Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

                I know I have been slacking with my reviews in a bad way but all I can do is try to regain order in my life and do better.  That being said I do have a juicy review for you for Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown.  This ARC is curtsey of NetGalley.com and Random House Children’s Books.

                First I must say that as you all know I’m all about a cover.  I see a pretty cover (my definition of pretty is vast as the ocean), and just can’t help myself but to pick it up and see what it’s about.  This one looked very promising and let’s face it mermaids sounded so cool.  Also in all honesty The Little Mermaid, is one of my top 5 Disney movies (Beauty & the Beast is #1). 

                The cover got my attention, the description got my interest.  Now I will say even from the description I could see the deception of the cover art.  It features a mermaid but the story is focused around Calder White a merman.  There are mermaids don’t get me wrong but when I clicked I surely thought the main character would be a girl.  I only really bring this up because I read another review of someone who had been expecting the same thing so warning there, but the book is a great read.

                Lie Beneath, follows Calder White merman.  He’s not the Disney cartoon type of mermaid, more Pirates of the Caribbean type.  He lives in Lake Superior with his three sisters.  To survive they have to prey on humans and absorb their positive energy, which doesn’t work out so well for the human.  Normally they select victims at random but they have been searching for years for one target.  They aim to kill Jason Hancock to satisfy a debt of revenge blaming him for their mother’s death.

                The trick though is they have to get him into the water and he doesn’t go near it.  So the sisters task Calder to gain his trust by getting close to his family, mostly his daughters.  He relies on his good looks and charm to try and seduce Hancock’s daughter Lily but he sorta screws everything up by discovering that he has feelings he didn’t know they could have.  Lily is sharper than any of them thought and might find out there’s more to the myths of mermaids in the lake than anyone realized putting her in danger.  Forced to choose between the girl he loves and the bond of family and duty there is no good outcome.

                Calder is a great character to me because he has so much going on in his head.  Even before he falls in love he wonders if this life was really a life worth living.  He is different and knows it and struggles with it through everything else that happens in the book.  Lily is a determined girl, who is both strong and fragile.  A romantic trying to see the good in the bad but she doesn’t fall for the pretty boy right away which I like.  I also like that it’s a guy trying to get the girl where so many books I read are the opposite so this was a nice break.  The mind of boys can be such fun places to lurk.

                His sisters, her family and friends are also well written and enhance the story.  Lily’s father is after all supposed to die for revenge so getting to know him and the mystery around what happened to bring down the wrath of this mer-family is a good read.

                The setting was described so beautifully I wish I could drive up to the lake and check it out, though I’m not sure if I’d go in.  I could feel the water, the temperature, the bubbles, the sand in the water, I was submersed, pun intended. 

                Overall, I give it 5 stars.  I really liked it and will read it again in the future.  My only complaint would be that the ending was a tad bit brief.  I felt like the last few pages could have been longer to explain a few more things but that’s it and it didn’t affect my enjoyment.  Lie Beneath, comes out June 12, 2012 check it out and let me know what you think.