Whispering Words: Fins are Forever

Fins are Forever – Book Review

Tera Lynn Childs

YA Paranormal

Synopsis:

On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mergirl, true, but signing the renunciation will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being-human thing once and for all.

Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassinia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, the waves start to get rough. Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassinia and stuck in terraped form, when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody?

The seafoam on the raging surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up—Tellin asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her own dreams?

Review:

I really enjoyed the first book in this series ‘Forgive my Fins’ and I’m pleased to say that this sequel, ‘Fins are Forever’ was equally as fantastic. Still sweet and fun, this book was much more dramatic than the last, with higher stakes and greater romantic complications. It made for a quick, light-hearted read that was so cute; I could help but be left smiling.

The story starts a week after the events in book one. Lily and Quince are officially a couple (although an un-bonded one) and Lily is just beginning to come to terms with her decision to live life on land. But then, just when things are starting to go smoothly for the mermaid princess, her cousin Dosina turns up looking for a place to stay after an unknown incident leads to her being exiled from Thalassinia.

Dosina wastes no time in finding trouble and soon bonds herself to Lily’s former crush Brody. So now not only does Lily now have to find a way to un-bond the newly bonded couple, but when one of her old childhood friends turns up and offers Lily a way to keep her royal title, she is torn between the choice of following her heart or accepting her royal duty as future Queen of Thalassinia. The question she must ask herself is who does she care about more, her fellow mer-people? Or her true love Quince?

I must admit, that while this book still made me laugh out loud I don’t think it was quite as funny as the first one. I imagine this was mainly because now that Lily and Quince are couple, they don’t argue nearly as much and their scenes have gone from sweet and flirtatious to emotional and serious – which wasn’t a bad thing. It shows how much their relationship has progressed and it is clear to see their love for each other. Their romance was certainly one of things I loved most about this book.

As for the characters, I found Lily still very much the same insecure, worry-over-everything mer-girl she was in the last book. Quince however I felt was little darker, still very hunkish and drool-worthy but I missed some of his witty humour and one liners.

As for Dosina and Brody, I was quite surprised to find that I liked them both immensely. Their characters were more developed in this book and they both more than made up for their past annoyances and grievances. There romance was also rather sweet and I’m looking forward to finding out what fate has in store for them all next.

So overall ‘Fins are Forever’ was yet another fun and quirky read by Tera Lynn Childs. While I think anyone of any age will appreciate the humour and sweetness this series brings, I would ultimately recommend it to a younger YA audience who would enjoy reading about the trials and embarrassments that come with first love and growing up – especially if you are a mermaid! J

Sweet and light-hearted with a plot filled with fishy-fun – this is definitely a number one beach read. 4 stars!