RIPPLE by Mandy Hubbard

A few months ago, I was searching the internet for new and soon-to-be-released YA books when I stumbled upon Ripple by Mandy Hubbard. It was one of the soon-to-be-released and once I read the story description, I started counting down the days till I could hold it in my hot little hands. 

Then that glorious day came and as I studied the front cover, I noticed that there were scales on the back of the main character's calves! No Tail? Immediately I knew this mermaid book would not be like the others. So, imagine my delight when I opened the book and on the very first page she explains her first love and then that he was also her first victim! 

HOOKED!

Here's the description from Amazon:

Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren - a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi's curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she's ever had to make: the life she's always longed for - or the love she can't live without? 

I naturally gravitate toward mermaid novels, and this one hooked me from page one because it's a different take on the whole mermaid tale. One in which mermaids are not sweet, innocent maidens. I liked how Mandy Hubbard broke some of the normal assumptions of mermaids such as giving her mermaid legs, and other twists you'll have to read the book to learn about. 

If you like paranormal, urban fantasy or just mermaid stories, you should check this book out. Lets just say I never found myself wanting to put the book down. And the end seems to wrap everything up beautifully, but from the author's website, it looks like she's doing another, making this a two part series. So I'm interested to see where she takes the second book.

Plus, the author, Mandy Hubbard is from the Pacific Northwest which is my neck of the woods (literally, lots of fir trees). And the fact that she sets the story in Oregon just puts the cherry on top for me. :)

Have you heard of this book or read it? What did you think?