Of Triton by Anna Banks

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Of Poseidon, Stop! I don’t want to ruin a great story for you.

Of Triton picks up immediately where Of Poseidon left off with that nasty little cliffhanger.

When Emma’s mother is confronted about her true identity, everyone in the kitchen is shocked. Emma has some of her answers but Galen is left with many more questions. Unwilling to return to Triton territory, Nalia tells Galen to bring Grom to her. He leaves Nalia and Emma under his sister Rayna’s watch while he goes in an attempt to bring Grom to the Jersey shore. Believed to have been killed in a mine explosion before they could be mated, Grom has grieved ever since. Now the trackers have sensed Nalia’s pulse and Grom knows that Galen is speaking the truth. Arriving at Nalia’s house, Galen, Grom and Toraf find Rayna bound and gagged. Nalia knocked her unconscious and fled with Emma. Grom is deeply hurt by Nalia’s deception.

Nalia truly believes she killed Grom in the mine explosion. She fled because she thought Galen and Toraf were bringing back a party to arrest her. Emma is a half breed, an abomination in the Syrena world and her mother fears for their lives. Nalia thinks that Galen used Emma to get close to her. While on the run, Emma learns the truth about her mother’s life on land and her unique relationship with Emma’s father. When Galen’s assistant Rachel finds them, she tricks Nalia into getting close to her. Rachel handcuffs herself to Nalia and they must wait for Galen to arrive.

Disbelieving, shock and then elation describes the scene when Grom and Nalia reunite after seventy years. Later at a hotel room, Emma is fuming over her mother’s fawning over Grom. She feels as if her father’s memory is being betrayed, even though they really didn’t love one another. Galen keeps her in his arms to both restrain and rejoice in being back together. Emma is hurt when her mother decides to return to the Syrena world. What about me? Where do I belong? Emma laments. “With me” her mother and Galen both state. Galen goes further to state that he wants Emma to be his mate even though she is a half breed. Galen is determined but Grom warily reminds them of the law. Nalia joins in by reminding him that she is her daughter. The law hasn’t been changed. Leave Emma behind until Nalia corrects her transgressions in Syrena. Galen agrees but then Grom drops his bombshell. He is already mated to Paca. It was completed just before they came to retrieve him. No one told him the truth about Nalia. Only that Paca was faking the gift Of Poseidon. Galen tells him that Emma has the gift for real. He has seen her in action. No matter but with his mating it now means that Galen is the next in line to become Nalia’s mate. “Ohmysweetgoodness!”

What happens when Nalia returns to the world of the Syrena? Will Grom and Nalia find a way to finally be together? What of Paca and her mating to Grom? What really happened when the mine exploded seventy years earlier? Can Galen and Emma find a way to be together or is he destined to be with her mother? And will Emma be allowed to live once the truth about her existence is discovered?

The trilogy wraps up with Of Neptune in 2014.

Legacy Lost is a short story about Grom and Nalia finally accepting one another and the tragedy that tore them apart. It is a free eBook as part of The Fierce Reads Anthology, Volume 1. The story is a great, quick read just before starting Of Triton.

Visit Anna Banks’ website.

Deep Betrayl by Anne Greenwood Brown (Lies Beneath book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Lies Beneath, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

“It’s been thirty days, two hours and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she’s counting.”

Lily Hancock isn’t counting until her high school graduation but the time since she last saw Calder White. She was sent back to Minneapolis to finish high school after the tragic events at the family’s house on Laker Superior. Reunited with both her family and Calder at her graduation, Lily is determined to let her father know about his true identity. Trying to talk her out of it, Calder thinks it is a bad idea. Shocked and confused, Calder agrees to show Jason Hancock the ways of being a merman.

With her father monopolizing all of Calder’s time, Lily finds the draw to the water too irresistible to ignore. Seeing if she has any mermaid characteristics, Lily spends time in the lake and discovers she can hold her breath for longer than normal periods of time and hear voices under the water. Not heeding Calder’s warnings to stay out of the water, her continued existence is soon discovered by Maris and Pavati. When they learn of Talluah’s death, Maris is devastated. With his sisters grieving, Calder fears not only for the Hancock family’s safety, but for anyone that enters the water.

Jason Hancock spends most of his time now in the water and begins to ignore his family. Maris and Pavati seem to be in hiding. Jack Pettit is telling everyone that there are mermaids in the lake. No one really believes him and thinks he is crazy. The reports of boaters and swimmers encountering rip currents begin to surface. Calder and Lily suspect a mermaid is behind it. Soon bodies are found in the area. The race to stop the killings is on before someone begins to believe Jack’s ramblings and begins searching the lake.

Who is behind the killings; Maris and Pavati, Jason Hancock or someone else? Is Lily beginning to transform into a mermaid? Can Jason Hancock find his way back to his family? What will happen if someone begins to take Jack Pettit seriously?

Lily and Calder’s story will conclude in Promise Bound in 2014.

Visit Anne Greenwood Brown’s website.