Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks


Title: Of Poseidon
Author: Anna Banks
Reviewed by: Rafia
Rate: Three glass slippers
Summary from Goodreads:
Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen — literally, ouch! — both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom . . .

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.





From what I heard about this book, I expected a masterpiece. I definitely like the mermaid romance genre but this book didn’t meet my high expectations for it. Needless to say, I was disappointed. The concept was good and but the book fell flat. The romance was weak, the storyline boring (gasp, yes I used the b word in a book review), the characters were unrealistic and I just didn’t like it in general.
The Storyline
Anna Banks is a fairly new author and she had a good idea with the mermaid theme, but her storyline for the first book wasn’t very strong. I felt like she spent too much time setting up the characters and setting rather than having a conflict. To me, the main conflicts centered around the last chapter, which I absolutely despise. I don’t know if this was intentional but it didn’t help the story at all. I understand that setting up a whole new world with new creatures is difficult in fantasy and only some authors can master it, but in Of Poseidon, the author didn’t give the reader enough explaining about the Syrena world before diving (hehe get it?) into a problem. Honestly, I could go on forever about this but there are other things I want to get to.
The Characters
Galen and Emma…oh where do I start? They seem like the perfect couple, both unbelievable hot, both attracted to each other, and just perfect characters in general. I hate perfect characters. What are the chances of meeting a hot guy like Galen in real life with the same personality? He’s selfless, kind, sweet, and did I mention hot?! Galen and Emma seem unreal; it’s like they have no flaws. I like it better in books when I can relate to the main character. This was obviously impossible in this book. Emma is so dependent on Galen, I wanted to weep for the female population. She swoons into his arms…swoons! That’s not even possible in the twenty-first century.
The Romance
One of my biggest pet peeves in paranormal/fantasy/science fiction books: the pull between two characters that defines their relationship. What ever happened to old-fashioned, Pride and Prejudice style, falling in love? Galen and Emma have an otherworldly “pull” which basically explains why they are constantly drooling over each other. To me, this just shows that the author is obviously too lazy to write out a romance so they fake a romance with this stupid pull!
Anyways…my rant is over. Honestly, Anna Banks managed to hit a few things that genuinely bother me in books, which didn’t help score any points with me. If she had extended the book and worked more on the conflict, the characters, and the romance, I would have really liked this book. But for now, I will go back to packing for vacation and trying to work my way through Bitterblue, which I promise to review after I finish it! But until then, stay update for more posts and try to give Of Poseidon a chance. Maybe you have different pet peeves in books and this might be the book for you.
Hugs and Kisses
Rafia

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