ARC Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

by Carmen Shaw 3:13 AM 2 comments

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on unsuspecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

Overall Thoughts:
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was interesting at certain parts, and it bored me at others.

Lies Beneath is about 18-year-old Calder White, who's a merman. He has three other sisters, Maris (The Mother Figure), Pavati (The Beautiful Seductress), and Tallulah (The One Closest to Calder). They all seem to be superior to Calder. For years, all four of them have been searching for Jason Hancock so that they could kill him. Why, you ask? His father, Tom Hancock, broke a promise to their mother, Nadia, that killed her. Now, they want revenge. The only way they can think of to get to him is through his teenage daughter, Lily. Calder plans on finding her, seducing her, and using her to kill her father. But... he ends up falling in love with her, which basically screws everything up.

What I liked about this book:
When I first read the summary, I was instantly curious! It sounded so interesting and tragic and I wanted it! I've never read a story about mermaids before, so this was a first. And I loved how the author had her own theory about mermaids (i.e. how they transformed, their reformed physical appearances, their particularities). So even though I had heard about mermaids before (i.e. The Little Mermaid... don't judge me) I felt like I was learning about a completely different mythical creature.

What I disliked about this book:
I was expecting to love this book, and it fell a bit short. Firstly, the pacing was consistent, but it wasn't very fast. I wasn't enraptured in this book because there were no moments that really wow'd me. The climax of the book is at the very end, and that was the best part for me. The rest of the book was just mediocre.

Verdict:
This book was okay in my opinion. I was disappointed that I didn't like it as much as other people have. The next book in this series is Deep Betrayal, which comes out in 2013. This book ended in an interesting way, so I'll probably pick Deep Betrayal up. I just won't have high expectations for it.

2/5 TARGETS!