Tempest Rising Review and Giveaway!

Tempest is dreading her seventeenth birthday, the time at which she will have to make a choice--stay on land, or become Mermaid and give herself to the sea, like her mother did six years before. Tempest has never been able to forgive her mother for leaving and never looking back, definitely never wants to follow her below the water; not when her life above is so wonderful--her little brothers, her life of surfing, love of painting, steady boyfriend. But as the day draws closer, Tempest can't help but feel drawn to the depths of the Pacific, even as she become more weary of the water that calls so strongly to her; especially when a mysterious guy appears on the beach who seems to know much more about Tempest's change than she does.

Tempest Rising, by Tracy Deebs, is actually the first Mermaid book I've read, so I went into this not really knowing what to expect from it. It turns out that I enjoyed it immensely! I know next to nothing about Mermaids, other than they have pretty tails and live underwater, so this new paranormal world was fascinating to me--I loved learning all of the little tid-bits about the many underwater mythological creatures. The reading was really fast paced, although it did take me until about half way through to get so hooked that I had to isolate myself in my room and read the last 180 pages without pause. The book was intense and there were a lot of things that I didn't see coming, which is always exciting. Tempest's voice throughout the entire book was fantastic; the whole book pretty much read like a friend telling you the story. It was very funny at parts too, especially since Tempest is a fairly sarcastic seventeen year old. There is also a lot of romance within this book--Tempest is torn between her on-again off-again boyfriend of two years and this mysterious surfer guy, Kai. I've honestly been getting pretty sick of the love-triangles, but in this book I didn't seem to mind. Possibly because there was so much going on that the it didn't really harp on the two boy aspect of the story. This book is also the first of a trilogy, so beware that there are unanswered questions by the end. All in all, I really do suggest this book, especially if you're looking for a new type of paranormal story to sink in to! Tempest Rising just may be the gateway into the Mermaid genre :-).

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Tempest Rising is currently in stores, but you can also enter right here to win an ARC of it! Just leave a comment below with your email address and why you are interested in reading Tempest! This contest will run until Friday, May 27th. It's open to US only. Happy Reading!