Review: Lies Beneath (Lies Beneath #1) by Anne Greenwood Brown

Lies Beneath (Lies Beneath #1) by Anne Greenwood Brown

Publication Date: June 12, 2012
Page Count: 303
Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: eArc received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis From Goodreads:

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 irresistible good looks and charm on unsuspecting 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.

I really enjoyed reading Lies Beneath, especially because it is told from a male's POV. More specifically, a male mermaid - or merman. How intriguing! The idea that mer-people exist in Lake Superior was fascinating. But the mermaids in Brown's story are not like any mermaids you have read about before. They are dark, dangerous, and most disturbing - they are killers. It was amazing to read how treacherous and deadly they were, while at the same time beautiful and very seductive.

Calder White and his 3 sisters gather to exact revenge against an unknowing victim, Jason Hancock. Each of the siblings has their own agenda and their own reasons for wanting revenge. The reader gets a good look at the rivalry and jealousy between them as they set their plan into motion. Calder shows that he has a conscious, while his 3 sisters are willing to do whatever is necessary to carry out their plot, even if it hurts innocent people. I liked seeing how different Calder is from his sisters, and learning just why he is so different and why he feels that he doesn't belong.

I enjoyed the initial interactions between Calder his love interest, Lily Hancock. I loved that he was so perplexed that she was immune to his 'charm'! How refreshing to have the female lead not fall all over the hot, new guy in town. Lily seems to have a good head on her shoulders and has a likable personality. The harder Calder tries to get close to Lily, the more she backs away from him. Which is exactly what she should do since she knows very little about him and he comes off as creepy and stalkerish. Because of this, the 'romance' between Calder and Lily progressed at a nice pace. No insta-love, which is always a plus when reading YA.

It was fascinating that Lies Beneath featured vengeful killer mermaids, but I thought it could have had a little more action and suspense. The story was a little slow in parts, especially at the beginning, but overall the storyline held my attention right up to the end. Calder and Lily had good character development throughout the book. It's hard to get a good feel for Calder's sisters as we only have his perspective to judge them by. I really wanted to know more about the 3 of them, as they were very intriguing.

Brown does a wonderful job describing the settings in a way that makes it easy to visualize. She also describes the mermaids and the underwater scenes so beautifully. Lies Beneath was a very interesting and entertaining read. I highly recommend it, and I can't wait for the next book in the series.

I had my eye on this book for a while, so I jumped at the opportunity to read it.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars