Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Title: Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy #1)

Author: Anna Banks

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mythology, Romance

Published: May 2012

My Rating: 5/5

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

OH MY GOD I'M SO EXCITED TO WRITE ABOUT THIS BOOK!!!

I'm so glad I decided to read this! It had been waiting on my kindle for a little while. I thought it was a bit more serious, but it's actually pretty cute!!

The book tells the story from two different points of view. One is from Emma, a very clumsy human girl who's always wanted to know why she has such a peculiar eye color (seriously, that's basically all we can say about her when the story is just starting, she's clumsy and has violet eyes). And then there's also Galen, syrena royalty, who's found something very interesting in Emma and feels an incredible attraction to her, although not the kind of attraction you think... Well, sort of.

End of spoiler-free section (I'm sorry, there are just so many feelings that must be shared)

I think it's so very sad that this story starts with a death, and the main character's best friend's death at that. I actually thought Chloe was going to survive :( I kinda liked her.

Emma is also very likeable, same as Galen, who's so freaking adorable.

There's also Rayna and Toraf. Obviously in the beginning I think Rayna is a pain, but when I got to know her better I started to like her, girl just has a real bad temper. And who wouldn't, huh? Who wouldn't get all mad if they find out they're already mated and nobody even told them that?? Syrena "weddings" are weird, man. Both the bride and the groom should be present, you know.

But hey, we also get to know a little bit more about the syrena law and all that, and we now know that they're pretty sexist all right. What's with girls having a time limit for finding their ideal mate and being forced to be with whoever wants to be with them if they don't make it? That's just wrong.

Thank God it all works out in the end and Rayna actually likes Toraf. And when he kissed Emma to prove it, well that was hilarious.

Oh and that fight between Rayna and Emma... priceless. I thought they were going to kill each other, they were not playing games. Rayna kinda deserved it though, you can't just tell someone who just lost their best friend that it was their fault... What's wrong with you??

And there's also that law for royals that says that every third generation the firstborns from each house must mate. Soo that's why Galen can't be with Emma, because she's meant for Grom... which is very, very unfortunate and sad. But I was always thinking if they'd be able to make some exceptions? Like the kind of attraction/pulsation/whatever that Emma and Galen feel to each other... isn't there some kind of rule that can't separate such people? But that attraction thing is a rumor for most though :( *sigh*... Now poor Emma just thinks she's Galen's little science project.

But I was always looking for solutions, you see. Like, Grom could die, right? Suddenly.

I do have to admit that there are nice syrena laws though. For example, they're not allowed to cheat, if they do, they're punished, so yeah.

But now I just want to talk about the highlights of this book: Emma's gift and being part syrena, and Emma's and Galen's relationship:

Well I'm pretty jealous of Emma, I'll admit. I'm not ashamed to say that I am one of those girls who say they've always wanted to be a mermaid, because seriously, how is that not awesome??!!

Sadly, Emma is not exactly syrena, but a half-breed, so she can't grow a fin. But she still has this amazing gift that allows her to communicate with sea animals and that pretty much makes up for it, right?

This half-breed situation does have its cons though. If Galen and Emma want to be together, they now know that she won't live as long as he, and that's just heartbreaking. But they just keep being positive and try their best to be happy together, especially after stupid Grom agrees to marry that fake Paca, ugh I despise her father so much.

So yeah, Galen and Emma are just adorable and cute, and I couldn't believe it when he TOOK HER TO THE TITANIC OMG. I used to be such a big fan of the movie when I was a kid (I remember my parents geting me the Behind the Scenes VHS... aaand my grandma covering my eyes once when Rose gets naked, little 8-year-old me was all "Grandma please, I've already seen Kate Winslet's boobs like a thousand times... and I'm gonna have boobies one day, you know") and I've always being interested in the whole story of the Titanic. So please, if there are any syrena out there who would enjoy taking this girl here to the Titanic, well, I'm available.

Oh and there's this cute, beautiful quote I also wanted to share:

"And Galen decides there is nothing better than kissing Emma"

Come ooon! That's just adorable.

I'm pretty sure things will work out for them in the end and we're all going to be happy and smiling and what not.

As soon as I finished this book I just had to get the second one, and I already had my TBR list all nice and tidy, but I couldn't, I just couldn't, I just have to know what happens next. Because... well, EMMA'S MOM IS NALIA OMG. I did not see that coming, ok. Although I was very surprised, I imagined Nalia to be quite different... Emma's mom is just too crazy and controlling. We'll just see how that goes.

Soo have any of you read this or anything similar? I really recommend this if you like fantasy books or cute, fluffy reads.

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! ♥