Tangled Tides by Karen Amanda Hooper Book Review

For Christmas I received a particular book that happened to be at the top of my "I Want" list. See, there's plenty of great looking mermaid books coming out (see list), but at Christmas time, Tangled Tides sat at the top as the book I had to have.

Did I wait this long to read it? Heck no! I plunged right into that mass of goodness the moment I tore the snowman paper from its binding. But...for some reason, I DID wait this long to review it. Well, at least on my blog. So lets get to it shall we?

From Amazon:
Yara Jones doesn't believe in sea monsters-until she becomes one. When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take  her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Tregan, the story-eyed merman who tuned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people-until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process-or she might open the gateway to a love that's deeper than the oceans.

My thoughts:
This story is fantastic and very imaginative to say the least. It goes beyond happy, glittery mermaids swimming around, or girls shocked to have fins and wondering how they'll change that fact. No, there is a ton of story here about mermaids, sirens, selkies, etc. and I love the author's mythology of these creatures. Her world building is beautiful as well. I had a hard time putting this book down because the story just doesn't stop. Action, drama...they just keep coming at you!

I wouldn't say this is completely young adult though. As I read it, I thought maybe this was more for an adult or new adult audience. And on a nit-picky side note, there were a few things that could have been taken out for a tighter story and more fluid flow.

All-in-all though, I gave this book high scores and am glad I own it. I was curious what others thought, so before I sat down to write this review, I checked out the reviews. On Goodreads, Tangled Tides received an average of 4.28 stars out of 5 by 225 ratings and 84 reviews. Yeah. So then I went to Amazon, and you know what? Basically the same thing. It had an average of 5 stars from 29 customer reviews. The numbers don't lie.

Check It Out:
If you want to buy your own copy, go here. And if you want to check out Amanda's blog go here. And if you're a serious mermaid nut like myself, scan your eyes over to the right side of this blog and look for the mermaid label where you will find more posts about mermaids. :) And if YOU'RE REALLY into mermaids...check out my writing tab and read what my mermaid-type book is all about. :)