First off, I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing me this ARC to review. Please note that the version I read was an advanced copy, and certain events/language may be changed in the published edition.

Stars (Out of 10): 4/10 Stars

Favorite Character: Nik

Spoiler Free: I really wanted to love this book. From the gorgeous cover to the fact it was about mermaids and witches and magic, my hopes were high. Unfortunately, there were just way too many awkward moments for me, and the plot wasn’t all that surprising (especially considering the fact that we already knew how it was going to end.) While I was intrigued by the world and small village, and was hooked during certain portions of the plot, there were overall too many meh moments for me.

I’ll start with the characters and their relationships with each other. This, for me, was one of the weakest parts of the book. While I generally liked the friendship Nik and Evie had, especially in the beginning, it became less and less enjoyable as the book went on (and jealousy started tainting every relationship). The relationship that Evie has with Iker is also extremely shallow, and was not presented in a good way at all. I understand that the romance needed to start early, but we barely got any background to their relationship before suddenly that was a thing. And everything got worse as the story went on in terms of relationships, as as I mentioned above, almost every single relationship becomes dominated by jealousy. Evie is jealous of Annemette taking Nik’s time, Evie is jealous of the status of everyone else, Evie is jealous over the ease with which Annemette uses magic, Iker is jealous of Nik, Nik is jealous of Iker, and it goes on and on. It makes all the relationships and friendships seem extremely shallow, as no one seems actually happy with their friends/the person they’re with.

The plot also just fell flat. Everything was extremely predictable (which I’ll discuss more in the spoiler section) and the ending also didn’t fully line up with all the events of the story. Besides this, I can’t discuss more of the plot without spoilers, but saying it was predictable and weak about sums it up.

I was intrigued by the world, however, and Evie’s conflict to fit into a town that was not accepting of her, even without knowing she was a witch. The festival and setting felt very realistic and full of the essence of the sea, but without the characters and plot to carry this setting, it felt wasted.

I also quite enjoyed the third person, and I may have even dropped the story without them. I’m always a sucker for these kind of cuts into the book, where they explain past events in a mysterious way that provides both context and foreshadowing for the rest of the story.

Overall, I can’t say I was a fan of this book, and I was overall extremely disappointed. While reading, the awkward character relationships were definitely the most distracting, and after reading I found a lot of issues with the plot and how it was wrapped up. It just wasn’t for me.

Careful! Spoilers beyond this point!

Spoilers:

Spoiler

So, about the plot twists…

First off, Anna = Annemette. That is super surprising, right?? Even Evie spends the whole book convinced Annemette is her drowned friend, even against all of Annemette’s anger towards the assumption, so I’m not even sure if this is supposed to be a twist.

Second, Nik was in love with Evie the whole time. (Evie even claims to have felt the same but, y’know, that never actually crossed her mind while we were reading inside her head apparently). Not only is it hinted at really heavily in the third person chapters, it’s quite obvious in every longer conversation the pair has alone.

Third, Iker was visiting/boating around other girls. While I did gasp when it was specifically revealed, it wasn’t actually all that surprising. He was just acting up to his reputation, and if we take the track record of this book, none of the characters are actually all that capable of growth, so it’s not surprising he wasn’t either.

Fourth, Evie turns into an octo-mermaid, and becomes evil under the sea. Obviously, this was already known from the synopsis, so this wouldn’t have ever been a surprise. Regardless, the fact that the ending of the book is already known means that more effort needs to be put into the mid-book plot, and to make the journey to that ending surprising/interesting.

In terms of a weak ending, there were too many things left open or not lining up to make this ending actually satisfying for me.

First, Evie being malicious/evil as an octo-mermaid. Nowhere in the story is there journey toward Evie becoming more malicious/more cruel, she only becomes more desperate for love and acceptance as the story goes on. Additionally, her final act is out of love rather than hate, showing her love for her village and sacrificing her life to ensure it remains safe. The anger also seems to be pointed towards the mermaids for some reason, even though that is barely explained/does not make sense.

Second, lack of resolution in terms of Iker. Yes, he turns on Evie when he hears she’s a witch, proving how weak his “love” actually is, but we never see the “Evie being hurt when Iker proves to be unfaithful” part of Anna’s plan come to fruition. I wanted to see some sort of confrontation, something to show Evie is a part of her story rather than just following where the story pushes her.

Third, Anna/Annemette’s plan. From 70% to 90% in the book, the third POV chapters of the little mermaid are all aimed at building up this huge plan she has to ruin the lives of the triad that ruined her life. But in the end, nothing actually happens with all of that? She calls Evie a witch when Evie reveals she’s a mermaid, but that seems reactionary more than planned. She also tries to kill Nic/Iker, but fails, and even those moves seem purely reactionary. In the end, it seems like she barely had the chance to enact her plan, even though she was entirely in control of the situation?

Lastly, the treatment of Evie before she was known as a witch. I get that she’s poor and shouldn’t be friends with the prince, and Evie has just learned to accept their hate, but this seems to play such a large, underlying role in the whole story. Where did it go? Why is Evie’s hate and anger, as the Sea Witch, not turned upon her town? Why does she not blame them for not accepting her, for forcing her to befriend a mermaid because she was so isolated otherwise? Why is Evie not angry at all? Once again, it just felt like Evie barely cared about anything happening to her besides Iker/Anna/Nik, and it made her feel blind to what was going on around her. (I also found this treatment one of the most interesting parts of the book, a part that could have very easily developed into something to build a better, stronger ending for the story).