REVIEW: Surface Tension by S. R. Atkinson

Series: Siren Anthology #2
Pages: 269
Format: eBook
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: July 17th 2016
Buy The Book: Amazon

Santiago escaped kidnapping, torture, and near death last time she was in the ocean. Now back on the safety of land she resumes life as normal, but finds she is plagued with lingering effects of the Sirens’ brutality and thoughts about the world under the surface. When she finds shocking information in her abuela’s journals, Santi must make a choice that will decide not only her fate, but also that of millions of others.

Will Santi choose to follow her destiny and return to the ocean to face the demons of her past? And what of her budding feelings for her long-time best friend Rogan? The only thing certain is that Santi's decisions will change the course of her life forever.

My Thoughts:
This is the second book in the Siren Anthology, and it picks up a little while after the events that happened in Breathing Water, which I reviewed on my blog here. Santiago is back on land and spending time with her mother. After the Siren attack, Santiago’s hearing hasn’t been the same on land and the damage may be permanent. 

As with the first book, Surface Tension splits the story into two parts. It follows Santiago as she continues to decide where she wants to spend her life, on land or in the water, and it also follows a character named Carmen a few decades earlier than Santi’s story. Carmen is a character we’ve never met before but she turns out to be a hugely important part of the story. 

She is a Serra with a mission to bring the heir of King Tullus, who we read about in the previous book, down under the water as only his heir has the power to kill Zitja and end her Siren reign of terror. But when she meets the heir, her feelings for him develop and she finds herself torn between her two worlds. As with Nephira’s story in the first book, I found myself anticipating Carmen’s story a lot more than I did Santiago’s. Carmen’s side of the story was utterly captivating and I admired her courage and determination. 

What I did enjoy about Santi’s story this time around was that we got to see her spend more time with her mother, and I loved the bond between the two of them. I also enjoyed reading about Santiago deal with her hearing loss after the Siren attack, and how she was comping with her life afterwards. But once again, I didn’t enjoy the romance between her and Rogan as much as I wanted to. I’m failing to feel that spark between them. However, I was interested in learning more about the Bonding of Serras and further discovering how their Ku feels. 

Rogan is a character I feel we’ve only gotten to half know. We only know about his life through the eyes of Santiago and so his story seems to constantly revolve around her. He also comes across as quite serious most of the time, and what I’d love more than anything is to see him and Santi have some more light-hearted and maybe fun moments amongst everything that goes on. Then maybe I’d feel a little more connected to them and their relationship. What I did love was the flashbacks we got to see of their younger years under the water, showing us why these two characters feel the way about each other that they do. 

As with Breathing Water, there were parts of the story I couldn’t quite connect to, but other parts that I really adored. The world building in the series really is fantastic and very cleverly thought out. I enjoyed getting to learn more about the mythology of the Serras and their underwater world, and I’m interested to see how the characters move on from the shocking events at the end of Surface Tension.

Royal Rating:
I don't have a graphic for three and a half crowns, but that's my overall rating for this book!

 

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REVIEW: Breathing Water by S. R. Atkinson

Series: Siren Anthology #1
Pages: 406
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: May 28th 2015
Buy The Book: Amazon UK - Amazon

Returning to the ocean could mean returning home, returning to the unlikely friends and family who filled Santi's childhood, and returning to the magic little girls only dream of. But it could also mean returning to the devastation and death she witnessed six years ago. Now at eighteen, with the mysteries of the ocean a distant memory, Santi must overcome her fears to find out what became of her beloved friend Rogan, his family, and an entire world of mythical creatures. But will she find the ocean as welcoming as when she was a child?

My Thoughts:
In case you hadn’t guessed by the cover, this book is about mermaids, or as they’re known in this world, Serras. Santiago is a human, known as a Crural to Serras, who learned how to breathe underwater from her childhood best friend, Rogan, who is a Serra. Since then, Santi split her time between land and water, with Serras accepting her as part of their community. But when Sirens attack the Serras in a brutal fight, Santi has to return to the surface for her own safety. Six years later, at the age of eighteen, Santi finally decides it’s time to return to the water and find her friend, but she is captured before she has the chance to reunite with him.

Breathing Water starts off following Santi in third person, and then suddenly switches to first person to tell the story of a character named Nephira. From then on we split our time between these two characters, and I have to say that it was Nephira that sucked me into this story. For some reason, I didn’t connect with Santi and there wasn’t much about her that really stood out to me, but Nephira’s story had me completely hooked.

Nephira was taken by Crurals and kept in captivity by a Tullus, a Roman King. Her chapters are her accounts of what happened whilst she was trapped and the consequences of her time spent on the surface. Learning about her experience was heart-breaking and the storytelling throughout these chapters were the best parts of this book for me. 

I enjoyed finding out about Santi’s past and her memories with Rogan, but I felt like I didn’t really know much about who Santi was as a person. I don’t know why I didn’t connect with her side of the story as much as I did Nephira, but since this is the first in a series, I’m hoping I’ll get to know and appreciate Santi more in the next book. 

The world-building in this story was fascinating and I loved learning the mythology about the Serras and the Sirens. It was convincing and believable, and every aspect of it was well thought out. There were definitely a few twists regarding the Sirens that I hadn’t expected! I felt like there was a lot to learn too quickly at times, but things were explained clearly so I wasn’t left confused. However, I did find some of the chapters to be a little too long. I’m a reader who has a preference for short, sharp chapters though, so that’s probably just me being fussy! 

This is an interesting start to this series and I’m definitely looking forward to discovering more about the Serras and their history. There’s a lot of potential for great mythology in a series like this and I hope to learn more of it! I definitely want to get to know Santi and Rogan more. As main characters, I want to be rooting for them, which I didn’t find myself doing much of throughout this book. But I’m keen to see where this story goes. 

Royal Rating:

 

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