it was a struggle to read this book. 
 first, because of the format and quality of the ARC (not comfortable to read in any of my devices); 
 second, because there were a lot of new terms threw at you as you were familiar with the food the mermaids eat or the ways they live under the water; 
 third, because of the many ways the life of the mermaids didn't make sense for me (knowing too much about humans and animals, for example, or drinking tea or sweating under the water, huh?); 
 and fourth, because even if the author made a great effort to build this world, she got lost sometimes in descriptions and it took more than half of the book to get to the point. the main character spends a lot of time undecided and hesitating about everything (and she's supposed to be the leader of the clique), her cousin whines all the time and the only one that seems like the beginning of an interesting character is ling. toward the end we are introduced to the other three mermaids of the prophecy, but everything is rushed as if the author had a limit for the page count and was using it up without getting to the point. 
 i didn't have great expectations about this book, but the story develops in a too juvenile way for my taste... 
 since this arc was in a very early stage i hope the book got a good makeover. it has potential, but right now i'm not interested in reading this saga. 
 thank you to netgalley and disney for providing me with a copy of this book.