55 Books in a Year: Book #53 Just for Fins and #62 In Over Her Head

Just for Fins

Reason for reading:

It's the third book in the series and I was a little worried I wasn't going to like it as I was not impressed with book 2, but I wanted/needed to finish the series.

Read this if you like:

Tera Lynn Childs, mermaids, Forgive My Fins (the first book in the series), stories about family, royalty, the ocean without being too technical

My thoughts:

What a lovely ending to the series. At least I hope it's the ending...I know how writers are nowadays. I also like that Lily kind of redeems her not so academic self by having such a passion for the ocean. I like how she is willing to learn from others and I like how she is quite the brave communicator.Quince must complete three challenges to win over Lily and everybody including Doe is rooting for him. This is such a fun, light series and I appreciate that!

In Over Her Head

Reason for reading:

I was curious about what an 'adult' mermaid book might be.

Read this if you like:

Romance novels, books about buried treasure, Splash, the sea and the ocean as it goes into great detail about both

My thoughts:

Gah! There's wayyyy to much ocean description. I don't need to know the name of every creature present. Heck, as a Midwestern I found myself looking up or Googling images just to get an idea of what the flip was going on. Also, I'm beginning to hate this new (?) trend that romance novels have of waiting until about 200 pages in before there's any 'action' and then the 'action' is so prevalent that it is distracting. Parts of this book were really cute, but most of it required too much from me to make it work.

2012 Mermaid books read in order of how much I like them

1. Tangled Tides *****
2. Between the Land and the Sea ****
3. Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings ****
4. Just for Fins ****
5. The Lure of Shapinsay ****
6. Fins are Forever ***
7. The Little Mermaid ***
8. Sea Change ***
9. In Over Her Head ***
10. Everblue **

55 Books in a Year: Book #40 The Lure of Shapinsay

My first book about selkies and it was definitely better than I thought it would be. Although the romance of it was a bit OVER THE TOP and Edward/Belle-esque, I enjoyed the story of a selkie torn between the sea he loves and the girl he's lured into being with him.

I thought this story was going to be told through the eyes of the selkie male (named by his 'captor' Eamon) and, it was. However, it is also told through the eyes of the girl, Kait and it seems that it is Kait's story that receives most of the attention in it we find a girl being forced to follow conventions and marry. Her parents have died and it would seem her twin brother Blair thinks he is doing her a favor by setting her up before he pursues his own bride. He believes this to be especially true since Kait's best friend has a baby that isn't quite human, and, because it was thrown out to sea to drown the selkies want some sort of vengeance. Eamon, too, is trapped by duty and a fear of humans, except for he can't stay away from Kait for too long.

It's pretty cool that this story takes place on the island of Shapinsay during the same time period that Balfour Castle was being built, the middle 1800s, when people still believed in faeries and the evil of witches. Kait learns that to keep Eamon with her, she must steal his selkie coat, and hide it in a place that no one would ever look. This is what human men have been doing to beautiful selkie women for ages and it works in reverse, but at what cost. While Eamon and Kait love one another and are bound to one another it must be determined if this love is strong enough to live through so much on both sides of the equation.

Although predictable (what love story isn't?), the ending has a twist that I truly enjoyed. I look forward to reading more lovie-dovie romances by Krista Holle and I need to find more books about selkies, as I don't know any of their legends and lore. I feel like I'm behind the times and must go watch The Secret of Roan Inish and Ondine immediately.

Splash into Summer 2012 in Review

The Five Post from the Week
Intro
Sea Change
Everblue
Chocolate Mug Cake
Today's recap

Don't forget to check-out the giveaway from Teen Text Talk

Post from other Blogs
Mythical Mondays: Mermaid Tales from Around the World
Top Ten Ways to Catch a Mermaid

[Source]

Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings: Chocolate Mug Cake

Aside from the cocoa...
we have the rest of the ingredients in our house all the time.

Jade's 5-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
Original can be found here and in the book Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings. Below you will find a mixture of the two recipes, plus my own words, pictures and observations.

Ingredients and Directions
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
Mix it well. Then add:
1 egg
Mix. Then add:
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
Mix. Then add:
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional...but, in our recipe it was a must!)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (we used a capful each)

We won't talk about what that looks like
...it taste pretty darn good, though!

Then:

Cook for 3 minutes on high. The cake bubbles up like when you heat up a marshmallow, but don't worry. It just rises up not over. Let it cool for a bit (unless you want to burn your lips off). We let our cool until it had settled to a normal height and then dumped it out onto a plate. Tip it out onto a plate if you want it to cool thoroughly. ENJOY!

Notes & Tips

1] You may not need to cook the cake the whole 3 minutes...check it at 2ish, if you don't want it to be overly dry. It took our 3 minutes each and I used, as you can see, two different types of mugs.

2] You might need to add extra oil if it isn't moist enough.

3] Unless you are some sort of chocolate/dessert FA-REAK, this seriously makes enough for two or three, if one of them is a preschooler.

4] Eat it with ice cream it's delish!

5] My sister and I decided that the cake definitely must have the chocolate chips.

So, um, yeah my sister and I made this treat while our tiny people weren't around (don't worry they had the leftovers for breakfast! See, we're 'good' parents!). Here we are enjoying it while watching Sherlock. Seriously, it's pretty tasty with some ice cream. Does a little relaxation get any better than this?

55 Books in a Year: Book #37 Everblue

I have no idea why I wanted to read this book. I think I was totally drawn in by the cover; isn't it beautiful? And, then I realized I could get a mermaid book for ever so cheap ($.99 as an ebook on the Nook) and, well, I do love a mermaid book on the cheap.

I love the setting of this book. It's so cool to think that living amongst everyday average people are merpeople and that there are gates to another world where they live and thrive with rules and cities different than our own. I also loved how the gate we see the most is in Lake Tahoe...so VERY different than the other books. I like how the world is created with air bubbles in homes so there can be furniture and human creature comforts. I also like the characters (even though one of the merboys is named Fin...yes, Fin, as in I have one), frankly, I especially like Fin the most of all.

So, if I like all those things about it...why the low-rating? why the dislike? Let me see if I can break it down.

1. The execution of the story
This story is paced like it's a 500 page novel. With little details given over time and/or large chunks given over to explanation of a thing that isn't important at that moment. This book takes up practically a whole year.

2. The back and forth narration doesn't work
I enjoyed the change of narrator in Tangled Tides, it flowed and I got to know the characters. In this book the narration doesn't stay with one character enough for me to get into the story and I found myself rereading a part or a section just to see if I missed something.

3. It's treatment of boys and girls...relationships...men and women
If a mermaid is bonded to a boy once they kiss (an idea I do not mind...mated for life is highly romantic), isn't a forced kiss, well, rape? Ick. That's all I could

4. The strangely forced Christian slant
I am a Christian and I like being one...I don't like Christian just being thrown in for the sake of good Christianness. It just threw me off and...actually made me a little uncomfortable, like I was hanging out with my mother and I was 13 all over again.

Everything about this book has rubbed me the wrong way...I'm not sure I need to read the rest of the series (although I've just downloaded Evergreen, I don't know why...it was cheap). I always feel bad when I genuinely don't like a book, mostly because I'm not really sure if I could do better if I tried and here a person has given their heart and soul and all I can do is read it and bash it. I've also read tons of other reviews, hoping those 4s and 5s (and there are a lot of them) would help me see the story differently. Sometimes I'd read a review and think..."Did we read the same book?". That being said, I do hope you try out this book for yourself and if you rank it higher than me please tell me why, I'd really like to know. I think I would have liked this book better had it been the first mermaid book I'd ever read and not the latest.

I felt sad that for my Splash into Summer week, I chose to read two books that weren't what I thought they would be. On to my first truly selkie book, The Lure of Shapinsay!

55 Books in a Year: Book #36 Sea Change

Sea Change by Aimee Friedman is a beautiful story of the sea and of budding teen romance and coming-of-age in a small town in the South...it is a story of mystery, suspense, history and family. I can't really tell if it's a story about mermaids. I think it wants to be. I think it thinks it is. I'm not so sure.

Miranda comes from a long Southern family who vacations every year on Selkie (no there aren't any selkies in this book) Island. Miranda and her mother have gone back to the island to pack up their family home. While doing this Miranda falls for a local boy whose mysteriousness seems to be tied into a book of mermaids found on her grandmothers' bookshelf and to the island itself.

The story of Miranda's growth into a girl who becomes a young adult who doesn't just do what she's told and doesn't live in her life by stereotypes. I really liked how Friedman gives us that stereotypical Southern Belle and Southern Gentleman in several of the teen characters, but then she gives us characters who defy those stereotypes. I like that Miranda learns that just because you fight or disagree with your parents that doesn't mean they don't love you or that you don't love them. I especially love that there is a side of Miranda that she didn't even know existed and I love that her grandmother, even in her death, is helping her find that side.

Leo, a boy she meets on the coast of the island, is everything any girl wants in a man. He passionate and compassionate and good-looking, he loves all the things that she loves (science, sea creatures) and is from the island.

The only thing is, Leo, may or may not be a merman.

This is where Aimee Friedman lost me.

She spends all of this time setting up this mystery. Mercreatures are attracted to red and gold; the whole entire town of fishermen is decked out in red and gold. Leo is always mysteriously near water and has a vast knowledge of the lore and science surrounding the island. However, all of this back story never really comes to any type of conclusion.

I didn't mind the strange reason Miranda and Leo have a fight and I didn't mind how Miranda's mother seems to lose her mind once on the island flirting with an old flame and acting like a debutante. I did mind that this is supposed to be a mermaid story, even better a story about a merboy, and there's only a slight instant of tail fin. I don't mind connecting the dots in a mystery, but is it really a mystery if the author only just gives us a wee-bit to be curious about. In the end no questions are answered and, frankly, there are more questions asked. Is the guy on the ferry mer too? Is Miranda part mer? Was her grandmother and, in turn, her mother? At first, I thought that I had a bad copy of the book, that's how much is missing, but after reading other reviews I think this may be the intention of the novel. This book wants a sequel, although I hear there isn't one in the works at all.

This book has a lovely romance and is a great story of the growth of a girl who learns that things can live outside of her comfort zone and knowledge. If you are reading this book in the hopes of having a little mermaid action you may be disappointed. Maybe.

Review from Coffee and Cliffhangers

Riding Seaward on the Waves...Splash into Summer Day #1

So, I've been waiting for this week for a little while now, I'm looking forward to reading reviews, and have already entered several giveaways for mermaid books and swag.

[Here's the linky if you are participating or want to read other mermaid posts]

“I have seen them riding seaward on the waves 

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back 

When the wind blows the water white and black. 

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea 

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown 

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” 

― T.S. Eliot

I have always loved mermaids, below you will find links to the mermaid (so far) for this blog:

Forgive My Fins (and an intro to my obsession)
Hoorah More Fin Books and more mermaid tales
The Little Mermaid
Between the Land and the Sea
Fins are Forever
Tangled Tides
Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings


I also have a lovely (well, at least I think so...) Pinterest board.

Follow it here

If you, too, love mermaids, might we suggest going the distance and following the MerBooks blog. It can be found:

BLOG
TWITTER
GOODREADS

and join the reading challenge on Goodreads...here.

What mermaid books are you looking forward to reading or have read this year? Who is your favorite mermaid?

The Conscientious Reader
July 9th     Introduction, Why I love mermaids, recap of my mermaid things thus far,
                Pinterest board, MerBooks blog etc.
July 10th   Review: Sea Change
July 11th   Review: Everblue
July 12th   Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings: Chocolate Mug Cake...yeah, I'm making
                it and talking about it
July 13th   Recap of Splash of Summer: favorite post, links

and, check-out the blog I share with my English teacher friends for a giveaway!

Summer Reading Plans

The Classic Bribe
Perusing Kill Me If I Stop, I found this challenge. I'm not putting it on the main page at the top because a] that page is getting rather long and I need to figure out out to make page tabs, but alas who has time to fiddle with html and b] it's for summer only. I'm thinking it will help me read at least one...gah...one...of my books for Back to the Classics and/or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen of la Books.

Here's the challenge from Quirky Girl Reads

The Classic Bribe – Challenge & Giveaway:

• Read at least 1 Classic over the summer – between Memorial Day and the end of Labor Day Weekend, September 3rd
• You can have begun the Classic prior to Memorial Day, but it needs to have been completed between the challenge dates above
• Post a review on your blog of each Classic that you read during the challenge period and reference a link to this “The Classic Bribe” challenge page
• Link to each of your reviews separately by clicking on Mr. Linky below
• Each linked review counts as 1 entry – no entry limit per blogger – read and review as many as you like
• Each entry builds up $1 toward an Amazon gift card – the more entries the higher the balance can grow – capped at $35
• Random winner selected Labor Day weekend from all entries- no restrictions on region
• Winner receives the full Amazon gift card balance accumulated based on entries received

Splash into Summer
This next Summer read item will take place a delicious week in July. I still feel guilty for having missed Irish Short Story Week this year...crazy month of March here at the ranch, but this summer fun activity will sort of scratch that itch. It's called Splash into Summer and is hosted by Literally Jen and Bonnie at A Backwards Story

The week of July 9th will be all about mermaids. *squee*

The Conscientious Reader
July 9th     Introduction, Why I love mermaids, recap of my mermaid things thus far,
                Pinterest board, MerBooks blog etc.
July 10th   Review: Sea Change
July 11th   Review: Everblue
July 12th   Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings: Chocolate Mug Cake...yeah, I'm making
                it and talking about it
July 13th   Recap of Splash of Summer: favorite post, links

Teen Text Talk
July 9th     Introduction, Giveaway
July 10th   Review: Sea Change
July 11th   Review: Everblue
July 12th   Review: The Lure of Shapinsay
July 13th   Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings: Chocolate Mug Cake...yeah, I'm making                it and talking about it and Giveaway winner announced Monday

Pinterest, MerBooks, three book reviews, a giveaway and chocolate mug cake...I can't wait!!!

Kate's Book Club: Summer Reading Game
Another challenge that I think will help me with my bigger year-long challenges is the following from Kate's Book Club. The ten type of books are listed below and there's no specific end or start date, so I'm going to start July 1st and end September 30th. If there is a book I've had in mind, I've listed it below the challenge and will add more as I think of more to add.

1. One Book Recommended By A Friend.

On the Island (by my friend Jen R.)

2. One Book That Has Been Sitting On Your Shelf For Over A Year.
The Lincoln Lawyer

3. One Book You Read A Long Time Ago And Don't Remember.
The Last Unicorn

4. One Book From Your To Be Read List.
The Night Circus

5. One Book You've Never Heard Of.

Lost in a River of Grass

6. One Classic.

The Bloody Spur (also titled While the City Sleeps)

7. One Book You Started But Never Finished.

The Garner Files

8. One New Release.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

9. One Book That Is Outside of Your Typical Genre.

Warrior's Rise

10. One Chunkster (A Book That Is Over 400 Pages).

Infinite Jest

Oh and I promise to talk about all our summer trips...sometime before the end of the season. We've been having a blast!

55 Books in a Year: Book #27 Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings

Here is another book for my mermaid challenge.

Just in case you've forgotten it's lovely marvelous details or you want to play along you can find all the information you need by clicking on The 2012 MerBooks Mermaid Book Reading Challenge.

How could you not love a book that starts off with a girl getting her period while trying on swimsuits damaging the one she decides to buy and ends with a recipe for Chocolate Mug Cake (something I'm definitely going to try in the future)? The answer is that there is no possible way that you couldn't.

After Jade reaches puberty, things about her begin to change...a certain boy begins to notice her lovely wavy hair and curvy figure and one day in the bathtub she begins to notice that instead of feet she's sporting a shimmering blue-green tail.

I love the voice of Jade, she's sassy and quick-witted, just how I feel every middle grade school girl should be. She thinks she's too curvy (there's a whole scene with a tankini that is just too real and adorable), she thinks she's not beautiful (without wavy red hair, how could she be anything else?), and she is missing her mother, who drowned a year ago, more than anything.

But, is her mother really dead or is that her mother she hears calling her? Can she stand being part mermaid? Trying to find these answers means that she has to keep telling big lies to her best friend and it means that she could be putting herself into more danger than she realized.

The best part of this book is the fact that the mermaid stuff seems to be par for the course in Port Toulouse and the story isn't really about keeping the secret or finding her true love or identity, but in finding out what really happened to her mother.
What can I say? This book is cute and fun and light and fluffy. A perfect summer read for any girl age 9 to, um, 36.

Oh and book two just came out...yippers!

55 Books in a Year: Book #24 Tangled Tides

I wasn't really into the cover of this book, the mermaid is in some sort of misty ecstasy with pastel water splashes and a thunderstorm in the background, so it took me awhile to actually read it, which is sad because Tangled Tides is my favorite mermaid book so far. It combines romance, suspense and mythology to entice the reader to go on the journey with Yara.

This is the first mermaid book that I've read that actually delves into the history of mermaids, talks about how there are more than one type of mer-creature and doesn't have a heroine that cries and whines all the time. Sure, Yara doesn't want to be a mermaid, but she also doesn't understand how much her family and friends are involved with these ancient creatures either.

While Yara is truly the star of the show, Hooper compels us to get to know each of the characters in this universe she's created. There are two warring half-brothers, this creates a love triangle sort of (another part I like about the book a new twist on the triangle of love), who happen to be on the opposite ends of the same side, an adorable old guardian uncle, a bewitching siren and so many beautiful and colorful mermaids that I couldn't pick a favorite secondary character. I like how the story gets told through the voices of three characters, not just one. At first I thought this was going to be annoying, but then realized the story moved forward with each interpretation of the tale and the three very different voices kept me intrigued.

And, if you want action there's that too. The gorgons want their cursed prize, there's a deadly sickness that mermaids get if they stay in our world too long and they're running out of the cure and time, there's a shark attack that I didn't breath through as I read and there are some sexy scenes and kisses that left me quite breathless, and wishing I had fins and a tail and my own blue-haired tattooed man friend.

This is definitely a book for those people who love their water creatures (as there are mermaids, selkies, water sprites, sirens and gorgons), but it also for people who love mythology (I never really thought about where mermaids came from, until I read this book), or just want a good suspenseful romance.

Oh, and I got this book for free, when it was free, it's now $4.99 on your Kindle and I couldn't find an ebook version on Barnes and Noble.

55 Books in a Year: Book #12 Fins Are Forever

I'm not sure how I feel about Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs. On the one hand I love the continuation of the story from the first book, I love the character Quince and I love the Lily is learning more and more how to be herself. On the other hand, I felt that new  characters were added just to add meat to the very thin story, I thought that the story was predictable to the point of boredom and, well, there's a whole lot of Dosinia and Doe (as she is called) is the character we spent the whole entire first book disliking--frankly, I disliked her soooo much that, even at the end of this book and we find out a few things about her, I still wanted her to get eaten by a shark.

Although the bond has been severed, at the end of the first book, Lily and Quince decided that they should be together. This means that Lily must give up her kingdom...for a boy. I was willing to accept this fate for Lily as she spent the whole book crying and not listening to her heart and needed to be shown that her true happiness really does matter. In this book she jeopardizes (although by the end we all see why) her future and her happiness, and I still can't decide if it's because she was too stubborn to get it or if Doe is a bigger b-word than I thought.

Which brings me to the fact that I don't like Doe. I suppose that I should be grateful that Childs has written her character so well that I want to vomit every time she's around, which in this book is often, as she's been banished from the kingdom and forced to live with humans. Of course, Brody is back and there's another boy who is heir to a throne in dire straits. Because of this fact, there's more relationship tension between Quince and Lily...tension caused by Lily and her inability to trust people...ugh.

Part of the problem I may have with this book is that I felt that the first one ended so nicely. Actually, this book has a pretty sweetastic ending also, it just took me about 45 pages to understand that there could, in fact, be more to the story.

It may not sound like I enjoyed this book, I did like it, I just know I would have liked it more had it been a stand alone and not a sequel.

I'm looking forward to the third book, Just For Fins, and I still love myself some Tera Lynn Childs, however, this particular book didn't totally live up to my expectations.

3 Stars
 

55 Books in a Year: Book #6 Between the Land and the Sea

Through Twitter and the lovely Anna Banks (who's book I can't wait to read) I found MerBooks: The Group For All Things Mermaid.

Information about the Group
In this group you can talk about all things Mermaid! We'll also keep the group updated on new Merbooks coming out!
Twitter handle
@SeaOfMerBooks
The Blog
The MerBlog: The Blog For All Things Mermaid
What I've learned?

• I'm definitely behind in the mermaid book reading thing...where have I been? I now have a list about a mile long.
• There are grown-ups who are as obsessed about mermaids as I am.
• I can easily find 10 mermaid books to read this year.
• If you buy a book on Smashwords the author gets more profits than if you buy it somewhere else.
• Authors don't really need agents or money to sell books anymore.

I started my MerChallenge with The Little Mermaid and quickly followed up with Derrolyn Anderson's book Between the Land and the Sea, as she is giving it away to group members who email her.

This book is adorable and delightful. Marina doesn't know she's from the sea as her mother died giving birth to her and her father just doesn't talk about it. They live in the city where her neighbor lavishes her with designer clothes and hand bags and fancy cars, and, kind of like a wealthy benefactor from an Austen novel, is always there when Marina needs to dress or drive to impress. While her scientist father spends a year in Afghanstian, she is sent to live with her eccentric tofu eating aunt and her goth designer son. As Marina learns about herself and her past, she helps those around her find their true selves. This is especially true of her relationship with her cousin Cruz and his friend Megan. Through Marina they both learn that outside their small town they are normal and wonderful.

I enjoyed that this book is set in a real town (that I would love to visit someday), you can see pictures on Anderson's official blog.

I also enjoy how Anderson writes a story where the main issue isn't the fact that Marina is part mermaid, but the fact that she was never told. I also like that her relationship with Ethan, a delicious blonde surfer boy, is forged through the water and a mutual secret.

This book has a cliffhanger and happy ending at the same time with everyone wrapped up in self assurance and coupledom.

You know come to think of it, if Jane Austen were a modern woman who wrote about mermaids (fun to think about right!?) I bet she would have written a book like this one, or at least she would have been inspired by it.

I look forward to reading the rest. I hope there are only four.

4 Stars   

There are a handful of issues that bug me (for instance, Marina's father, who is not existent throughout the book, wins the Nobel Prize and I'm supposed to care and how many times can we have hospital stays, really), but they do not, in any way, harm the story.

The Little Mermaid: A Collection

My husband and I are collectors of sorts. We get an idea about something in our heads and we must research, read, view every bit of it until we've devoured it from all angles. As a couple, I know it started with Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, pooling our collections together, we have several different versions of the movie; the Disney version being a must. We've watched the Syfy Alice and actually spent a Saturday looking through Netflix for strange versions, and new versions and a classic from my childhood. We read parts of the book aloud to the kiddo and I've read the novel Alice I Have Been, a kind of closer to the whole adventure. I don't know what his first collection was or how it began (I'll have to ask him once I get done typing this), but I can tell you mine started with the story of "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen.

I enjoy how the story is incorporated in the lovely Danny Kaye movie, Hans Christian Andersen, a slightly inaccurate retelling of Andersen's life through song. It was from this movie that I realized that maybe the ending wasn't as tragically beautiful as I may have thought, as Andersen wrote the ballet for a beautiful dancer who did not return his love and affection. I remember the scene in the movie. As she is dancing, he is trapped in a closet, nobody can hear his pleas to get out.

Of course, my favorite is Disney's The Little Mermaid. It came out when I was just the right age to appreciate it as a wonderful cartoon with excellent songs that I can still sing on command, a wonderful cast of actors, with great Disney artistry and as the dawn of a new era in not only Disney, but in cinema worldwide. Here's an excellent review of it.

The internet has made collecting variations of the story easy, as different versions can be found just by typing the title and author into any search engine. Here are a couple:

A translation from Erik Christian Hauggard for Doubleday
A translation from H. P. Paull

In reading mermaid books for my MerBooks Reading Challenge, I felt it was important to start with the first. I found a translation that I had not read before and downloaded it on my Nook. It, like all other translations, varies slightly while still maintaining the original intent of the story and I am glad that I read it, as that's one more for the collection. Here's to finding more interpretations as I delve into this 10 book challenge.

While I am counting this for the Mermaid Book Challenge, I'm not counting it as one of my 55 books, because really...even if I read all the translations out there I will still feel like I'm cheating--it's such a short story.

Hoorah, another Fins book and more mermaid tales!

I absolutely love whoever is designing the covers to these books by Tera Lynn Childs.

And, if you've forgotten how much I love mermaids...click here.

And, here's a new mermaid adventure I found while on Twitter...

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Website: http://www.byannabanks.blogspot.com
Twitter: @ByAnnaBanks


On Goodreads: Emma and her friend Chloe are spending vacation in Florida. When Emma (literally) runs into a hot guy named Galen on the beach, little does she know he’s a prince of the Syrena. Galen and Emma both feel something strange – is it attraction? – and Galen suspects that Emma might well be the girl he’s heard of – a human who can communicate with fish. 

What follows is a deadly scene with a shark in which Galen witnesses Emma’s gifts. He must know more about her, and follows her back to New Jersey, and high school, to find out for sure if she’s the key to saving his kingdom. Soon, Emma can’t deny her feelings for him, but can’t explain them, either – and both she and Galen must learn more about where she comes from and what her powers are before they can trust one another and their feelings.


And, finally, a delicious list from Goodreads

50 Books in a Year: Book #6 Forgive My Fins

          I have always had this fascination with two lovely mystical creatures; mermaids and unicorns. So, when I was digging around for another book to read I'm so glad I found this book by Tera Lynn Childs called Forgive My Fins. There's a book giveaway that closes soon at this lovely blog called Forever Young Adult! Giveaways and I are not friends so I just, literally on Saturday, downloaded it on my Nook.

          Let's talk about mermaids for a minute...if I wanted to get really embarrassed I'd show you pictures I drew when I was in elementary and junior high. I'm not going to do that, ever! I would like you to know that my deep love of all things mermaid started with the Sea Wees. We'd get a set of these toys everytime we'd go to Wal-Mart. They were perfect for bathtime play as they were mermaids who came with floaty sponges and their tails make excellent razors for fake leg shaving. I wish I had some...I guess I know what I'll be doing for a diversion today!

          And, there are so many good mermaid movies! I was totally enchanted with Splash as a kid (it wasn't until later I even recognized that this movie may not have been appropriate for a 7 year old...it had a friggin' mermaid, come on!), my niece and I just had a delightful discussion about Aquamarine, such a good movie about a teen mermaid, and I just watched for the first time Fishtales with Billy Zane, then there's the under-rated Lady in the Water. And, don't even get me started about The Little Mermaid, even if it is a "Disney-fide no one dies" version. I even like it when mermaids aren't so nice like in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Peter Pan!

          So, this book is about a mermaid princess, who can't tell anyone she's a mermaid, who is major in love with the captain of the swim team...sounds lovely and teen and cute right!? Frankly, I hope she gets with her biker boy neighbor...and, if I know my teen dramas...I can't wait to start reading!!!

Feel free to read: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Feel free to watch these Disney's Silly Symphonies...two of my favorite mermaid cartoons.

Tera Lynn Childs has also given me a great idea for a school project! More information can be found at: Books, Boys, Buzz

Character collages

Collage. I do this for every book. Because I'm a visual learner, I find it invaluable to have a pictorial compilation of my characters. Lots of writers do collages, but here's my method. You'll need some printer paper, scissors, a glue stick, and some magazines.

• Step One: Flip through as many magazines as possible. I like TeenVogue, CosmoGirl, InStyle, and Lucky the best. I tear out anything that reminds me of any of the characters in this book. I do collages for all of the main characters and most of the secondary ones, so as I tear stuff out I divide into piles by character. The more I have to choose from the better. At a minimum I need something that will make a good background, a headshot or two of and actor or model who looks like the character, and some clothing and accessories they would own.
• Step Two: Build the collage. Start by gluing down a background image that fills up most of the page (this way you won't end up with whitespace left over at the end). Then select a few of the headshot and clothing images, trim them to just the desired element, and arrange them over the background. I always lay these out before I glue so I make sure they all fit. Then snip out the small pictures and accessories and stick them wherever they fit.
• Step Three: Finalize the collage with words. This usually requires flipping back through the magazines looking for two things. 1) Words that resonate with your characters. 2) Ransom-note-type letters that you can cut out and use to form your character's name. Sometimes I even outline the letters of the name in a silver Sharpie to make it stand out more.

I'm sensing some Lit Muse book club book ideas! And, I don't even care that this book is part of a series!