 | Title: Tempest Rising
 Sexual Content: Kissing Rating:
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Description
A contemporary paranormal romance out just in time to ride the wave of the newest creature craze: mermaids!
Tempest Maguire wants nothing more than to surf the killer waves near her California home; continue her steady relationship with her boyfriend, Mark; and take care of her brothers and surfer dad. But Tempest is half mermaid, and as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she will have to decide whether to remain on land or give herself to the ocean like her mother. The pull of the water becomes as insistent as her attraction to Kai, a gorgeous surfer whose uncanny abilities hint at an otherworldly identity as well. And when Tempest does finally give in to the water's temptation and enters a fantastical underwater world, she finds that a larger destiny awaits her—and that the entire ocean's future hangs in the balance.
Review
Nine months out of the year, I ravenously devour books full of vampires, werewolves, and fae. Without fail, the moment the weather begins to warm up, I start looking for a very specific type of supernatural story. One starring creatures that embody summer, sand, and surf: mermaids. Last year it was FORGIVE MY FINS by Tera Lynn Childs, and this year it’s TEMPEST RISING by Tracy Deebs.
Tempest Maguire was a refreshing YA protagonist from page one. She displayed a maturity that her contemporaries often seem to miss. She has grown up knowing that on her seventeenth birthday she’ll have to choose between the life she’s always known on land and embracing a life under the sea as a mermaid. Her mother wasn’t able to stay away from the sea and ended up returning and abandoning her husband and three kids. Tempest’s anguishes over the decision, but not for typical teenage reasons. She has no desire to follow in her mothers footsteps and abandon her father and two younger brothers, but she’s afraid that she won’t have a say in the matter since she already can feel her body changing. She doesn’t ask herself questions like ‘What will I miss out on if…?’ instead she worries about how her family would cope without her. In fact on the one occasion she started to drift towards a ‘poor me’ thought, she immediately squelched it and never looked back. I was sold from that moment on.
Unlike other recent mermaid books, TEMPEST RISING goes that extra mile and delivers an actual villain. So often mermaid books, especially in YA, deal only with the conflict of choosing between land and sea. Tempest has to fight a seriously nasty sea witch and a mythological monster in an eons long underwater war. Blood is shed on both sides. Not for the faint of heart. Add to that a family mystery and a love triangle that completely caught me by surprise—in a good way, and the result is exactly what I was hoping for: a book that let’s me experience for a few hundred pages the magic of being a mermaid.
If you enjoyed books like AQUAMARINE by Alice Hoffman, FORGIVE MY FINS by Tera Lynn Childs, or if you love Splash or The Little Mermaid movie, you will have a blast reading TEMPEST RISING. It’s the perfect book to sink into over the summer. Romance and adventure abound in this mermaid tale that’s a fin above the rest. A selfless protagonist who actually thinks before she acts. So refreshing. And while the ending of TEMPEST RISING does have a completely satisfying conclusion, according to her website (Tracy Deebs is the YA pen name of romance author Tracey Wolff), this is the first book in a planned trilogy. I’m already looking forward to taking another dip with these characters.
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Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFirst review l have seen on this, l am still not decided on mermaid books so this may be one to make my decision!
BooksforCompany - mermaid YA books are perfect when you want fighter read from the usual UF heaviness & this one is the best I've read.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review Shout OUt!
ReplyDeleteReading, Writing and Waiting! <3