Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama Gets A New Cover!

Hey guys!
This week, Elizabeth Fama's upcoming mer-novel Monstrous Beauty  was revamped with a new cover!
Here it is!



(source: http://acrowesnest.blogspot.com/2012/04/cover-reveal-for-monstrous-beauty.html?showComment=1335476686534#c1944834503196460780)
Thanks to Zoraida for the tip!

While we were discussing the new cover on Goodreads, Garrett pointed out that this cover worked better than it's predecessor because it is a lot more gender neutral. The other cover was very feminine. This one would encourage more male readers possibly.
I also think that this one would pass a lot more parent inspection. While I'm not particularly sure if Monstrous Beauty is YA,  the last cover was definitely much sexier. This one is still sensual, but a little less in your face about it.
Which brings me to today's topic: Should mermaid covers be kept more gender neutral. Let's face it, most of the mermaid demographic is girls. But there are a few men out there who enjoy the same literature. Not all of the books are as girly as their covers let on for sure. For example, Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs featured a very pink/purple mermaid and tattoo, whereas the content contained a lot of action, and a lot of romance admittedly. Lost Voices' cover was very girly as well, and the content was very dark and not nearly as feminine as the cover let on.
What do you guys think?

-Randi

Spotlight: Breathless by Cole Gibson

                                                


Sorry for the lack of content lately guys! School has really been getting to both Garrett and me and we've been at a loss for posts. Luckily, school is almost out for the summer and I'm starting to get some new stuff together.







Anyway, onto our subject today: Cole Gibson's upcoming book, Breathless. Here's the Goodreads description.




Obituary-reading emo girl Edith Small is broken - the end result of forcing herself inside a mold that doesn't fit. All she wants is to conform to her strict sergeant stepfather's rules long enough to make it to graduation day.


But a boat accident threatens to unravel the life Edith has worked so hard to keep. After waking up in a hospital with a lacerated shoulder, Edith fakes amnesia. Because admitting she received her injuries from a blue-haired girl who breathes underwater is all the reason Sir needs to send Edith on the first bus to military school.
Safe at home, Edith struggles to put the nightmare behind her. But the mysterious creatures that live in the ocean aren't about to let her forget.
After meeting Bastin - a strange boy with silver hair and black eyes - on a secluded dock, Edith learns about the war raging undersea to end human existence. A war that Edith, unwittingly, has become the key to winning.




In a world where death is an ever-present shadow and motives are as dark as the bottom of the ocean, Edith must decide if her life is worth risking for a love that can't survive past the shore.








Sounds pretty interesting, right? Cole's other book, Katana, caught my eye a while back on Goodreads, and thought it looked really interesting, so I was really thrilled when I found out about Breathless. The cover is a little predictable, but pretty (there have been so many drowning girls on covers lately, for instance, the non-merbook The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer).










The book has actually already been released (where did the time go?) on March 21, 2012. If anyone of you have read it, tell me what you think in the comments!

SPOTLIGHT: Waking Storms by Sarah Porter

Lost Voices was one of my favorite merbooks to recently come out, so naturally, Waking Storms, it's sequel, was high on my to-read list. However, I managed to score an ARC of the book from my local library. I can now assure you guys, it was a-ma-zing.
I'll write a fuller review closer to the date, but I'll do the spotlighting business right now.



Do you need to read Lost Voices before Waking Storms are can you skip book 1? No. I actually had to read Lost Voices before I could fully understand what was going on in WS. It's almost mandatory to go back  on this one.
Are there any new characters? Yes, and they're pretty darn interesting.
Does it hold up to Lost Voices?  Yes. This is a bit slower admittedly, but it has so much payoff and excitement when that action does get going.


The ending will hit you out of nowhere, and there were literally moments where I was leaping up and down in my room in excitement and joy. Bookmark this series guys, it's amazing.

-Randi

REVIEW! Lucy by Kathryn Lasky (Daughters of the Sea #3)

(If you want to read a shorter review of the book by me, I'll link my Goodreads review at the end).


Kathryn Lasky's Daughters of the Sea series is consistently the best mermaid series for young adults. It has a certain feel to it that hasn't been mirrored anywhere else.
The best aspect of this installment in particular is the close attention to detail and research that Lasky has put into all three of the books. Book 1 focused on the servants, two on the a lighthouse keeper's daughter, and three on a preacher's daughter entering high society. All three settings were written so well, showing a lot of diversity on the author's part.
As far as characters, tons of new people are introduced in Lucy, and to be honest it gets quite confusing sometimes. But we also get to go back and visit the previous characters like Hannah and May, as well as the mysterious Aunt who may or may not be the focus of the next book.
If there is one thing to complain about, it's the pacing. I had a hard time initially getting through Hannah because the middle, while enjoyable, stretches out longer than it should. May didn't have that problem, but Lucy does however. It's literally the only think I can think of complaining about for this series.
Unlike a lot of sequels that have been released in young adult this year, stuff actually happens in Lucy. Whereas such promising series have fallen flat in the plot area recently (I'm looking at you Chemical Garden and Matched) Daughters of the Sea keeps going even if the plot points aren't incredibly action filled. Lots of the important bits in this particular book are woven with the complex high class setting.
This series is aimed more towards middle grade than young adult, but it's a sweet reprieve from all the over-the-top romance and faux complicated stories of the older young adult genre books. Definitely recommended.
(Here's my shortened and slightly less in depth review of the book on Goodreads)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12246388-lucy

Thoughts?
-Randi

Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine

If you've stuck around this blog long enough, you know I'm totally in love with Florence + The Machine, a British rock/soul/alternative/magical woodland band, led by red headed goddess Florence Welch.
Their music is very reminiscent of the ocean and especially merpeople, and I've recommended it be used in mer-films many times,  but the band themselves had not put that imagery into their videos.
Anyway, the video for new single Never Let Me Go premiered on MSN yesterday (it'll be on youtube officially tomorrow morning. You can watch it here: http://video.uk.msn.com/watch/video/florence-and-the-machine-never-let-me-go-video-premiere/2t6mw8gg


Ok, so there's no mermaids in the video right? I was a bit disappointed with the video when it first premiered myself. But now that it's had some time to grow on me, I think the video might be a messed up retelling of The Little Mermaid, and I mean the original one and not the Disney one (both are cool though!).

Florence's character is the mermaid figure, while the boy (that's Jamie Campbell Bower by the way, best known for his role in Tim Burton's beloved remake of Sweeney Todd) is the human. The general idea is that Florence is some creature from the sea that can't stay on land too long, and randomly wanders into this skating rink  and there's a boy and they have a weird little romance, but her time runs out and she turns to sea foam, MUCH like the original Hans Christian Anderson telling of The Little Mermaid.
This is all fan speculation of course. The great thing about Florence + The Machine's music is that it can mean something different to every person who hears it. Never Let Me Go might be a song of hope and surrender to some, or a sad and sweet anthem of being lost.

Anyway, the song reflects beautifully on ocean themes and I think I'm starting to like the video a lot more.
What are your thoughts?

-Randi

Spotlight: Lucy (Daughters of the Sea #3)

Hey guys! Garrett and I have been at a loss for posts lately, but we finally have a small event we can write up....


The third book in Kathryn Lasky's Daughters of the Sea series is being published on March 1, and since that is coming up soon, I'd thought I'd do a little post on it, answer a few questions people have asked me about the series ect.                                                                      
Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:


A choice between love and survival . . .Lucy's family is excited to spend the summer in Bar Harbor, Maine. Her minister father is pleased to preside over such a prestigious congregation, and his social-climbing wife is ecstatic at the chance to find a rich husband for her daughter.Yet Lucy wants nothing to do with the Bar Harbor social scene; she's simply excited to spend the summer by the sea, watching the waves from her favorite spot on the cliff. Despite having never gone swimming, Lucy feels an intense connection to the ocean, and meets a handsome ship-builder who shows Lucy a world she's never known, yet somehow always longed for.However, her mother will stop at nothing to keep Lucy and the ship builder apart, even if it means throwing Lucy into the arms of a wealthy man with a dangerous secret. Can Lucy break free and embrace her destiny as a daughter of the sea? Or is she doomed to waste away in a gilded cage, slowly dying of a broken heart?




Alright, sounds pretty cool right? I've actually had more than a few people inbox me on Goodreads and ask some things about this particular series, so here are some things you should know before starting the book:






1. You should read the the books before it (Hannah and May respectively). May didn't particularly depend upon Hannah as far as plot details and such, but it was good to read them together.


2. This series is decidedly more middle grade than Young Adult, which is not a bad thing. I still liked them, but the writing is descriptive yet simple and there isn't a whole lot of complexity, but they are interesting. That might change with this installment however. May leaned more towards Young Adult than Hannah (there was a love interest, some family drama, whereas Hannah was firmly set in the middle grade).


3. It''s turn of the century historical fiction, which I personally loved. Mermaid books are either urban fantasy or set back in the ancient days of the Greeks, so this is a really fresh perspective on the legends and lore. Lasky is well researched in the era, and presents it very well for young and old readers.


4. This book is the set-up for the finale' due in the fourth book. While there haven't been a lot of details released about the last DOTS book (Ha! DOTS! That's cute!) we do know that it ultimately involves the sister's going home to the sea. I'm hoping to see more of that in this book.






What are y'all's thoughts? Looking forward to it? Happy reading :)






-Randi

Katy Perry The Mermaid

So, we've mentioned on the MerBlog before how Katy Perry and Lady Gaga were both donning mermaid outfits, and except for a few Twitter pics, we haven't really seen Katy Perry in all her finned glory. Now, as you can see from the picture to the right, Katy Perry's mermaid photo has finally been released into the world!
This was part of a photo shoot, not a music video as I originally thought. I really love the mixture in this picture: we have the overall pop-star diva look, mixed with the more cotton-candy aspects of mermaid lore. Love the pink hair, too!
Katy Perry makes a really awesome mermaid, I have to say. So, between Lady Gaga's Yuyi and Katy Perry's unnamed mermaid, who do you think made a better sultry sea vixen?