Early Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on February 3, 2012 | 1 Comment

Early Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
Series: Lies Beneath #1
Published by Delacorte (6.12.2012)
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eARC, 288 pages
Source: NetGalley
Buy on Amazon

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

I kept waiting for this story to grab hold of me and pull me under (tee hee). Sadly, it never did. Not to say I didn’t like it, because it was still pretty good…but I found myself getting bored frequently. It was a refreshing change to be told in the POV of a male protag. My comfort zone really lies with female lead roles, so this story broke that mold for me. I do believe the only other male POV’s I’ve read are Ash (Iron Knight) and Aden (Intertwined). Sad, right?

Ok, so the characters. I liked Lily a lot, she was spunky and artsy and hated conformity. And I gotta hand it to her, when she finds out about Calder she doesn’t freak out. She took it all in stride. No emotional meltdown or sniveling. I like that. Calder was a pretty cool lead, he was a natural killer yet he still had a conscience. He tried his best not to kill, even though it went against his instincts. His sisters, on the other hand….not so much. Maris was the worst. She was cold and calculating, a monster personified. Tallulah creeped me out the most, I don’t want to ruin anything by stating why. But ew. Pavati was alright, I didn’t really form an opinion about her either way.

I didn’t get much out of the Lily/Calder romance. I do like that it was nicely paced, it was natural and close to a real relationship. But for some reason it just didn’t cut it for me. No warm fuzzies there. I thought his instant obsession with her was a little creepy, and I’m pretty sure if I were Lily I’d have been a little more freaked out by the stalker tendencies. Guess she couldn’t resist the ole merman charm.

While I loved the revenge and killer mermaid aspects, I thought a little more action would have been nice. The story dragged on for me at many points, but at the end I have to admit it really captured my attention. Things got intense and there was a nice twist in there that I never saw coming. How I love the element of surprise!