
 The first half of Lies Beneath is very problematic. Basically for the first half of Lies Beneath Calder stalks Lily and not much else happens. I am not a big fan of male protagonists who feel the need to stalk their female love interests. I liked the second half of Lies Beneath far more than the first half of the book. The second half of the book is where the pacing and mystery really picked up. Once the mystery got introduced Lies Beneath really caught my interest and I felt a strong urge to keep reading. 
 The romance in Lies Beneath is nothing extraordinary but isn't terrible. The romance between Calder and Lily was just your stereotypical paranormal romance. The romance was a bit on the cheesy side but I didn't really believe that the characters had any chemistry between them until the last few chapters. I don't understand why the female protagonist always seems to love the stalkerish male and it is just mind boggling to me. I think the romance would have been more interesting to me if I was a fan of Lily. Lily just was a bit one dimensional in my opinion. Lily likes reading poetry, dressing outlandishly, and stalkers but doesn't she sound like a lot of the females in the YA genre? 
 Lies Beneath isn't exactly groundbreaking literature but it was still was compelling to read. The first half of the book really dragged but I did enjoy the 2nd half a lot more. The romance was decent but I wished Anne Greenwood Brown developed the character of Lily more. I am not sure if I will read the sequel to Lies Beneath but there is a good chance I will.