Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
Release Date: 12th June 2012
By: Random House Children's Books
Imprint: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385742016
Source: Netgalley
Target Audience: Young Adult
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Calder and his sisters, Maris, Tallulah and Pavati have been searching for the son of Tom Hancock, the man they blame for the death of their mother. He promised his first born son to the mermaid and then ran with his family as soon as he could. Their mother was killed in a fisherman's net while trying to follow him. Now they plan to revenge her death by killing Tom's son, who is now a grown man, married with two children.
They have tracked him down and plan to get close to him to get him out on the water where they can kill him. Calder is to get close to one of the daughters in order to gain the trust of the family. Calder makes a plan that involves Sophie, the youngest daughter, but things don't go to plan and he finds himself saving the life of Lily, Jason Hancock's sixteen year old daughter.
This is my first mermaid book to read, and while I did really enjoy it, I don't feel I can take it as a run of the mill mermaid book. I think this is a book where any supernatural could have been fit in around the general story line. Calder is a merman, and the book is written from his POV. I really enjoyed this as it's rare to get inside the guys head.
In the beginning of this book, we are introduced to Calder who seems to be a callous murderer with very little thought or compassion for human life. After he is contacted by his sisters, to inform him that they have found Tom Hancock's son and they must all meet to discuss how they will go about killing him, he leaves the Bahamian warmth where he has spent the winter months and heads to Lake Superior. There, he is under the direction of his eldest sister Maris, and all he seems to do is whine and disagree with her. I really didn't feel anything positive towards his character at this time. His sisters also didn't really appeal to me, and I totally disliked Maris, she was just such a ***ch towards Calder. She really annoyed me.
After Calder meets Lily, his character starts to behave differently and I really started to warm towards him. After the monstrous guy that he appears to be at the start, this is not the guy that we see throughout the book at all. I found myself really liking him and rooting for him and Lily. Once away from his sisters, he is a much better person. I really didn't like the sisters at all. They appeared just as the monsters that Calder explains to Lily that merpeople are, but Calder seems to be more than that.
I really liked Lily. She starts off being quite nervous of Calder as he seemed to just appear out of no where and now he is everywhere she goes. He is very much stalking her but she seems to be able to get over this and want to get to know him. I liked the way the romance is written in this book. Calder who feels he shouldn't be able to fall for a human, can't quite understand his feelings for Lily, and Lily, while I can't be definite as we don't get her POV, seems to like him and want to get closer to him even though that's not the impression she's trying to give him.
This book is not full of action, there is a lot more dialogue but I enjoyed it. I liked seeing how the relationship built up. We do see some action at the end and there is a twist that was unexpected. I'm interested to see where the author will take this in the next instalment, Deep Betrayal. I felt this was a fairly light read, but it does have a dark undertone.
Lies Beneath has a lot of similarities to Twilight. I love Twilight so I was happy enough with this, but if you're really not a Twilight fan, maybe this is not for you.
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