Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs
SPOILER ALERT!! Normally I try not to do this, but to fully review it, I did have to mention some spoilers. They aren't anything big and most likely, people will be like "These weren't spoilers" but just be warned anyway.
"Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it's not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you're a normal teenage girl, but when you're half human, half mermaid, like Lily, there's no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily's mermaid identity is a secret that can't get out, since she's not just any mermaid—she's a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn't feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she's been living on land and going to Seaview High School ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems—like her obnoxious biker-boy neighbor, Quince Fletcher—but it has that one major perk: Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren't really the casual dating type—the instant they "bond," it's for life.

When Lily's attempt to win Brody's love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily ever after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned."- summary from Amazon

I want to say this is my first mermaid book and it probably is, but I feel like I've read one before. Not that it really matters, but after reading this one, I want to find more mermaid books! Childs creates this wonderful world down under and I can't wait to go back to it next summer. Oh and by the way, be warned that the ending is a big cliffhanger that makes you want more right away. As soon as I read that last chapter, my jaw dropped and I was like "NOOO!! This can't be over!" But the good thing was that, unlike with Girl Parts, I was in the privacy of my own bedroom, so only one of our cats looked at me funny and then went back to cleaning themselves.

Anyway, back to the book. Lily was a great heroine and I absolutely loved her voice. One of the problems I had though was her complete stubbornness when it came to Quince and it did get a bit annoying around the middle when she kept denying how good he could be. I guess it's realistic to her character and it did provide some depth to Lily when it came to just how stubborn she could be about several things. But it annoyed me a bit while reading.

Another problem I had was how Childs handled Brody. I think it's kind of the easy way out to just make him the bad guy and therefore easy for Lily to make her romantic decision. It's started to bother me now that I've seen it in many books and it's become easy for me to predict; and it's always the popular guy who turns out bad. There need to be more books where, if there's a love triangle, both suitors are equally good for the main character so there's even more tension there and it can be more of a surprise who the protagonist picks. However, I do think Childs did put a nice twist on it, going back to Lily's stubbornness, especially in matters of the heart. Does that make sense?

Aside from what I wrote above, the romance is still very good. Steamy, even. The blurbs on the book are not lying. But it's also slow-moving, which is always a nice change of pace. The two characters get to know each other over the course of the novel and so it's not just lust, nor is it love at first sight.

Overall, this was a fun, romantic beachy sort of read perfect for summer. So if you're looking for a book to take on vacation with you, pick this one up!

FTC: Received ARC from publisher (Tera told them to send me one). Link above is Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.