In all honesty, I couldn't finish this book.

The main character is very boring and petty, and I've noticed it at the very beginning of the book. The fact it has a love triangle also didn't work for me, since I abhor those.

I don't think I'll finish this book anytime in the future, so thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This delightful tale is equal parts inspiration of the Little Mermaid and the legend of Atlantis. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story.

As much as I wanted to like this book for its Little mermaid inspired story, I just couldn’t. I found myself getting super bored with the main character and her storyline of “ the love of my life was right next to me the whole time.”
All the characters were pretty much very flat and unimaginative. I really didn’t gravitate to any of them, and the storyline was very religiously and just downright boring. I literally skipped through this book so quickly just to finish it because I hate dnfing books.
Overall, this book is very forgettable and disappointing. I would not recommend this book to anyone. One star.
Thanks to the folks at NetGalley for a copy of this book. My review is a honest reflection of my feelings towards this book

Not exactly what I expected, but a nice Little Mermaid retelling with an Atlantian twist. There were certain things I didn't gel with but I don't discuss those in reviews. So I will rate it for it's qualities I appreciated--it's uniqueness.

The descriptions painted detailed and immersive scenes, making it easy to envision the underwater kingdom and its inhabitants. The characters were interesting and had depth, making it easy to become emotionally invested in their fates.

I loved the cover and was excited about this one and then I started it and it dragged and dragged with no real plot and the characters felt one dimensional. There wasn’t enough world building and nothing interesting enough to keep me engaged.
I would not recommend this book.
Thanks BooksGoSocial via NetGalley.

The description showed action and fantasy, but it wasn't really like that. When Aria finds the lost empire. It was supposed to be hidden but she found it with minimal effort in a couple of days.

Aria's feelings sway between Bastian and Atlas for the duration of the story, and she is often feeling extreme emotions with little provocation (in other words, emotionally unstable). She's always shocked, disappointed, and "deeply" hurt by their behavior, although she would run right back to Atlas after being mad at him and didn't really realize that maybe he wasn't the best person.
Aria acts very naive and doesn't do much other than start a conflicts with an empire because she doesn't staying in their kingdom.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lily D. for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

It was a bit hard to understand in some places but it got better and i did enjoy it thank you to net galley for this reading opportunity.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

Love anything mermaid related and this book did not disappoint. What a fun story, entertaining from start to finish. Thank you for my copy in exchange for a review.

It was fun, adventurous and beautiful read. I am a big Little Mermaid fan and thrown in a Atlantis sign me up. It was really fun to read. Thank you for approval on this.

A retelling of sorts of the Little Mermaid with a few different twists. I appreciate retellings of stories, and A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire didn't disappoint. It was fun and interesting, but lacked in a few spots. However but the end I found my footing and enjoyed it.

1.1 rounded down to 1/5

"A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire" by Lily D. plunges readers into a world of merfolk royalty, forbidden journeys, and unexpected love. However, the narrative falls short of its promises, leaving readers grappling with thematic incongruities and underdeveloped characters.

From the outset, the book introduces religious undertones that become more pronounced as the story unfolds. This unexpected theme, coupled with the dedication, hints at a stronger religious narrative than anticipated. The love triangle, a staple in many tales, feels forced and lacks the emotional depth needed to engage readers.

The summary promises action and fantasy, but these elements are elusive within the narrative. Aria, the crown princess and protagonist, fails to resonate as a compelling character. Her characterization as childish and naive, coupled with a seeming lack of purpose beyond sparking conflict, makes it challenging for readers to connect with her.

The dialogue is a weak point, featuring short sentences and a confusing blend of modern and old-fashioned language. This linguistic inconsistency, along with characters that seem oddly immature, disrupts the immersion in the story. The excessive detail in lengthy paragraphs further detracts from the pacing, making it a struggle to navigate the narrative.

One redeeming feature is the visually appealing cover, but even this aesthetic quality is not enough to salvage the overall reading experience. The book lacks the engaging fantasy elements and character development needed to fulfill its promises.

In conclusion, "A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire" falls short of expectations with its unclear thematic focus, underdeveloped characters, and a narrative that struggles to deliver on its promises of action and fantasy. Despite a visually pleasing cover, the book fails to captivate readers in the way a fantasy novel should.

Sad to say but this The Little Mermaid inspired and Christian influenced fantasy-romance did not appeal to me as much as I wish it had and this is yet another book that I stopped reading at the halfway point.

Whilst there is a lot of negatives about this book, I will start off by saying that I love that the author did not stick one-hundred percent to The Little Mermaid story through having Aria keep her voice and having more of a focus on her deceased mother in terms of Aria’s fascination with Atlantis and Prince Atlas. It added more depth to the story and really set this novel apart from other The Little Mermaid retellings/inspired novels. And I did not mind the fact that this book was heavily focused on Christianism but I can see why others might have been annoyed or confused by it since it is first and foremost a Christian novel.

However, there is just a few things that I did not particularly like which prevented me from reading the entire book, the first and most important being the forced love triangle.

Love triangles can add amazing depth and tension to a story and really allow the reader to connect more with each character—when it is not forced. This novel seemed to push a love triangle that really didn’t help with the plot, I didn’t feel that Aria had feelings for either Bastian or Atlas, it was more like infatuation or a crush at best. If the author had allowed more time to develop the romance, it would be appealed to me more.

Also, the idea of Atlantis being the “lost city” is abandoned almost immediately into the book, within four chapters to be exact, when Aria immediately finds a map and has no issues finding Atlantis as a result.

I expected there to be some issue with finding Atlantis, some evil foe to prevent her from reaching this mythical city but no. She finds it easy and has no issues along her travels. And plot issues like this can be found all throughout the book, especially when it comes to the “plot twist” halfway through which unfortunately made me stop reading altogether.

This was a good read, managed to get halfway through before it was archived. Sadly my Netgalley app wouldn't let me renew it to read longer. A good read and recommend for those fans of the little mermaid and mermaid stories in general.

It took me a second to get into this book, but it was amazing! I could not put it down! If you struggle in the beginning, it gets better! However if religious aspects bother you, I wouldn't read this book. There are a lot of religious themes all throughout it.

I was intrigued with the basic plot of this storyline; a mermaid fantasy, with enemies to lovers... yes please! Unfortunately the first third of this book in particular slow, a little boring, and the writing was confusing. I struggled to imagine the scenery, something that I've not a problem with in a long time; there wasn't enough description of the scenery, something which is necessary when building a fantasy World. I didn't like the main character, Aria; I'm glad that I did stick with reading the whole book so that we could see some character development in her maturity, but she was extremely naive for 99% of the book; so I would have liked some earlier growth to her character.

Overall I enjoyed this for the intrigue, but I was let down with the writing.

I tried to read this book, unfortunately it wasn't for me. Maybe the right people will find it and enjoy it.

*free copy through Netgalley*

This book really felt like it was all over the place. It’s been a while now since I read this and I still don’t know what the big plot of the book was supposed to be.

The main character treats the two men in the love triangle so bad and yet they still keep trying to get her to pick them. They forgave her so easily and she just kept on making stupid decisions.

The world building could have been so amazing and beautiful, because the base for it was definitely there, but it didn’t go further than its initial potential and wasn’t expanded any more.

Thank you NetGalley and Lily D for this arc and allowing me to give an honest review. So, I don´t read many fantasy Christian novel. In fact, I wasn´t aware many existed, (besides Narnia of course). So I was pleasantly surprised! This book was incredibly enjoyable and included mermaids, which I love! The story was entertaining as well as the characters and there was never a moment i was bored. It was a quick read and I finished it in a day. I absolutely loved the romance and I highly recommend it to anyone!