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| Tempest Rising by TracyDeebs |
"Tempest Maguire wants nothing more than to surf the killer waves near her California home; continue her steady relationship with her boyfriend, Mark; and take care of her brothers and surfer dad. But Tempest is half mermaid, and as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she will have to decide whether to remain on land or give herself to the ocean like her mother. The pull of the water becomes as insistent as her attraction to Kai, a gorgeous surfer whose uncanny abilities hint at an otherworldly identity as well. And when Tempest does finally give in to the water's temptation and enters a fantastical underwater world, she finds that a larger destiny awaits her-and that the entire ocean's future hangs in the balance."
Rating:
Tempest Rising had lots of elements to make it such a great book to read: a great cover, a nice plot, mermaids, war, etc. Sadly, I felt that it didn’t deliver.
I find Tempest, our heroine, a pain. She’s annoying and such a spoiled brat. She’s whinny and too emotional. Okay so she’s going through a lot and all that but does she really have to complain at each chapter? Does she really have to keep going on about how her mother should’ve been there at every problem she encounters? And does she really have to be in an on-again-off-again relationship with Mark just to spice up the event that she has a deep connection with Kona? She just ended up looking like a total cheater. I mean, there is already so much emotional turmoil going on with the issues she has with her family, add the fact that she’s struggling with her transformation as a mermaid, is it not enough to spare her the confusion of a torn-between-two-lovers relationship drama?
I was disappointed with how the flow of events went. The first part of the book, which is also the longest, was establishing Tempest’s life. So she keeps saying that her mother left them and had abandoned them to live in the sea where she’d be happier. Then she complains that she doesn’t want to be a mermaid but she loves to surf. Then she goes blaming her mother for not helping her with this transformation and choosing whether to stay human or be a mermaid. She goes surfing and then there’s the boyfriend-issue. Then back to her refusal to be a mermaid… I’m telling you it goes back and forth with the same problem. I keep feeling like I want to tell her: “Yeah, I get your issues, Tempest. We covered that already. Can we please move on?!”
The second part goes focuses on her mermaid issues. I just read a lot of “I choose to be human” and “She (her mom) didn’t keep her promise” – again with the drama.
The third and fourth part had finally gotten interesting, but Tempest remains oh-so-annoying. So, Tempest rescues Kona, I thought at this point I’d get something new from her, but then comes the boyfriend issue again; followed by the mom-abandoning. Ugh. Please, I get that already.
Finally she goes to find her mother. Only to have her die a few minutes later after seeing her captive by the enemy. Sheesh! How morbid can you get? First you deprive the girl of motherly love then just when she gets the chance to see her mother, you deprive the mother her life. I may not like Tempest, but show the girl some mercy here!
The only part where I liked Tempest was by the ending were she seemed to be more in control of her emotions. Still, if this was a series, I don’t think I’d be interested in what it would offer next.
