Title: Of Poseidon (Syrena Trilogy #1)
by Anna BanksPublishing Info: May 22, 2012 by Macmillan
Source: Anderson's Bookshop
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: August 5, 2012
Related Posts: Degrees of Wrong, Of Triton (Syrena Trilogy #2)
Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...
Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.
OF POSEIDON was so much more than I expected. Of course I’d heard great reviews and I’ve had the chance to meet Anna Banks and see her humor in person, so I was pretty confident I’d enjoy the book! Definitely has that Anna Banks humor, wit, and snarkiness all throughout the book. The only thing I wasn’t sure about what the whole “mermaid” plot since I haven’t read any mermaid books before, but you know what? Totally doesn’t matter, because the story is really great. I think Anna Banks does a fantastic job building the Syrena world, along with the laws and gifts of the Syrena. A lot of times when different worlds are introduced, I feel like we see some really gaping holes, but everything is greatly covered in OF POSEIDON.
At first I was a little confused with the story being told from both Emma and Galen’s perspectives simply because Emma is telling it in the first person, and Galen’s side is being told in third person. I’m not really sure why Anna Banks chose to write it this way, but in the end, I think it really works. I’m not sure about the whole first vs third person thing, but I’m really glad that it was told from both their perspectives because without either side, we’d really be missing a lot of information or so many things would have to get told back to the audience instead of us experiencing it with the characters first hand.
I loved the romance aspect of the book! Emma and Galen actually spend a lot of time hating each other at first. No, hating is wrong — Galen likes to tease Emma, and Emma loooves to give Galen a hard time. I love all of the sarcasm, teasing, even the fighting because it was made to be fun. And how adorable was it hearing Galen talking about all the “land terms” and “human dialect”? So funny! It’s like he’s a foreigner getting to know brand new customers in a different country, which I guess technically in a way, he really was.
Holy cow, talk about a surprise ending! I won’t give you the smallest hint if you haven’t read it (and if you have, let’s discuss!), but I was really knocked off my feet with that. And also a little surprised as to how I didn’t see this coming… But really great way to end the book!
Read it!
This book was a ton of fun. It was the first book I’ve ever really read about mermaids and I really liked the way it was handled!
7 thoughts on “Of Poseidon (Of Poseidon #1) – Anna Banks”
I really want to read this one! I have only read one mermaid – siren book and I so want to read more of this genre!!!
I am so excited to read this one. Especially after that review! 🙂
Thanks! I really hope you enjoy it! I felt like it was just so much fun.
As you know I just finished this one and I really liked it. There were some small things that annoyed me but overall it was pretty awesome and I am anticipating the sequel! I saw the ending coming but not until I was nearing the end. It was seriously almost right before the cliffhanger that I was like “OMG I know just where they’re going with this!” Which I thought was pretty cool because it wasn’t too farfetched..
I really liked Toraf too and I have to say some of the reviews regarding the ethnicity of the best friend and the whole “Toraf forces himself on Rayna” really annoyed me. As an English major I was taught to look for those things in certain pieces of writing and I know it’s always there in my mind but really it comes to a point that it’s almost like these people are CRAVING those kinds of thing. “Oh Twilight was terrible because Meyer is so racist, the ‘bad’ vampire is black” umm…no, Twilight was terrible for many other reasons but that isn’t why. I mean I get it but you can ALWAYS find something to say like that if you’re looking for it. That’s why being a lit major was so fun, there are always SO MANY arguments and evidence to be found. But anyway, I digress…that stuff just really grinds my gears! Great review, I can’t wait for book 2!
Thank you! And thanks for sharing your opinions!! I love those kinds of comments 🙂
It’s so true – If people are looking for that kinds of stuff, you’ll be sure to find it! Especially with a lot of the YA paranormal/fantasy novels, they’re meant to be fun, not racist! Sheesh. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
Ahhhh cliffhanger! Really I was juuuust starting to come around but then end mostly (okay, pretty much totally) caught me by surprise!
And I’m glad you ended up enjoying it! I know it was bothering you at the beginning 🙂
I really want to read this book and I am surprised I haven’t yet because I love mermaids! I just finished Just For Fins by Tera Lynn Childs, that whole series is adorable and fun. That is pretty strange with the third and first person switches. Did you know there is also a short story that is before Of Poseidon called Legacy Lost? Great review, I can’t wait to read it still 🙂
Thanks! I think I had heard of it, but it was so long ago that I completely forgot!! I’ll have to look into that. Thanks for reminding me!
Yeah, I’m not usually big on reading mermaid stories, but I love how unique this one seemed and the humor was great! 🙂