Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy #1) by Anna Banks {REVIEW}

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

Book Title: Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy #1)

Author: Anna Banks

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy

Publication Date: May 22nd 2012
                                    by Feiwel & Friends

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Review:

Reading Of Poseidon has been a different experience altogether. I have never read a book on mermaids. That is, if you don't count Ariel's story. Even though the cover was tempting enough, I never took it up thinking it might just end up disappointing me. But I'm so glad I was wrong all along. The story and everything about the book is really refreshing. Anna Banks' take on mermaids and the way she presents it is simply marvelous.

The Characters. 

The book opens up with Emma, Chloe, Galen and Rayna. Emma and Galen are two strangers who meet by accident, but there are bigger accidents that happen after they meet. Emma's best friend, Chloe meets a terrible end following which everything changes for Emma. I love how the characters are given a solid ground from page one because even if you practically no nothing about Chloe, you can't help feel bad for her. The same goes for Emma. Galen, being a Syrena Prince, is of course good looking and OTT hot (like that's a surprise :p). Seeing Emma, Galen starts doubting about Emma's true identity and things get interesting as the story progresses. 

Emma is one hot-headed, stubborn girl who doesn't take orders from anyone, specially not Galen. That's one of the many things that draw Galen towards her, among other things like how her eyes are purple and hair white and skin pasty. And Galen is the typical hero you'd see in novels, but he is so effing adorable sometimes I love them babies *giggles* Among others Toraf and Rayna, who were also Syrenas, and mated to each other. Toraf and Galen and later Emma and Toraf share a great bond (that  includes some pretty solid punches). It was a treat to see how Rayna's feelings turn from hostility to love towards Toraf (partly thanks to Emma!)

The Narrative.

Now this is the part I have some objections with. While I'm not against any particular type of narrative, I sure as hell do not like mixing all the narrative techniques up. It makes my head ache, almost literally. So you can imagine what I must have felt like when I saw Emma's pov in first person narrative and Galen's pov from third person perspective. I'm not a boss of writing, but somehow I don't find mixing different narrative techniques healthy for the readers. While some people may enjoy the book because of its dual narrative style, I had trouble switching my brain from one style to another throughout the whole book. I love to be in Galen's head, I do. I just wish Galen's one was a first person narrative like Emma's too.

 The Plot.

In the strictest term, no solid plot was revealed in this book. Maybe because Banks kept it for the other installments. But that doesn't mean it's full rubbish, not at all. Basically there are many mini plots knitted together to carry out the story further. First it is about finding the girl, then about training, about romance and also the mystery of the stranger Syrena. I felt like Anna Banks was setting up everything in this book so she can move it further and focus on developing in the next books. So plot-wise, I'm satisfied of what I got here.

Despite the dual narrative that put me off a little, the writing is superb. Author Anna Banks don't forget to add humnly humors, wit and sarcasm just because most of the characters are Syrenas. It's not like some vampire novel where gloom prevails 24*7. It's a great read and recommended!