Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
Released: 12th June, 2012
Series: Lies Beneath Series [Book One]
Format: e-book
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Source: Netgalley
Buy it: The Book Depository (free shipping) | Amazon
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.
Lies Beneath was the first mermaid novel I had ever read. And it was awesome (to put it simply). I went into this book not knowing what to expect. At all. I was pleased to find that,
1. There were KILLER MERMAIDS!
2. Calder's sisters were just so very evil
3. It was dark and mysterious
Let's just say that I like darker stories.
There were some twists and turns that I certainly did not see coming. Now that I think about it, they seemed a little obvious so I'm not certain if that is just due to my ignorance or not. Either way, the story was very intriguing and kept me hooked.
The story is from the perspective of Calder, a merman. It is always refreshing to read from a males point of view, and this was no different. But I will admit that I certainly wasn't expecting it, considering the cover which hints towards a more feminine approach to the story. It was interesting to see the contrast between Calder and his sisters, particularly on their mission to take revenge for their mothers death.
Calder personally, was an interesting character. I liked him more by the end of the story, because he was just a little creepy to start out. He was very charismatic, but sometimes a little too much, coming off very cocky on some occasions. He was extremely determined and strong-willed. I can understand why he did what he did with predatory motives, but they were still very stalker-ish. His initial interactions with Lily made me cringe. And she in turn reacted in an appropriate way.
Lily wasn't completely compelled by Calder straight away, rather she tried to avoid him as much as possible. She was intelligent and wasn't afraid to tell him to back off (even though he didn't listen). Their relationship developed and grew at a more gradual pace throughout the entirety of the story, however the shift between "AHH GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU CREEP" and "Actually, he's not so bad.." was a little quicker than I would have thought.
This book has opened me up to the world of mermaid in an unexpectedly good way. I wasn't aware that there was a sequel to Lies Beneath when I started reading it, but I am interested to see how things will resolve.
