In Which Randi Reviews Tempest Unleashed

I know it's been a while since there has been any actual book reviewing going on here at le blog, so I'm here to finally put the book back in merbooks blog.


I just finished Tempest Unleashed by Tracy Deebs. This is the sequel to Tempest Rising as you probably already know.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Rising, although I liked it pretty well. I thought it was too focused on romance and didn't spend enough time in the ocean to be considered urban fantasy.
Tempest Unleashed certainly surpasses it's prequel in terms of general awesome.


I really enjoyed the character development, and again, the best thing about these books is Tempest's surprising humanity. Usually when a character kills a something, be it bad or good,  they don't think about it too much, which is illogical especially in teens. But Tempest's compassion for others and human vulnerabilities are amazing in such an un-human world. But here we see Tempest less selfish and bratty, and more willing to take on the roles required of her if she is to be queen. It's fantastic.

I also ended up liking Mark a lot more than I ever did in Tempest Rising. Again, Deeb's excellent character development kicks in and we finally understand any sort of initial fascination these two had for each other.

On the other hand, Kona is less of a favorite after this book. He becomes clingy and aggressive, not without ground to do so, but still, it's annoying.

The story is wonderful, exciting, and keeps moving after the slow start in Tempest. It's very fast and makes the four hundred ish pages go by really fast. The new characters introduced or further worked upon are interesting.

There's a very grand sweeping scale of an epic fantasy, and it's beautifully written. This is a story that I have loved getting lost in.

-Randi

We're On (The Back) Of A Book!!!!

Hey y'all! Long time, I know, things are busy.
But guess what? The lovely and talented Zoraida Cordova has just told us that there will be a blurb from the MerBooks blog on the back of the forthcoming sequel the The Vicious Deep, which is called The Savage Blue. No word yet on what blurb it'll be, or which review they'll use (Garrett and I both wrote one for the blog), but that's still REALLY EXCITING!
So keep your eyes peeled, because there will be much fangirling.

Review and Interview

Just popping in to let all you mer-fans know about a couple of recent happenings over at The Parsons' Rant:

1. There is a two-part interview with Robert W. Cabell - author of All The Mermaids In The Sea and A Mermaid Christmas. Both of these books were part of our Christmas Give-away. The first part of the interview is at howardparsons.info/interview-robert-w-cabell-part-i and the second part of the interview is at howardparsons.info/interview-robert-w-cabell-part-ii.
2. There is a review of the second installment of Adrianna Stepiano's Memoir of a Mermaid series - When, At Last, She Could See. Go read it at howardparsons.info/review-when-at-last-she-could-see.

Finally, we still have a number of books remaining from the Christmas Give-Away. These books are looking for good homes and are absolutely free - including shipping. Swim on over to the Merry Mermaid Christmas Clearance Centre to claim a copy as your very own.