Florence

Reviewer: Kelsey

Author: Ciye Cho

Format: eBook (Paperback also available)

Pages: 471

Rating: 8 out of 10

Summary: "Seventeen-year-old Florence Waverley is out of her depth. Literally. Kidnapped and brought down to Niemela--the hidden world of mermaids and mermen--Florence is the ultimate gift for Prince Kiren: a human familiar tied to his side. But nothing is what it seems amid the beauty and danger of the dark ocean.

Every Niemelan has a role to play, from the mermaids who weave towers out of kelp to the warriors who fight sea monsters. But in trying to survive, Florence will end up in the middle of a war between the mer and the Darkness. A conflict that will push her between two brothers: Kiren, the charmer inexplicably drawn to both her and the monsters; and Rolan, the loner who has been pushing her away since the day they met. But in order to take a stand--and find out where she belongs--Florence will have to risk it all: her life, her heart... and her very soul."

My Thoughts: I truly enjoyed this novel. I must say that it is the first books about mermaids that I’ve ever read. I loved the details about their underwater world. It seemed so beautiful that I wish I could do there. I’m glad that there was a lot of detail because I couldn’t have imagined it otherwise, it being so foreign to me, and the other characters would not have meant so much. By the end of the story, the characters were everything to me. One of the characters actually made an appearance in a dream of mine but maybe I just need to stop staying up until 3:00 am reading.

It killed me that I fell for the author’s trick. All authors have one. They set you up to love a character, place, or idea and you later find out that it was the worst thing possible. Luckily, I was in good company as Florence fell for it too. It just shows how good the author was at making you want something. You manage to ignore the clues given to the contrary. As much as I hate falling into this trap, it was well deserved for this book.

I was also glad that the author included so much of Florence’s real world and what she had gone through in her life. Without that background information, I could not have trusted any of her later decisions. It helped that I really understood how she felt while living her normal life. She was easy to connect to. Florence is much like every teenage girl. I’m happy she wasn’t the popular girl. Interesting stuff can happen to everybody and most people don’t see themselves clearly. Who doesn’t love a book with a message?

The novel offered changed in point of view a few times. Thank God, they were subtle because they weren't introduced and I didn’t notice to the end that it didn’t really fit with the story being told from Florence’s perspective. The book, however, needed this change because without it the reader would not have the necessary information. We needed to know what else was happening. The author found the perfect was to show that.

Final Thoughts: This book is an easy read but one that I was willing to stay awake all night for. I loved it. I would definitely read this novel a second or third time. It was a cute love story that had just enough action in it to keep it moving. It also had many different types of character, some mystery, and you can’t forget the incredible world in which it took place. I think that you should absolutely take a look at this book for yourself! Me?...I need the second one.