Firstly, thank you for the chance at reading this ARC
From the summary, this book sounds really interesting, however after reading the book, I don’t think this was the right fit for me personally. The religious talk is not what I look for in a book and overall I feel like the book was written quite poorly.

This was... not for me. I'm disappointed I didn't like this because it has such good reviews here on NetGalley and I was very interested in the premise. Then I went on Goodreads and the reviews made me feel a bit more validated.

I just didn't like this. It was dull and I don't have energy for books that feel like a chore to get through. This had cool elements and it could've been so interesting, but it just fell so flat for me.

I tend to judge books by their covers and I love a pretty cover, so I choose books based on that more often than I care to admit. I feel like this cover enchanted me, like a mermaid would, only to drown me in boredom.

This was a difficult read. It felt fake way too much description and not enough speaking text. Very rough read. It felt AI generated

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy. I was expecting a fantasy novel and instead got a very preachy novel with strong religious tones. Not a fun read and I would not recommend.

Book Summary:

Aria has never quite felt at home beneath the deep blue sea. Sure, merfolk are supposed to be happy living in the city, but Aria dreams of more. Life outside the city limits. A life of her own. So when she finds a secret and forgotten map, she knows what she needs to do.

Unfortunately, Aria's father has a different opinion. Still, he lets her go – on the condition that she take along one of his warriors as her protector. Together, these two are about to stumble upon the unthinkable.

My Review:

I love a good Little Mermaid retelling. Unfortunately, I don't think A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire is the one for me. Or maybe I'm not the one for it? The biggest problem is that I missed the label as a Christian fantasy, which significantly changes the connotation of the tale. At least it does for this one!

To be clear, I don't have a problem reading a book with religious subtext. The problem is that A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire took it beyond subtext. This kept throwing me out of the story, making for a more jarring experience than I had hoped.

Likewise, while the romantic plot had a lot of potential (I love enemies-to-lovers), I feel like this one fell short. It was okay, but it would have been better without the love triangle (that's probably my bias showing, though, as I am not a fan of love triangles).

Highlights:
Mermaids
Romantic Fantasy
Retelling
Enemies-to-Lovers

Thank you to Netgalley and Lily D., BooksGoSocial for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, it has an interesting premise. Interesting to read but the characters are a little off. No depth to the story but I can root for Bastian since he was wronged.
The worldbuilding was acceptable though some of it doesn’t make sense.
I would say I like up to 60% of the storyline.

This book was okay. While I really appreciate what the author was trying to do, the book lacked depth to me. With that being said, it was still an entwining book about finding yourself and your values, and overcoming challenges. I wish that I had been able to connect with the characters a little more, but I was still entertained throughout.

This book started out very strong and I really liked the entire first half. The re-telling came across very different and had fresh new ideas. The characters were just ok for me, I wish I could of liked them a bit more. Once we got to the second half of the book it fell apart a little bit. The writing just didn’t flow as nicely and the whole plot was a bit far fetched. I feel like I may have been the wrong age groups for this book and it should be geared more towards young teens. Overall it was a very so so book for me.
Thank you NetGalley for my free copy, I am leaving this review of my own free will.

Nice writing. The idea was original, I like this retelling. Characters are interesting and well-written. But for me it's missing some things. It missed actions and deep plots. Entertaining but not deep enough for me, but a good start.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. Usually, I like retellings but the religious aspect was so heavy in this, I couldn't get over it. If I wanted to read a book like that, I wouldn't have clicked on fantasy. I wish I had something nice to say about this but I really don't have anything that I liked.

This plot was so unique and fun to read! I enjoyed the take on mermaid lore. The world building was easy to follow and the writing was beautiful,

I tried but I just can't get into it. It feels like its written for a very young audience, and maybe I'm just too old for it. The dialogue gets under my skin. Everything is short, choppy sentences with no substance to them. I wish I could have finished it and given a proper review but its just not for me. Thanks for the opportunity to give it a try though.

Thank you to Lily D., BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

The summary promised a lot : action and fantasy (after all, we're talking about mermaids and lost empires!). But no, nothing like that. I didn't really find what I was looking for. And I realised this from the very first chapters, in chapter 4 to be exact, when Aria (very close to Ariel tho) finds the lost empire. I thought it was lost but apparently one map later and two days (only) of swimming and it's actually right there.

Aria is a weathervane. I often find female heroes like that, but Aria takes the cake. Her heart sways between Bastian and Atlas throughout the book, and every two minutes she is shocked, disappointed and deeply hurt by the behaviour of both (even though Bastian has often done nothing, poor fellow). Atlas deserved to be left in a ditch but no, two lines later she smiles at him again after staring at him with disdain for two pages.
Aria is very childish, naive and doesn't serve much purpose other than to start a conflict with an empire, all because she doesn't like staying in her underwater kingdom, you see, she's bored.

What's more, and this is my personal opinion, the whole Christian aspect of the book bored me to tears. If I'd wanted to read a book like that I'd have clicked on the "Religion and spirituality" and on "Christian" tags on Netgalley, not on fantasy. Since when do mermaids believe in God? This is fantasy, all right, but that's the point. Leave the mermaids alone and don't make them believe in the existence of angels. I never asked Bastian to recite the Bible to me or give me sermons.

Even these aspects wouldn't have bothered me if they had been well done. The question of purity, children and finding one's way is ok, but just throw sermons into the mix and it spoils the whole point you're trying to make.

Hmmm... this one unfortunately wasn't for me. I just couldn't get into the story or connect with characters or writing style. The world-building was also on the weaker side.

The Christian aspects were an interesting addition, but at times they felt a bit preachy. Even as someone who reads a lot of Christian fiction, I don't enjoy reading things overly preachy, which is a shame because I do think that a differently done integration with Christian themes could have helped me enjoy this more.

A lot of elements just fell flat for me.

Rating: 4/5
I received eARC for my honest opinion.

I liked that this book had a retelling of The Little Mermaid in it. I thought that it was similar but different in its own way and I love reading retellings like giving you the tale that you love but changed. When I came across this book I loved the cover right away, and I liked the synopsis. I loved that you had a young mermaid that just wanted to forge her own path and discover the world out there. If only she could get rid of the new guard that her father trusted to watch over her. However, you never know what fate might have in store for you and what you were looking for that whole time was right in front of you.

This book was fun and never a dull moment. I found myself laughing at the banter and all the missed chances of trying to sneak out. I know a lot of the people in the reviews stated that they didn’t like the Christian fiction in it, but I didn’t mind it at all. I didn’t feel like that was what the book was all about, but it was something that the characters felt strongly about but not like it was thrown into your face. I thought the author did a great job at keeping her readers interested throughout the whole book, she made sure that there was not an info dump on you. The writing style made it easy to read and the pace was perfect for me, I was able to finish this book in one day. The romance was definitely a slow burn, just the way that I like it. I liked that Aria took her time to really see what kind of life she would want, and I liked that Bastian was okay with that and encouraged her to take her time.

I found that all the characters were easy to connect with and I was able to relate to Aria. I liked the fact that she was a strong character, but at the same time she was naive about things. I liked that she was not scared to learn new things, but I also liked that she was embarrassed when she did things that weren’t right. She felt more real to me. My favorite character was Bastian, I liked that he was able to laugh and have fun, I liked that he was willing to let people figure out how they felt about things instead of trying to force what he wanted. He really is a great prince.

I would read another book by this author and I hope that you will give this book a chance like I did. If you like retellings, fantasy, romance, mermaids, princes and princesses, and some Christian fiction you should read this book.

I want to thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to review this book.

This story reads pretty flat to me. The story felt one dimension and the characters wishywashy.

I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover but the story does not do it justice.

This cover pulled me in. I am such a fan of mermaids and fairytale retellings. This had some strong Little Mermaid vibes. Aria just wants some freedom and to explore parts unknown, When she meets Prince Atlas in the kingdom of Atlantea she thinks she might have found everything she ever wanted. That is until her body guard shows up and she starts to see him in a different light. Which one is the one for her? The story is so good. There is intrigue and romance. If there is another one, I will definitely be reading it.Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

While there were some aspects of this book I enjoyed, overall it fell a bit flat for me. The writing was very simple, and Aria was a bit of a confusing character. She was very sheltered and restricted, but managed to constantly escape the palace and go off on her own, despite ending up in danger every time. Her insta-attraction to the prince was odd, but was a very close parallel to The Little Mermaid movie. The amount of trust she placed in him was unbelievable though, to think that she could lie about who she is and where she's from and just live happily ever after in a foreign land with a stranger. Overall, I just don't think I'm the audience for this one, but I hope others enjoy it more.

The beginning of the book is slow and repetitive: Aria tries to escape multiple times. The writing style changes throughout the book. The first chapters have lots of adjectives (maybe a bit too much?) and later on the writing is more action-driven with less descriptions.

I liked second half of the book the best. Deepening plot, characters get more personality and the pace of the plot is faster. The Atlantean Magic was nice addition and I would have liked to see more of that. Also more of their culture, laws, people. The regulation of births was a part I loved because it had exciting dystopian vibes.

I loved prince Darian and his personality. I liked that Atlas was such a creep.

The world has religion, I think it’s Christianity. The religious parts come off as sudden and out of place in the middle of the story. There needs to be some kind of introduction to the idea of religion in the world. Preferably somewhere in the first chapters.

I’m not sure who is the audience of this book… Is it middle school? Is it YA? The beginning felt it was targeted towards children but later it felt more YA. The main character was very very naive but the book did have a romance based plot so I think the book is supposed to be YA. The cover looks YA though. It’s very pretty cover.

Chapter 18 has a paragraph that has bigger font than rest of the book. The one that starts with ”I studied the room with interest…”

DNF. The little amount of the dialogue from this book made me not want to read it. Maybe i can give it a try later. However, Thank You Netgalley and publisher for this ARC!