Helpful Score: 3
I read The Stepsister Scheme last year some time and enjoyed it enough to keep a weather eye out for the sequel. Well, lo and behold, it finally arrived at the local bookstore.
Where The Stepsister Scheme had some fun with 'happily ever after,' for Snow White (Snow), Sleeping Beauty (Talia) and Cinderella (Danielle), The Mermaid's Madness takes the tale of the Little Mermaid and has its way with it.
The book starts with a mission to greet the Undine (merfolk) for an annual renewal of friendship. There, they discover that Lirea has killed her father, one of her sisters, her human lover, assumed control of the tribe and is determined to start a war with the humans. Plus, she knifes Queen Beatrice.
From there the three heroines are off and running to save their beloved boss, mainly by seeking out the maker of the knife, Lirea's grandmother Morrwen (hope I spelled that right) to unravel the spell holding Beatrice's soul in it.
The situation is pretty complex, with a bit more subtlety than The Stepsister Scheme. We readers are kept in the dark and guessing for a while about what's going on, but all is revealed along the way.
I liked the complexity and the growth of Snow as a character, but I'd like to see her not paying such a high price for magic in the next novel. Talia is ... Talia in spades. She is a tough customer and we see a bit more of her scars from her experiences. What was neat was the dryad ship captain though. I also was also greatful that our heroines were spared the humiliation by the bad guys this time.
Dislikes - can't think of anything right now a day after finishing it.
Where The Stepsister Scheme had some fun with 'happily ever after,' for Snow White (Snow), Sleeping Beauty (Talia) and Cinderella (Danielle), The Mermaid's Madness takes the tale of the Little Mermaid and has its way with it.
The book starts with a mission to greet the Undine (merfolk) for an annual renewal of friendship. There, they discover that Lirea has killed her father, one of her sisters, her human lover, assumed control of the tribe and is determined to start a war with the humans. Plus, she knifes Queen Beatrice.
From there the three heroines are off and running to save their beloved boss, mainly by seeking out the maker of the knife, Lirea's grandmother Morrwen (hope I spelled that right) to unravel the spell holding Beatrice's soul in it.
The situation is pretty complex, with a bit more subtlety than The Stepsister Scheme. We readers are kept in the dark and guessing for a while about what's going on, but all is revealed along the way.
I liked the complexity and the growth of Snow as a character, but I'd like to see her not paying such a high price for magic in the next novel. Talia is ... Talia in spades. She is a tough customer and we see a bit more of her scars from her experiences. What was neat was the dryad ship captain though. I also was also greatful that our heroines were spared the humiliation by the bad guys this time.
Dislikes - can't think of anything right now a day after finishing it.
