Review--Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

The lore of mermaids and mermen is real! As Gretchen McNeil, author of Possess, says, "Riveting! A cold-blooded tale of secrets, revenge, and forbidden love that will leave you terrified to go in the water."
 
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 and absorb their positive energy. Usually, they select their victims at random, but this time around, the underwater clan chooses its target for a reason: revenge. They want to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother's death.

It's going to take a concerted effort to lure the aquaphobic Hancock onto the water. Calder's job is to gain Hancock's trust by getting close to his family. Relying on his irresistible good looks and charm, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter Lily. Easy enough, but Calder screws everything up by falling in love--just as Lily starts to suspect there's more to the monster-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined, and just as the mermaids threaten to take matters into their own hands, forcing Calder to choose between them and the girl he loves.


Lies Beneath is Anne Greenwood Brown's take on the mermaid legend and it was quite an interesting read. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. Anne definitely takes a new spin on the legend and that mythology part was entertaining, such as a human can be made into a mermaid by another mermaid. For the most part it seems that mermaids are female, but there are a few males, Calder being one of them naturally, and he was made into one many years ago.

This novel is told totally from Calder's point of view, it was quite interesting being in the head of guy this time for the entire novel! I've read a few with male narrators, but not many. Calder is called to see his sisters who have finally found Jason Hancock, who they blame for their mother's death. Inadvertently. You see, it was Jason's father who offered Calder and his sisters' mother the life of his infant son to save his own while drowning. When he didn't live up to his end of the bargain and ran, it ultimately caused Calder's mother's death. So the revenge has been a long time brewing and now that it's near, Calder will do anything to act upon it. Including seducing Lily, the oldest Hancock daughter.

The characters were quite colorful. Calder is the merman that never really fit in with his family, being born human. His sisters, Maris, the eldest, Pavati, and Tallulah are pretty vicious, Maris being the most vindictive. Maris is the leader of their little quartet and gives the orders. It was her idea for Calder to befriend one of the Hancock daughters in order to get close to the father and then lure him out onto the ocean so that they could all kill him. Calder took the job on, intending to befriend the youngest so he could rescue her and be the hero and earn Jason's trust, but the plans change quickly and soon it's Lily he's befriending and soon becomes more than just friends with.

Lily was quite the character herself. She was the creative, poetic type. And she was also pretty sassy with her attitude when it came to Calder. Calder was use to girls throwing themselves at him, part of the mermaid(man) charm, but for some reason Lily doesn't go for it. Yet, there is some attraction between them anyway. All too soon, Calder is in way over his head when he really starts to care for Lily and wants to protect her and her family from his sisters.

The romance, as I said, was the gradual, budding kind. It was sweet to see, since Calder is the type to never fall in love, never to care for anyone. It's not his fault really, it's his mermaid nature. Mermaids are without emotions humans are prone to have. It's part of why they drown humans, so they can suck up or absorb really, their emotions. Lily wasn't the swooning type either, so it was fun when Calder's flirting and romancing wasn't getting him anywhere, until he started to learn who Lily really was and what it would take to garner her attention.

I'm not quite sure what it was that kept me from loving this book. The pacing was good, decent. The relationship between Lily and Calder took its time growing and I liked that! There was bits of action here and there. Rescues, secrets kept, secrets revealed...all in all good elements to the story, but yet there was just something that nagged at me and I still can't put it into words. This was still a good story with an interesting spin on mermaids. 

The ending was good too, a little intense in some parts! And there was quite the shocking revelation or two! I already plan on reading Deep Betrayal, obviously, since I received it for review. Perhaps this next one will be better since Lily will be the narrator.

But overall, it was a fun read. If you're still on the mermaid hype, as quite a few of them released this year, I would recommend this one! It's worth a try anyway! There is some definite potential to this series and I am hoping the next book proves it!


Overall rating 3.5/5 stars