Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Reader's Review: "Salt" and "Submerged" by Pauline Creeden



SALT

Synopsis from Amazon:

Mermaid life has never been easy for Verona. Her scars give evidence of her abuse. When her day of reckoning arrives, she is determined to endure exile. According to her father’s experience, exile is better than becoming a land-walker and risking her life among the humans. 

However, when she saves the life of a drowning human boy, she inadvertently sets off a chain of events which force her to choose a path: stay with the humans she has become attached to or return home to a life of scorn. A savage hunter draws closer, threatening even the humans. Her only hope is to keep everyone safe until the next full moon, but those around her devise their own plans.

If you love mermaid tales or paranormal romance, buy this coming-of-age story of shifters, first love, and learning what it means to be human, now!
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My Review:

Very cute and sweet rendition of the typical mermaid story! Creeden jumps right in with lore that makes sense, harkens back to the traditions and legends from history--and she even incorporates her love of horses into it! I was fascinated all the way through. Verona is an outcast among her clan, preparing for a life of exile, when a young man literally drops into her life, sinking into the water right in front of her. She rescues him, shedding her tail and becoming human--and that's only the beginning.
Part of the common trope of a "Little Mermaid" story is her naïveté when it comes to anything from the human world. ("What's a fire?" "Ooh, watch me, I'm gonna use this fork as a comb...") When this happens, a lot of the transition from sea to land is spent indulging in the childlike wonder of these new and confusing things, goofy mishaps, and the writer often falls for the allure of explaining the most mundane things, and the whole tone of the story drags to a near-halt in the wake of it.
Creeden neatly sidesteps this by creating a plausible scenario where Verona, as an outcast, is not bound and restricted in her movements in regards to the humans, so she has visited the surface often and learned of human culture via television shows. Thus, a great many details that would otherwise have outed her as a non-human, Verona is able to adapt to blend in.
Two aspects in particular I found particularly unique and intriguing. The first is the connection between witches and werewolves as the principal threat to a Mer on land. It didn't show up as a conflict until later in the story, but it made a lot of sense the way it happened, and I liked the way she expressed it and doled out details, the encounters--and drawing a correlation to things like running water and the innate "danger sense" of ponies as a safeguard against them was brilliant, indeed.
The second thing I really loved was the way Creeden bothered to develop the lives of both the humans and the Mer. Logan has as much depth and development as Verona does--and the connections with the side characters and the way they interact with the main characters makes them relatable, dynamic, and inspires sympathy and a vested interest in both sides of the relationship.

Speaking of secondary characters....

SUBMERGED


Synopsis from Amazon:

Mermaids can be cruel creatures.

I couldn’t stop them from hurting her, but I couldn’t let them destroy her, no matter what they did to me. The moment I heard the bottom feeder had been chosen for the reckoning, my heart sank. Had I been discovered for what I truly was? Years of pretending I was just like everyone else could all have been for naught. But then I heard it was Verona, and my blood ran cold.

Why was I surprised?

I shouldn’t have been. I’d stood by and watched her ridiculed since we were younglings. I was never as brave or as unselfish as she was. But today, I would be.
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My Review:

I decided to review both of these tales because firstly, they were both short novellas, and second, they joined together. SUBMERGED tells the story surrounding Verona's banishment and gives a glimpse into her life below the water, through the eyes of Bailey, a character who only shows up briefly in SALT and almost presents as a gruff, cold, one-note character--a great foil to contrast with Verona, but not much more at first glance... Once again, Creeden defies the conventional and delves deep into the psyche of this "minor" character, and once again succeeds in inspiring a great amount of sympathy. The choice is much the same: does Bailey continue living under the rules and practices of his upbringing, does he believe what others are telling him about "the way things are", or does he choose to think for himself, and act upon those choices to do what he feels must be right, even if everyone around him declares that it is wrong? It's exciting, enthralling, entertaining, and highly imaginative!

OVERALL RATING:

All things considered, it likely comes as no surprise that I would unreservedly give both these novellas a raving *****5 STAR***** rating, and given the clean, wholesome, quality content, SALT and SUBMERGED both earn an Upstream Writer Certified WHOLEHEARTEDLY RECOMMENDED endorsement. If you're into mermaid tales and you're looking for something fresh and new that will captivate and hold your interest, your search ends here!

Further Reading: (Fantasy/Mermaid/Wholesome Literature/Mythology/Great Lore)
The Alexander Legacy--Sophronia Belle Lyon 
       -A Dodge, A Twist, and A Tobacconist 
       -The Pinocchio Factor
Dawn of Steam Trilogy--Jeffrey Cook
      -First Light
      -Gods of The Sun 
      -Rising Suns 
The Fair Folk Chronicles--Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
        -Foul is Fair 
        -Street Fair 
        -A Fair Fight 
        -All's Fair 
The Therian Way--Kimberly Rogers
       -Leopard's Heart 
       -Wolf's Path 
       -Tiger's Shadow 
The Cadeau Series--Connie Olvera
       -Who Can You Trust? 
The Painter Place Saga--Pamela Poole
       -Painter Place
The Goode-Grace Mysteries--Cyn Mackley
       
-American Goth

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