Between the Sea and the Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore

Between the Sea and the Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore
"For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air."- summary from Amazon

While I loved Dolamore's debut, I was not as impressed with this novel. Perhaps my expectations were too high after having wanted the book for so long (I knew about it at least from June 2010), but it was only an average story for me.

It took a while for the book to really get going, which is a problem when the book is only 230 pages long. The pacing throughout was a bit off and was fairly slow despite the short length. I also wasn't invested in the characters as much, though I did still find the romance between Alander and Esmerine really sweet and realistic. I felt like I didn't really get to know them all that well, aside from basic things. This could have been a result of the third person perspective though.

The mythology of mermaids becoming sirens and the whole idea of the Fandarsee was really interesting and I'd love to read more about it. What was revealed in the story was a good start, but I do kind of want to know more. The ending was done really well though and I liked how the novel was resolved.

Overall, if I were to do stars, this would be in between a 3 and a 3.5 (out of 5). It's good (and the cover is gorgeous) but not terribly outstanding. I hated feeling this way because I really wanted to love the story and 5-star it all over the place, but I just can't.

FTC: Received ARC from my friend Susan of Wastepaper Prose (thanks!). Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.