Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Lies Beneath
(Lies Beneath #1)

Author: Anne Greenwood Brown

Publication Date: June 12th, 2012

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre: Paranormal

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Synopsis:

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.

One thing's for sure: whatever Calder decides, the outcome won't be pretty.!

My Thoughts: This was my first experience with a mermaid book. I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed it! Murderous mermaids bent on revenge? What's not to like? If this is Anne Greenwood Brown's debut into YA, I can see her going  far with this genre! 

The story was well written and it flowed fairly quickly. I didn't find that there were any boring parts. It follows Calder White, a merman, as he tries to seduce Lily Hancock so he is able to lure her father, Jason Hancock, out into the lake for his sisters to kill. Little does Calder know, he gains feelings for Lily. How can he hurt her by helping to kill her father? His sisters won't stop until they get their revenge, but he just doesn't know if he can do it anymore. 

The mermaids in this story kill for emotions. They are unable to create their own positive emotions, so they just steal and murder humans for theirs. Calder has a "game" where he sees how long he can go without killing. I guess this is a good thing, since it means he kills less. Unfortunately for Calder, Lily is pretty much always in  a good mood, and she smells great to him, making it harder for himto control himself and not just haul her underwater and murder her. I suppose you're wondering how Lily isn't noticing his giant fish tail, well the merpeople have evolved the ability to transform their fins into legs.

One of the things I especially liked about this story is that Lily doesn't immediately fall for Calder, in fact, she is creeped out by him and his stalker ways. This essentially makes Calder's job a lot harder than he was expecting, he actually has to get to know Lily more to gain her trust. How "normal" for a paranormal being. It completely frustrates him because he is too used to girls lining up for his affections.

Lily is quite the individual, she doesn't like to conform to society. She loves Victorian poetry and dresses like she is one, which is kind of weird but to each their own. She has red hair *yay* and lots of suspicions about the "monsters" in the lake that her grandfather was always talking about. Which leads her to asks Calder a lot of questions that he's not at all comfortable answering.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read for me. I would recommend this to those who enjoy paranormal romances and mermaids. It was a fresh look at a new paranormal creature for me and I will most likely be reading the second novel, Deep Betrayal, when it's released.

Thank you to Random House Children's Books for allowing me to review this.