mandyireadindie

I am a huge fan of mermaids and mermen. So when I got asked to review Florence, I jumped at it. Unfortunately it started off a little shaky for me. At the beginning, Florence is talking about her classmates while on a school trip snorkeling. She calls the girls Nymphs. Now I knew that the book would be about merpeople and all, but when Florence called the girls that I wasn’t sure if she was actually referring to them as (water) Nymphs or if she was figuratively calling them that. And when she saw the merman who kidnapped her it was almost like she wasn't that scared of him. Do humans know about merpeople? Do you get what I am trying to relay here? I guess what I am saying is I wasn't sure if merpeople were a secret from humans at the beginning of the story. It wasn't until she woke up under the sea that I fully understood she really didn't know about them at all before this moment. So yeah, to say I was a little confused is an understatement.

And another thing is the story was kinda slow for the first half. The author is going on about different classmates of Florence, so much that I assume they will play a role somehow in the book. But they don’t. It just sorta ends there when she gets kidnapped. I am guessing some of it is used to give some background about our girl Florence, but actually it left me a little bewildered.

Once Florence is awakened, she starts getting acquainted with life under the ocean and the ways of Niemelan. But through the whole first half I never really connected with Florence. I guess because we only got snippets of her past, I felt I really didn’t know her. It wasn’t until the second half of the book that I actually start liking her. I guess you can say she just floated through most of the book before I took any interest to her as a character.

I enjoyed the other characters of the book though. Especially Rolan, even though he came off hardheaded and untouchable, I knew I would love him. Kiran was a sly one that I found liking at the end thanks to his actions. Although, it might have been one of those ‘a little too late’ moments.
I had to push through the first half before it finally got good for me in the second half….only to have it end too abruptly for my taste. It wasn’t really a cliff hanger per say, but it just ended. Not a lot of closure. So I am assuming this book will have a sequel since a lot was left unanswered.

I understand a lot of people rated this 4 stars or above, but for me it just didn’t click. So I can only rate it a good 3 stars. It wasn’t horrible; I was just confused a lot and couldn’t get a good reading flow going. Hopefully you will give it a go and you will enjoy it more than me.