Fire of the Sea by Lyndsay Johnson
Publication date: March 24th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult
Synopsis:
Sharp, sleek, and golden. Like the dagger she has worn since childhood, eighteen-year-old Aeva is all three of these things. But there is something else that this mermaid and her prized weapon share – they are both hunted.
Hidden within the caves off Iceland’s dark shore, Aeva waits to take her place as the next ruler of the Mermaids. But when Aeva uses her potent and alluring song to save a drowning human, she disrupts a delicate balance. Realizing she has unexpectedly bound herself to Gunnar, Aeva is torn between duty and love.
Aeva severs one life to begin another, and soon finds herself not only rejected by the sea, but also stalked by an old enemy. As the worlds of myth and man intertwine, Aeva will challenge fate to protect her own sacred relic and the man she loves.
But legend and lies cast an intricate net. With time and safety quickly unraveling for Aeva and Gunnar, there is only one clear course: Find and defeat Delphine before she can shift again.
REVIEW
To anyone who has taken an opportunity to look back in the
archives of this blog and seen the titles of the books that I have in the past
read, reviewed or discussed, it’s pretty apparent that while I read almost only
romance novels, within the genre my interest ranges wide and far. I’m too much of a sucker for a HEA to really
enjoy anything but romance, though I do on occasion pick up something
non-fiction. However I’ve always viewed
reading as an opportunity for escape from my everyday life and so it is safe to
say that I’m utterly fascinated by fiction.
Whether a story is set in medieval Europe, Australia in the
late 1890’s, Regency England, the Gold Rush era in America, 1800’s Westerns,
space-based futures, time travellers, sci-fi contemporaries, paranormals that
span centuries and worlds, or whatever, I simply love them all and I don’t know
that I could pick a specific subcategory of romance that is my favorite. But I will admit this: any romance story that
has at least some basis, or includes some aspect of, myth or legends is usually
a story that gets placed at the top of the TBR pile. I simply adore any inclusion of myth, however
it’s adapted, in romance.
Knowing this, it shouldn’t come as any surprise to you, my
friendly readers, that Fire of the Sea was a novel that
instantly, immediately and completely caught my eye. It’s not too incredibly
often that I stumble upon stories of mermaids, selurs, selkies and the
like. I couldn’t pass up the
opportunity, and my own personal need,
to read and review this story.
And what a story it was.
Sometimes when you’re reading you have to push yourself to
accept the reality that the author is creating for you. Other times, you slip into the story as if it
was written for you. From the moment we
first meet Aeva I was... entranced. To
see how this young meriad (aka mermaid) suffers and grows, to see how she’s
unsure of herself and yet determined at the same time, and to see her make the
hard choices she’s faced with – well, it was amazing and just so well done.
Right from the start you’re introduced to Aeva’s two best
friends: Merrick and Sissel, and you can see the dynamics between them. You can
feel the bonds of friendship that tie the three together. You know the lengths that they’d be willing
to go for one another, and you can be pretty certain of the soul-deep loyalty
they hold for the others. The truly
fascinating and wonderful part of this trio is that they are young, so young to
have formed such concrete bonds, and yet you can believe that though they may
struggle, and though their faith may waver, those bonds will forever be true.
Then there’s Gunnar.
He fell from the sky, was nearly swallowed by the sea, and led Aeva to
land. Instantly you realize that there
is something special about Gunnar, something that makes him special to Aeva,
and you can’t wait to see how the journey for these two unfold. Because really, it’s difficult to imagine how
a mermaid and a human can have any kind of future, any kind of path that has
them side by side. Yet that is exactly the story that Lyndsay Johnson has
written.
Rich in myth and legend, ripe with emotion and the vagaries
of real life, Fire of the Sea is simply a wonderful story and, just in case I
haven’t made my feelings about it clear yet, I really, really loved it. I loved
the depth of the characters, the complexity of the storyline and the way in
which (Norse and some Greek) mythology was melded in to it. From the brightness of Aeva and Gunnar’s
heart, to the darkness of Delphine’s nature, there is really nothing that I can
complain about, nothing that I could criticize, and nothing that I would see
changed.
So if you’re looking for a truly great story to read, I
absolutely recommend Lyndsay Johnson’s Fire of the Sea. You won’t be
disappointed and I honestly believe that you’ll fall in love with the story as
I have.
