Find my reviews on Blogger ~ Reviews by Bookish Sarah 
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 This review is going to be a mess, and hard for me to write. Total love/hate going on with this story. 
 Calder White is a merman. Yes, that's right. A merman. He and his three mermaid sisters are not the type of mermaids you'd see in a Disney movie - not by a long shot. The merpeople in this story are deadly. They consume human emotions in an attempt to feel something that doesn't come naturally to them - almost like a high, and the outcome for the poor human is always death. Happiness, excitement, pleasure of any sort; this is what they need want. 
 Calder and his sisters are plotting the death of a human male named Jason Hancock. The story behind that is this: Jason Hancock's father (Tom Hancock) was supposedly responsible for the death of their mermaid mother. After he promised to give her his own son, she let him live and he immediately fled town with his family. In an attempt to follow them by water, the mermaid got caught in a fisherman's net and died. Now, many years later, Tom Hancock is dead and his son, Jason Hancock, is back in town with his wife and two children. For Calder and his sisters, it's time for retribution. 
 They come up with the perfect plan for Hancock's demise, but everything falls apart when one of Hancock's daughters steals Calder's heart. 
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 **Some spoilers ahead!** 
 Dislikes: 
 Okay, the biggest issue I had with this story was that Calder killed children. It was difficult for me to get through the parts where he would describe how delicious a joyous child was; how euphoric it was to suck the life out of them while they slowly drowned. :( And then when he finally let's Lily in on the secret, she is just okay with this! She barely hesitates! 'Oh, by the way? Not only do I murder unsuspecting women, but I also enjoy the taste of a good child every now and again!' -- 'Oh, really? Hmm.. Well, as long as ya don't try to suck me dry, that's okay!' HUGS AND KISSES! No. It disgusted me. Really, it did. 
 Lily was pathetic for her feelings, not to mention completely blind and in denial. Calder was no better. How can he say he loved Lily when it took the guy SO LONG to realize that killing her father was not the right thing to do? Even when he decided he didn't want to go through with it, he still considered what Hancock's father did a "sin" - Excuse me? How can someone who is supposedly able to grasp love, and grasp humanity enough to blend in with them so seamlessly, and yet not understand that if a mermaid tries to kill someone that's what is wrong with the situation - not the fact that Tom Hancock didn't keep his promise. Argh!! 
 Another issue I had was the pace of the story. It was just generally slow and all the good bits were bunched together in the last 15% or so. 
 The romance was nice (a little on the shallow side) other than the fact that Calder kept referring to and thinking of Lily as food. *shiver* 
 Likes: 
 Although it may not necessarily be my cup of tea, the book was well written. I definitely appreciate the authors writing style. It was descriptive and lovely. 
 I enjoyed the mermaid mythology aside from the child-killing. It was unique, the merpeople were feral, and the entire thing could have gone to a really amazing place. I think it was almost there, but not quite. 
 This book was from a male POV (Calder's). This, I ADORE! It was a surprise and a pleasure. I think it added so much to the story and the fact that he was a merman? Yeah, even better. I bet you could search for days and not find another book narrated by a merman. Very nice! 
 The conflict between Calder and his sisters was something I liked most about Lies Beneath. I can always appreciate a protag trying to change; to be better. The odds were certainly not in Calder's favor, but in the end he tried to do right. 
 There are some surprises in store for you if you make it to the end of the novel. I can truly say that the last few chapters made up an extra star for this book. I did not see the end coming, not even a little. Anne constructed the story quite well and put the hints we needed right there in plain sight, and yet I still missed them and got the shock of a lifetime at the end. 
 I would recommend this book, yes. It was good! It is flawed, as all things are, but it was entertaining and unique. I didn't consider it predictable (except for the romance part), and it kept my attention quite well. I am very curious to see how things pan out in book 2, which I do plan to read! 
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 Book source: NetGalley 
 Publisher: Delacorte BFYR/Random House Children's Books