Howdy YAL!

I would really give it 2.5 stars it falls into the two star category more because of its use of cliches. To See Full Review Click Here: http://yalbookbriefs.blogspot.com/2012/07/tempest-rising-tracy-deebs.htmlRandom Childhood Story: When I was three years-old I had a pink Little Mermaid shirt. My mother said that she often had to wash it every day because I refused to wear anything but said shirt. Obviously, I loved this shirt because a) it was pink and b) it had The Little Mermaid on it. The shirt was only the beginning of my childhood obsessions with mermaids. I had books, movies, dolls all mermaid related all because I thought Prince Eric was cute and I wanted to be like Ariel-even though in hindsight I think the girl was rather stupid for trusting Ursula of all people. As I've grown older my mermaid obsession has dwindled some, but I still like a good mermaid story which was why Tempest Rising interest me.I really wanted to like this book and for awhile it looked like we were going to be best of friends. That is until Mr. Instant Love appeared.Or should I mention Mr. Instant Love with a big helping of love triangle of doom. I freaking kid you not. Look, I love romance in a book. I even like triangles when they're done correctly. But the instant love ruined what otherwise would've been a pretty good story.Okay, so to be generous to instant love and love triangles, they weren't the only problems that this book had. Honestly, while there were several parts about the book and the world that Deebs created that I thought were cool, a lot of the book was cliche. For example, there's a prophecy that you guessed it...involves Tempest.You can stop rolling your eyes now. I know I did for a minute before I hit the next cliche (magical tattoo). The fact is, this book would've been great had there not been so many cliches. And while the cliches were cringe worthy they weren't even the most cheesy use of cliches I've even seen. I mean, after reading Fallen these cliches seemed to be handled quite tastefully. But they were still cliches. And since the parts of the book that weren't cliche were so promising that it made these parts of the book stick out like eyesores.Besides the cliches I also had a problem with the whole "talking with telepathy" parts. It's a pet peeve of mine, but I think that any form of dialogue should use dialogue tags even if the characters are conversing within each other's heads. Not have dialogue tags makes for a very annoying read because often I can't figure out who is saying what and that just gives me a headache.Best Feature: World Building. I really liked the fact that Deebs decided to give her underwater world a story. Was the story a little cliche, yes. But I did like the fact that the underwater world wasn't just limited to mermaids. Reading about selkies, a concept I have only a vague recollection of was refreshing. And I liked the whole sea witch idea as well. I really did feel like there was potential for a great story here.Worse Feature: Combined Insta Love/Love Triangle. I've already done several posts on why I hate love triangles and instant love and this book is definitely in the hate territory on these things. Honestly, I liked Tempest boyfriend, Mark. He wasn't perfect and he was a little jealous, but understandably jealous. And he seemed like a real guy. Kona not so much. I get that I was suppose to love him, but I couldn't I really couldn't. You just don't force your audience to like the other love interest. Or if you really want them to like the other guy, you don't make it so blatantly audience and use insta love. Yep, insta love is used to essentially reason the relationship between Kona and Tempest. And quite frankly it doesn't work for me. Not at all. With Kona constantly telling Tempest she belongs in the sea despite the fact that her whole life is on land, being ridiculously cryptic towards her, and looking like some sort of sea god I just didn't feel him at all.Appropriateness: This book is pretty clean. There is some under the sea violence in it and a couple of deaths.