Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs

Tempest Rising
By Tracy Deebs
Reviewed by Sis-in-law Sarah
The sisters say: a magical, mermaid-filled must-read!

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 Kona, 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.

Ever since the last Pirates of the Caribbean came out, I've had a mild fascination with mermaids. I mean, seriously, the mermaid MADE the movie.  When I saw this book, I HAD to read it. And, being my first ever mer book, my fascination with mermaids has turned into an obsession!

I love these mermaids.  Not only do you get an awesome colored tail (each mermaid has a different color), but you also get an incredible tattoo to match! Look at this cover!!! I kind of want a purple tattoo now!!!

The heroine of this story, Tempest, is such an incredibly round character.  She's known about mermaids all her life, seeing as her mother was one, but holds a grudge against them because she believes her mother chose the ocean and being a mermaid over being a wife and mother to the family she had on land.  However strong her grudge may be, this does not keep her from the inevitable...that she too will have to make a choice between ocean and land on her seventeenth birthday.  As it quickly approaches, Tempest learns that this choice may not be as simple as she previously thought.  As her story begins, Tempest is a simple (yet incredibly awesome) surfer with a secret, but as the story progresses, she is faced with much more difficult choices and tasks than she could have ever imagined.

This book has everything we readers are looking for: a heroine we can identify with, an extraordinary love triangle including TWO very hot yet very different guys, the adorable family our heroine must save, and a fascinating new world in which we can loose ourselves as we dive into our book from the safety and comfort of our living room couch.

Tracy Deebs delved into what could be a very cheesy subject. I mean, we all loved The Little Mermaid when we were kids, but does it really cut it in more mature literature?  Yet, for me, she made "Under the Sea" a thing of the past and gave me "A Whole New World."

I loved this book and I'm VERY much looking forward to book #2! Coming June 5, 2012!!!