Raging Sea by Michael Buckley

Series: Undertow (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Fantasy

Subjects: merfolk, mermaids, romance

Setting: Texas & Coney Island, New York

POV/Tense: 1st person, present tense: Lyric Walker

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 357 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary/ product description: “In the first book of Michael Buckley’s Undertow trilogy, the Alpha arrived and the world was never the same. At the start of the second book, most of south Brooklyn is in ruins and the nation is terrified. Nearly everyone that Lyric Walker loves is either missing or presumed dead, including the mesmerizing prince Fathom. It’s up to Lyric to unite the Alpha before the second wave of a cataclysmic invasion wipes out mankind for good. The Undertow trilogy is an unforgettable reading experience that author E. Lockhart calls, "Allegorical and romantic, the book nevertheless reads like an action movie with especially awesome CGI.”

My Review:  Raging Sea is the sequel to Undertow. In Undertow Alpha children were given a chance to attend school for the first time in the 2 years since the appeared on Coney Island. Lyric meet Fathom, a Triton and Alpha prince. Fathom was strange and exotic, but Lyric fell for despite his odd Alpha customs and the fact that he was engaged to Arcade.

Lyric, Bex, and Arcade are in Texas looking for the place where Lyric’s parents were taken. This place is called Tempest and it’s like a death camp for Alphas. When shop lifting at a Piggly Wiggly, Lyric has a run in with the cops and they recognize her. She makes the decision to use her glove to control the water around her and help Bex and herself get away.

They make a couple close calls with Doyle and the White Tower a couple of times along the way. When Lyric finally makes it to Tempest, she’s treated like a prisoner. They try to break her, but Lyric way too stubborn to be broken. They tell her she has to train other Alpha-Human hybrids to do what she does while wearing the glove.

I did enjoy this sequel. I felt like there wasn’t much romance in it though. Fathom doesn’t show up till later on. I do like the fighting stuff and the cool abilities that the glove gives Lyric. The gloves are kind of like the Green Lantern ring because Lyric can use her imagination shape anything out of water. It was pretty awesome.

I recommend this series to fans of Anna Bank’s Syrena Legacy series and other mermaid related series like Lies Beneath. Also dystopian series like Inhuman by Kat Falls.

Cover Art Review: Cool cover illustration. Fits with previous cover. Eye catching. Love it.

The Siren by Kiera Cass

Series: Standalone

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: sirens, mythology, supernatural, ocean, love

Setting: Miami, Florida, South Carolina, Maine, New York City...(and various other places)

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Kahlen

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 327 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a sweeping stand-alone fantasy romance.

A girl with a secret.

The boy of her dreams.

An Ocean between them.

Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again.

Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude...until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of.

Falling in love with a human breaks the Ocean’s rules. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.”

My Review:  The Siren is a standalone paranormal romance novel written by the author of the Selection series. The Siren was Kiera’s first book, and this is a edited and republished version. I never read the original version that was an ebook with a purple cover, but this version was pretty good. Not as good as the Selection, but I love the mythology stuff.

Kahlen (Is it pronounced Collen or Kaylen?) was changed into a siren back in early 1930s, during the depression. She was on a boat that sirens were sinking and she cried out and they decided to save her. They made her a siren and she has a to serve the Ocean for 100 years. Now it’s 80 years into her service and she’s growing a bit weary. Kahlen dreams a romance and love. Her sisters are worried that she’s becoming depressed. Miaka is originally from WWII era Japan and is an amazing painter. Elizabeth, with her golden brown hair and love a fashion, grew up in the late 60s/early 70s. Aisling is from Sweden and her time as a siren is almost up. Soon she meets a boy named Akinli.

Kahlen and her siren sisters are living in Miami at the time. Kahlen vists the local college and sometimes sketches on the benches. Kahlen goes to the university library to look at cake recipes. Akinli walks by and decides to talk to her. Kahlen and her sisters are not aloud to speak to human in their voices, otherwise the human walk to a watery death. They have to pretend to be mute or deaf. The have to use sign language or write around other people. Akinli finds Kahlen’s silence mysterious and want to get to know her.

I think Kahlin and Akinli’s romance is cute. What irritated me was that there wasn’t enough of it. Kahlen is pulled away from him multiple times by her responsibility to her sister and the Ocean. Akinli is very talkative and understanding. He works around Kahlen muteness. He’s a very sweet guy. He’s blond and kind of scruffy. He’s also from Maine. There’s a part of the book in which Kahlen visits his hometown. It reminded of the Siren series by Tricia Rayburn. 

I liked the siren mythology. They don’t have tails, but when they enter the ocean dresses made of sea salt form on their bodies. The Ocean, which the call a Her/She, is like a goddess that speaks to them and tells them to sing and sink ships because those deaths will give others a chance to live.

If you enjoyed any series about sirens or mermaids, then read The Siren. Especially if you were a fan of Tricia Rayburn’s Siren series, Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown or the Watersong series.

Cover Art Review: Beautiful cover! Metallic and velvety. Love the dress and the ocean.

In the End by Demitria Lunetta

Series: In the After (bk. 2)

Genera: Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: post-apocalyptic, survival, monsters, viruses

Setting: Fort Black Prison, Texas

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense: Amy

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 432 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover/Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen

Summary/ product description: “She thought it was the end of the world... But it was only the beginning of the end.

It's been three months since Amy escaped New Hope. Since she's seen Baby, or Kay, or Rice. And she's been surviving on her own, like she did before she was "rescued" and taken to what she thought was a safe haven. Then, in the midst of foraging for supplies, her former fellow Guardian's voice rings out in her earpiece. And in a desperate tone, Kay utters the four words Any had hoped she would never hear:

Dr. Reynolds has Baby.

Now it's a race against time, for Baby is in imminent danger, her life threatened by the malevolent doctor who had helped start the end of the world. In order to save Baby, Amy will have to make her way to Fort Black, a former prison-turned-survivor colony. There she will need to find Ken—Kay's brother—for he holds the key to Baby's survival.

But before she can do any of this, she'll have to endure the darkest places—and people—of the prison. And one small slip-up could not only cost Baby and Amy their lives, but threaten the survival of he people in the After.

Demitria Lunetta has created an utterly compelling conclusion to the story she set forth in In the After. Readers of the Hunger Games trilogy will not be able to pit down this book, which is gripping from beginning to end.”

My Review:  In the End is the sequel-finale to In the After. Amy goes to a prison called Fort Black to find Kay’s twin brother, who’s a doctor, hoping he can help save Baby. Fort Black may be safe from Florae (the monsters created by a disease, similar to zombies, but look like aliens), but inside it has all kinds of threat, such as the previous inmates that decided to stay for their own protection.

Amy has a run in with a convict called Tank, who only stops harassing her when the Warden’s nephew, Jacks, arrives. Jacks was an up-and-coming tattoo artist before the outbreak. He’s a pretty nice and protective guy. He’s different from Rice, who was Amy’s previous love interest. Jacks pretends that he claimed Amy as his own to protect her from sexual harassment from other convicts. She doesn’t like the idea of being a guy’s property, but inside the prison walls they’re not exactly feminists, except maybe Brenna, who’s the only female fighter inside their UFC-like fighting arena.

I thought that this was a pretty good sequel. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book. There was more mystery and scary-stuff in the first book. We were lead to believe the Florae were aliens, but that wasn’t the case. This book definitely has a unique setting. I don’t think I’ve ever read a dystopian set in a prison. A military base, a school, a mall, a superstore, but never a prison. It definitely would provide protection from outside threats, especially plant-like zombies with super hearing, but no eye sight.

If you have not read In The After, you shouldn’t have read this review because I spoiled stuff from In The After, but no spoiler for this book. I recommend this duology series to fans of The 5^th Wave, Rot & Ruin, Divergent, Ashfall, The 5th Wave, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and any other survival/dystopian novel. If you love dystopia and post-apocalyptic books, this is a great series.

Cover Art Review: Interesting use of textures. Feels gritty and creepy.