<b>Sadly disappointed. I haven't given a single star in a long time... </b>

I feel like I had reasonable hopes for this book. Judging from the cover and the description, I was intrigued. A Little Mermaid and Atlantis retelling with a Christian perspective? Sounds fun. Sounds like there is a lot of possibility there. Five stars to whoever wrote that description, because it sure wasn't the author!

I anticipated that this read was targeted for a younger audience (Maybe 10-13 based on the cover design), and set my critics eye accordingly. I thought I would read it with my niece in mind and maybe find another good read for her shelf. I honestly think my niece could have written a better book.

Who is Lily D.? I could not find any info on this author. Is she also a teenager? That would explain why the characters were so childish and sounded like they have never been on a date. Is the author AI like other reviews are suggesting? That would explain why the story was so generic and flat. Is the author even a Christian? Because while the plot hinged around a lot of christian themes, there was no passion or heart to back them up.

<b> Examples of eyerolls: <b>
> Many Christian themes are brought up in this book, and none of them have any depth. One example is a discussion of purity. I'm going to summarize this part for you, but after a tickle fight (I'm not joking) the main character says <I>"I'm ashamed to admit it, especially given my age, but I've been saving myself for marriage." </I> (Great! This is a choice that many Christians make, including myself... So why are we ashamed to admit it?) The male main character reassures her by saying he's a virgin too. (Is this because the author wants them both to be "pure" or because they want the characters to understand each other? We won't ever know because it is not talked about further). The discussion on the why is SO cringy. Both basically saying it is a choice that someone else encouraged of them to make, and that this way of purity ensures there are no "repercussions." (barf). That is a really big commitment to take on just to please others and avoid pregnancy out of marriage. If you're going to include that in the book, you better be prepared to share your beliefs at a heart level, don't use something like this to instill fear in young teenage girls and boys.

>The rest of the Christian discussions (and there were many), sounded like they were straight up copied from a kids bible. The illustrated ones with the most generic sugar-coated summaries of the story.

> The dialogue. Every conversation was so boring. The sentences were short, and they would slip out of modern and old-fashioned ways of speaking. It was strange. The flirting was BRUTAL. It sounds like they are 10 years old, showing off and tickling and getting jealous over the silliest things.

> The gender roles. Right off the bat, it bothered me that while the two main characters are close in age, the boy has to protect the girl. The girl is weak, and precious, and cannot be trusted to care for herself. The boy is strong and handsome and comes from a good family and fast and hired to protect the girl. Then I thought maybe this was a tie in to Little Mermaid with a strict dad, but even Ariel shows gumption though the story. The main character always felt like a damsel in distress, with a big strong body guard to protect her. At one point, he is teaching her to defend herself and she defeatedly says <I>"You're absurd. No one can tackle you! Not even a whale." </I>-- This teenage merman is stronger than a whale? please stop. The Bible is FULL of stories of smart, capable, heroic women. If you have the audacity to use biblical themes in your book, the character traits should match.


If you're looking for an adventure with a christian perspective, <u>don't read this book.</u> <b> Read the Bible instead. </b>


While this was not my favorite book, I truly appreciate Net Galley for selecting me for this eARC, and the opportunity to share my honest thoughts and opinions.

I love the little mermaid and I love stories of Faith. I did not realize how much I would love a combination. This particular story is not so much a retelling of the little mermaid, it is more a reimagining or a parallel story. The plot line of uninhibited progress and its costs was interesting. Some of the best parts of the story I cannot share because I don’t want to steal the discovery from you.

This is a clean read and would be great for anyone who loves fantasy. I highly recommend!

I really enjoyed this book and read it in a few days. Some of the plot mirrors "The Little Mermaid." but with the rest is very different. Aria, our main character yearns to find out about the mysterious city of Atlantea where him died. Her father, hires someone to watch out for her safety named Sebastain. Sebastain is a little harsh and very strict and follows Aria everywhere. Can they fight their attraction to each other?

Aria makes the harrowing swim to Atlantea and is intrigued by prestige and glamour of the city. Aria is thrust into a relationship with a very snobby prince because she is fighting her feelings for Sebastain. She also fights to save someone who has become an unexpected friend in the new, dangerous city. Aria is pulled in all directions. Does she stay in Atlantea or listen to her heart?

I loved that the mermaids in this book are very different. I did not think this was a Christian thriller book at all but more of a women's thriller romance. I was suprised how much I liked this. Aria and Sebastain have major chemistry. This book was well written and full of surprises. I would definitely read more from this author.

Highly recommended and surprising read. Thanks to NetGalley, Lily D and Books Go Social for an ARC in exhcnage for honest review.

Available: 11/1/2023

First, thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing me a glimpse into this novel , unfortunately i did have to dnf at around the 30% mark and skimmed through the rest so i could give a full review.

I was pulled in right away by the cover and synopsis and the idea of the little mermaid and city of Atlantis sounded right up my alley but sadly this book just fell short for me. It was very tough to get through the beginning and felt like trudging through a lot of exposition and no character dialogue which i would have loved to see more of.

The story also felt to unoriginal in comparison to the little mermaid , the names were out right to similar and left me picturing the Disney characters. However, i really did enjoy Aria's mother's plot line and loved to see more of that aspect.

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley and to the publishing company for letting me have the opportunity to review this book and to provide my honest review.

I was really hooked in by the cover and the description of the book. I really enjoyed retellings of the Little Mermaid and could not wait to get started on this book.

Unfortunately I was unable to get into this story. This story was long and very descriptive with hardly any conversations between the characters. For most of the story I was skipping past the dialogue as most of it did not add towards the story. I unfortunately DNF this at 30%. The plot was non-existent as there was so much description. With what I did read, it also felt like the author had used certain scenes from the Little Mermaid and altered them slightly.

This book really disappointed me however I did enjoy finding out more about Arias mother. I really wish I could have read more of this but I was just skimming and missing parts out.

Firstly, thank you to the author, the publishing company and NetGalley for allowing me access to an ARC of this book.

My review

May contain minor spoilers.

I was really excited by this book when I first came across it, and I was instantly pulled in by the stunning cover art. I love stories about mermaids/sirens/seafarers and this being a story based on a retelling of The Little Mermaid and the legends of Atlantis, it was an instant read for me!

However I am only able to give this book a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. And here's why.

Unfortunately I found it very hard get into this story, I wasn't desperate to pick it up and read it to find out what happens next, I was also unable to connect with the characters. I really wanted to love the main character Aria, but a lot of the time quite honestly I found her frustrating.

As this story is a retelling I didn't expect it to be entirely original, which is perfectly fine with me, but I think the names of the characters would have been better if their names weren't so close to the original Disney film, Aria is too close to Ariel and the King's most trusted guard/Aria's protector is called Sebastian, so it was hard not to think of him being a crab everytime his name popped up. Although his name is later shortened in the book to "Bastian".

The world building was at a good level however there is plenty of room for improvement, especially when writing about a magical underwater worlds or civilizations.

However I don't want to end on a negative note so I will mention the one thing that I liked the most about this story. I was quite intrigued about Aria's mother's tales that she would tell her as a child, i was made to feel the way that Aria was feeling for a little while despite finding it very hard to connect with her so this really helped to enhance my reading experience in a more positive way.

This book was….interesting, I think? It reads well enough, but it wasn’t for me. It might be for someone else, but it felt very unoriginal and the dialogue was dry. Also I’m not a big fan of Little Mermaid retellings. All the same, thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for this review!

I love the concept of retellings and if done well the book can become a really great read. The book had a great flow but the storyline had moments of holes and confusion. I wish this was an easier to get through read, but it took a moment to get into. This would a great book for younger readers wanting a fantasy that doesn’t have any spice. 2.5⭐️

I have mixed feelings about this one. I think the idea of combining The Little Mermaid with the legend of Atlantis is so exciting, and provides room for a lot of twists, if done well. However, there were some issues with the construction of this novel, as well as some elements that were not my preference, which dropped my rating.

To begin, this book was extremely difficult to get into. In the first 10 pages of the text, I believe there is only one line of dialogue. The remainder is entirely description of the setting and protagonists. While I always love good world-building, dumping an assload of exposition at the beginning, without breaking it up at all for plot movement or simply the ease of your reader to navigate more than just pages of locational detail, is not a great move. Also, purely from a petty standpoint, I read the following line in the first few pages, and felt like the oxymoron of it made a pretty bad first impression on me for the book: “[This was] a unique skill we all had”... Something can’t be universal and also unique. Sorry.

In terms of themes and tropes for the book: I hate love triangles. They stress me out and aren’t my cup of tea. By the end of the book, they do tell you who the endgame MMC is and who the villain is, but reading through the tension of a choice like that will always put me off. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the heavy religious element that ran through the text. The dedication is a huge indication of how much of a presence faith would have as a theme in the book. This is fine in general; I include faith in my own writing, but the delivery felt extremely heavy handed in some parts, almost randomly but compulsively included. I somehow missed the Christian detail when requesting this ARC, so I do not consider this to be a deterrent or contributor to my rating. It is just more of a personal choice thing, and I wanted to mention it for transparency to others who intend to read it.

Overall, I don’t think the bones of this book were bad, but the execution fell a bit flat for me, and nothing about the story felt innovative enough for me, given what the author had to work with. I didn’t feel surprised by anything, and had some issues with the technical construction of the writing. The love triangle and heavy elements of faith were also personal deterrents, but I wouldn’t view them as a reason to dock stars in general. In total, I give this 2.5 ⭐, rounded to 2 on Goodreads.

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This was a disappointing read for me. I was taken aback by the fact that the book had strong Christian undertones. Admittedly, I don't always read the entire summary, so I may bear some responsibility for missing this note but I feel like this should have been emphasized more in the description. The only note is at the bottom of the summary as "fascinating YA Christian fantasy series", which is easily overlooked or missed.

There was an excessive focus on Aria's surroundings. Every little detail was described in lengthy paragraphs, making it a tedious experience to read. Instead of progressing the plot or character development (which I still feel never happened), we seemed to be caught in a never-ending description of the environment.

The romance in the book felt extremely unrealistic, lacking the engaging banter that I typically enjoy in a good romantic story. The book's saving grace was its attractive cover, but sadly, that wasn't enough to salvage the reading experience.

Throughout the book, I found myself wanting to put it down many times. It became evident that this story is primarily aimed at a younger audience, and the main character, Aria, felt incredibly immature for her supposedly more advanced age (past the age or typical marriage arrangements). Her actions and thought processes made it difficult to connect with her as a character, and I found her portrayal to be more fitting for a character of around 12 years old.

Ultimately, this book did not meet my expectations, and I wouldn't recommend it to readers looking for a more mature and believable romance story. I will not be continuing this series unfortunately.

Sadly, this book was not for me. I loved the premise of a little mermaid x atlantis retelling but A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire could not live up to my expectations. Aria, the protagonist, as well as the other characters felt hollow somehow – as if they were an idea that hasn't been thought through. The world-building was superficial: it seemed pretty on the first glance but lacked depth and detail as soon as you started to look closer. Overall this applies to the plot as well: stakes that appear to be high in the first place turn out to be things that are easily solved. Things are just too convenient and fall into place easily. For example unlike the original Arielle, Aria can just turn her fin into legs to walk on land. She doesn't have to give up anything.
Last but not least the religious aspects weren't for me. I missed the part about the Christian Fiction in the discription so this could've been avoided but still – this book was just not my cup of tea at all.

Dates read: 10/13-10/15

Star rating: 4-4.25

With the premise of the book being a ‘Little Mermaid’ theme with a mixture of SJM in it, I understand where the story stands. While reading, I felt myself being drawn into the world with an open mind and enjoyed where the story took me. I will say however that it did feel a little jumbled starting a new chapter sometimes and it didn’t seem to flow smoothly towards the next.

Did I enjoy the book? Yes I did. Will I get the book? Of course. Would I recommend it? I would based on the background and premise behind the story.

3.5-4

I chose to read this ARC because I had read some wonderful Christian historical romance books and really enjoyed them. So, I wanted to check out a Christian romance fantasy book. I also really enjoy fairytale retellings, and this is a Little Mermaid retelling that also incorporates Atlantis.

I really had mixed emotions with this novel. On the one hand, I really liked the story, characters, and romance, but on the other, it had a lot of technical writing problems.

Overall, the story concept was rather intriguing. I loved the twists of The Little Mermaid in this retelling. I also loved the general messages in this book. It’s pretty based, so if you don’t lean conservative in some of your viewpoints, then you probably won’t like it. But I really appreciated it since it aligns with my personal view on things.

It also is pretty strong on the faith element, which I enjoyed. I don’t consider myself a Christian, but I am spiritual and enjoy the faith undertones here and there because I agree with the messages portrayed. If you don’t align with many Christian viewpoints, you may find this book a bit preachy, but since I do, I liked it and didn’t find it preachy. But I could see how others would. I’m not familiar with the bible, but I feel like there were references to it, but it was lost on me.

The romance is pure and sweet. It is a clean romance - no spice and just a couple of kissing scenes. I prefer clean romance, so I was happy with the love story aspects of it. I really enjoyed the banter and chemistry between Aria and Bastian. There is also very mild language, which I appreciated. If you enjoy these romance tropes, then you’ll like this one: enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, bodyguard romance, and a love triangle.

The world-building was done pretty well with rich descriptions, but I would’ve liked to have gone deeper. I wanted a lot more details and really wanted to be immersed in this world. I wanted to know more about the Merworld as well as Atlantea. I felt like we just skimmed the surface of both, and I wanted more information. We also didn’t get much backstory about the prophesies they spoke about, or the history of Aria’s mother, her father, and just how her parents came together. I would’ve loved more of their backstory.

For the most part, I liked Aria as our main protagonist. She really reminded me of Ariel. She is young, naive, and adventurous. But of course, she’s also strong-willed, stubborn, reckless, and selfish. She is only concerned for her own well-being at the start, and she just wants her freedom. She feels trapped in the underwater palace and in her role as a princess, heir to the throne. She also feels like a prisoner by her father, and she just wants to live her life on her own terms. She wants to make choices for herself and make her own way in life. So she becomes extremely rebellious, sneaking out of the palace all the time, lying, and making poor choices. In the beginning, she doesn’t think about her actions and how they affect others. But we do see a nice redemption arc and character development as we move through the story. By the end, she has seen “the error of her ways.” We see her grow and mature more and think about her choices and how they affect others, especially her loved ones.

I really liked Bastian, one of Aria’s love interests, and her personal bodyguard. He seemed like the ideal man and always gave her a lot of wisdom. He was honorable, intelligent, clever, and kind. He was always there for her and kept forgiving Aria when she would lie and betray him. He reminded me of Michael in Francine River’s Redeeming Love. Bastian was extremely loyal to Aria and her father. We see how he is always there for Aria, even when she’s being a brat and constantly making poor decisions. He’s very patient with her and does everything he can to protect her.

However, there were a lot of plot holes, some scenes didn’t make sense, some time jumps were confusing, some transitions between scenes were poorly written, some dialogue was poorly written, and some reactions to things that were happening didn’t make sense to me. Again, I loved the concept of this story, but it was underdeveloped and needed more polishing and refinement. The beginning was intriguing, but then it really slowed down in the middle, and then in the last quarter of the story, it picked up again. I wish it was more consistent in the storytelling throughout the entire novel.

I also wished there was more action. There were many scenes where not much was happening. I also wanted to see more of the Merworld and Atlantis. I wish more action scenes happened in the cities. I also wanted to see more magic and creatures or monsters. It did feel like a fantasy novel, but it really lacked some typical fantasy elements that I like to see in these types of stories. Also, the ending was decent, but it was still a bit lackluster and anticlimactic for me. I wish it was bigger, more suspenseful, and had more action. But it was a satisfying ending.

With all the faults it had though, I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and the romance and chemistry between the two main protagonists. If this is the start of a series, I would absolutely continue and pick up book two. I’d love to see where the story goes next, and hopefully, with more time and experience, the technical writing problems will improve and be more polished. If you enjoy Christian romance fantasy stories and fairytale retellings, I would recommend this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. These are my own thoughts and opinions.

The hype around mermaids has been rekindled with the release of the latest version of The Little Mermaid. As a result, this book has caught the attention of many readers. I was drawn to it not only because of the beautiful cover, which I must say is a masterpiece but also because the synopsis promised a perfect blend of two amazing myths. However, what I didn't realize before requesting the book was the amount of unfavorable reviews that the story has. The marketing team cleverly placed only the best reviews on the front, bypassing that the average rating for the story is only two stars.

My rating of "A Meramid Tale of the Lost Empire" is based on the lack of narrative that the story offers. Although the story has a good premise, the fantasy is lost in the pages. The world-building was insufficient and the dialogues felt forced, lacking the necessary connection and tension between the main characters to evoke any feelings in readers.

Before reading the book, I was aware that it was a Christian fantasy and I was perfectly fine with that. However, the way religion was incorporated into the story was not to my liking. We have Keira Cass, a Christian author who writes fantasy and includes her beliefs in all her stories; therefore I know that it is possible to successfully combine Christian themes with fantasy elements without making it feel like a mandatory Bible study. I feel that the portrayal of religion in this particular story was too heavy-handed and disrupted the flow of the narrative.

I hope the author has success in future endeavors. Hopefully, in the future, she will write something more aligned with my taste.

Unfortunately this book was not for me, I ended up DNF it about 10% in. I had a hard time getting into it.

While the writing itself wasn't the worst thing I've ever tried reading, it also wasn't superb. That being said...I do think teens/young adults might enjoy it. Additionally, it would be a good pick for teens/young adults who enjoyed The Little Mermaid movies.

Mermaids, a dark prince, an overbearing father, and an assistant to the king who’s next in throne.

A dark remaking of the little mermaid. An interesting premise. At first it seems to stick to the original book until Aria ventures to the city her long lost mother raved about.

Thai unfortunately fell a bit flat. There’s a bit of a love triangle. The Prince is dark and twisted. Everyone had their secrets. There wasn’t enough dialogue for me. Things needed to be explained more. I think this could have been done a bit better. It has the potential to be great. But I just didn’t feel any of the emotions, no tension, no connection.

I love little mermaid so I was really looking forward to it. I just wish there was more to this.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this as an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Aria is a princess of the merpeople and her father has forbidden her from venturing outside the palace because its dangerous and ancient prophecies of doom and destruction are threatening to come true. Her dad assigns her a guard, Sebastian, to keep her out of trouble but she escapes anyways to go to Atlantea where her mom was from - and has only just found a map to guide her.

This was so disappointing. It’s incredibly clear that the author’s only knowledge of either Atlantis or The Little Mermaid comes directly from the animated Disney movies. I also somehow clearly missed that this was a heavily Christian book when I read the description on NetGalley. I think there are plenty of ways to incorporate faith into a book, but you simply cannot tell me that Jesus walked in whatever world this is (and by extension this also implies the existence of the Roman Empire and everything else in the ancient world). And I understand that this is a religiously motivated text, but it will never sit right with me claiming “purity” based on virginity. Aside from all the religious references (angels, god, mass, the mother, the cross, churches, etc) this just was a bad book. The prince wasn’t a compelling villain and Aria was consistently an idiot. If we’d spent a little more time on the backstory of these characters and their motivations rather than waxing poetic about Jesus it could’ve been a more enjoyable read. Also if the author wanted to make this an accessible text for young Christians it could so easily be just a closed door romance (ex: A Curse so Dark and Loneley) or not super explicitly romantic (ex: Percy Jackson) without all the references to god.

Seeing two different synopsis after reading this, one saying that it's a retelling, the other saying it's inspired by The Little Mermaid. Both are a little misleading.
The only thing this book has anything in common with The Little Mermaid is the Mer-people, and she collects things from the human world. Beyond that, this book shares little with the original tale.

I overlooked the "Christian Fiction" part of the synopsis, and usually, I don't read that sub-genre because it can be a little heavy-handed, and even though there were moments when it started to, it wasn't overtly "preachy". It did take away some of the immersion for me, and it did make the book read a little younger than intended. I kept forgetting how old the MC, Aria, is meant to be.

The pacing is where I had the most issues with this book, a lot of it felt meandering. And I didn't really like the MC for most of the book. Her personality of wanting to explore felt a little forced in a way. She didn't come across as headstrong the way I think she was meant to. Not to me at least. Her sneaking around and risking her life of her bodyguard without any care, came across as selfish.

The world-building was very surface-level as well. Their culture and society are only viewed through Aria's POV, and she's self-described as being sheltered. So all the politics is never talked about, or shown. A lot is just vaguely implied. I also don't know if this could be called merpeople, as they spend little time actually in the water with their tails, swimming. They spend most of their time walking around with legs in an underwater castle. I think this book could have benefited from being dual-pov with the bodyguard Sebastian.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This book was not for me. The world building and characters were well done. The story itself seemed to jump around too much for my taste.