Review of Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Title/Author: Of Poseidon (Of Poseidon #1) by Anna Banks
Publisher/Date published: Feiwel & Friends, May 22nd 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Galen, a Syrena prince, searches land for a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. It’s while Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen's not fully convinced that Emma's the one he's been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help - no matter what the risk."

This was one of my most anticipated reads of Spring 2012 and you should all know that I have a thing for mermaids. I just love the underwater world that comes with them and I guess I never really got over my obsession with Ariel I developed as a kid ;)
There are really good things about Of Poseidon and some things that I liked less.

I really liked Emma. She's a sweet girl and throughout Of Poseidon she develops a spine and a fierce temper and I really liked it. I love girl that can hold their own! She gets a lot thrown at her and stays true to herself while dealing with all of it. I liked that she's curious and calls Galen on it when she thinks he's not telling her the full story.

And I loved Galen, he's very confident and because he hasn't dealt with teenage human girls before and because of his royal status gets obeyed in the water world, he has a hard time adjusting to Emma. I loved seeing him being shaken out of his comfort zone! And he does insecure very charmingly, if a little violent when provoked into jealousy.

But basically, I really liked them together, they were bickering and full out arguing and there were just sparks flying everywhere. It was amazing. Because they keep things from each other there's the Big Misunderstanding and I felt for both of them and they even brought tears to my eyes. So yeah, the lovestory part completely worked for me.

The only thing that had me feeling annoyed was the interaction between Emma and her mother. It just felt off and forced and just made me very uncomfortable reading it. Reading the whole story makes me understand a bit more about why her mother reacted to some things so strongly, but it was still weird. Also, aside from some sort of casual mentioning of it, I felt that the death of Emma's best friend was sort of ignored. The time between Chloe's death and the start of the school year is glossed over and the way it was dealt with even made me forget sometime that Emma was devastated by her death.

I kinda saw the whole plot twist towards the end coming for some time, but the sort of cliffhanger ending makes me REALLY excited to read the next one and find out what's going to happen now with all of these characters! I really liked Anna Banks' writing style, I felt sucked in and read the whole thing in a sunny afternoon spent in my parents' backyard. It was wonderful and I felt everything Emma and Galen were feeling and YAY MERMAIDS!

My rating: 4,5 stars