ARC Book Review: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Title: Lies Beneath
Author: Anne Greenwood Brown
Number of Pages: 303
Expected publication: June 12th 2012 by Delacorte Books
Source: Netgalley (ARC e-book)
Reading Level: YA and Up
Star Rating: ★★★★
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Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistable good looks and charm on ususpecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

 Spoiler Free!

First Impressions: I received Lies Beneath as a ARC from Netgalley. After seeing the book cover many times on the web and reading more info about the book briefly on Goodreads; I decided to give it a go and read Lies Beneath. I really love books and movies about mermaids. I have been fascinated with them for as long as I can remember but this book is not like anything I have seen or read in the past. This is not your average "Little Mermaid" story. No, these mermaids are certainly not the sweet, kind and innocence ones you find in a children's book. That alone had intrigued me to read the book.

Review: I will not be writing this review like all of my past review where I tell you a lot of the book then go on and tell you what I enjoyed about it. Lies Beneath does not come out until June 2012 so with that said I will not give any spoilers away. Instead I will begin by saying what I did enjoy about the book. What I loved most about the book was the uniqueness of it. How the author took a classic tale and turned it into a wickedly twisted new take on these beautiful fantasy creatures; Mermaids. Calder White and his three sister's are mermaids. A different kind of mermaid - Purely evil. Do not cross them or you will pay. You come to find out early in the book that something had happened in the past in which leads them to seek revenge upon a innocence family in the present. Calder and his sisters work together to create a plan in which Calder will befriend and romance Lily the daughter of Jason Handcock. The idea is to lead Lily down to the lake and trap her so her Father will be forced to come rescue her. But this does not go as planned when Calder finds he is strangely attracted to Lily. From here the story takes off and will lead the reader on through a twisted tale always to be wondering what will happen next? 

Brown's mermaids are devilish, hollow creatures who KNOW how to hold a grudge. They feed off of people souls, like a vampire would feed on blood. They have no means to generate happiness or love for themselves so they need to feed off of humans to be able to feel and know these emotions; leaving the unsuspecting victim dead and empty. Yes, while this is a bit on the creepy and bizarre side of reading about mermaids it makes for a very unique and thrilling story. The story is fast paced and will captive the reader from page one until long after you are done reading, Lies Beneath. I so am looking forward to reading the sequel. The ending leaves you with a huge cliff-hanger. 

Now while I truly loved this book I did find one thing that did bring down the story a bit. I felt that it took a long time to understand and relate to Calder. It was not until the middle-end of the book that I fully began to see his character take shape and evolve. The story itself was amazing and has great potential.  I will be certainly be looking out for the author and another book from her. 

Final Thoughts: I found Lies Beneath to be quite a intriguing novel. This book is not your normal; run of the mill mermaid book. No once upon a time's and happily ever after's. So if you are looking for that then do not read this book, but it you want a whole new take on these savage water bound creatures then on June 12, 2012 I would definitely recommend Lies Beneath. Thank you Netgalley and Delacorte Books for my ARC. Also thank you Anne Greenwood Brown, for taking a cute and classic mermaid tale and turning it into something extraordinary.