Lies Beneath

Author: Anne Greenwood Brown
Goodreads Rating: 3.78
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 303
Reviewed By: Nicole


I'm a total mermaid junkee for starters. The second reason that I picked up this book was because of how pretty the cover was. I mean really, isn't it just so pretty? This was also another book that I heard great things about and so when I joined Netgalley, this was the first book that I requested and got. Sadly for you the book doesn't hit stores until June 12, 2012.


Goodreads Synopses:


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 irresistable good looks and charm on ususpecting 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.


Read more about what I thought.
I really enjoyed this book. I'm not big on reading from a boys perspective and this I felt was really great. I also really liked that Brown took the real legend of mermaids and used it within this books parameters. There are always a lot of questions when it comes to how mermaids work and how they have babies and I felt that this book did a good job of answering those questions.


In this book, we know Calder and his three sisters are on a mission to get the man that caused their mothers death. At first how their mother died is unclear and confusing as to why they blame this Hancock. Once we learn that though, it all becomes too clear why they are out for blood. 


There are some interesting things that come up as you get to know Calder and his sisters, for example how they are all related and how they use their gifts. You also learn that Maris is a sociopath, and the least likable of his three sisters. I think of all of them I liked Pavati best, because while she is the most seductive (and therefore dangerous) of the three girls, I felt that she had the most heart. 


I liked that we were able to be in a boys head rather than a girls like most books are told from. I also enjoyed Calder's thought process. As he moved from panic to clam and happyness. While we get the thoughts that a girl would like, he also describes Lily rather than a rail thin twig, which I felt was a step in the right direction for YA. So many books have the heroine being this perfect image of what every girl wants to be, drop dead beautiful with a perfect body and perfect skin and perfect hair. Lily wasn't perfect which made Calder love her even more.


The biggest thing to bum me out about this book is that its part of a series and now I have to wait a whole year until the next book comes out. Most of your questions about the merpeople get answered in this book which is a great bonus since most authors leave you with questions for the next book. I felt that even if she were to leave this as a standalone book, I would be satisfied with the ending that we were left with.