Review: Deep Betrayal by Anne Greenwood Brown

Deep Betrayal by Anne Greenwood Brown
Publisher: Random House/ Delacorte
Release Date: March 12, 2013
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

It's been thirty days, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she's counting. And when Calder does return, it's not quite the reunion Lily hoped for. Especially after she lets her father in on a huge secret: he, like Calder, is a merman. Obsessed with his new identity, Lily's dad monopolizes Calder's time as the two of them spend every day in the water, leaving Lily behind.

Then dead bodies start washing ashore. Calder blames his mermaid sisters, but Lily fears her father has embraced the merman's natural need to kill. As the body count grows, everyone is pointing fingers. Lily doesn't know what to believe—only that whoever's responsible is sure to strike again. . . . 

My thoughts:
I loved loved loved Lies Beneath.  It was my first mermaid book and I was captivated by the whole killer mermaid storyline.  Deep Betrayal started out strong, but by the end I was really kinda disappointed in the turn the story took and I am not sure if I totally buy it all.

The story takes off about 30 days after Lies Beneath ended.  Calder is off trying to figure things out and Lily is left in Minneapolis having been barred from the lake.  When Calder finally shows back up and Lily decides to tell her Dad that he is a merman, Lily gets her wish and she returns to the lake.  Knowing that Calders sisters still pose a threat, Lily agrees to stay out of the water.  When the pull of the water is just too much for her all hale breaks loose and things get exciting.  Angry mermaids, bodies washing up on shore, and an absent dad all come crashing down on Lily and all she knows is that she has to stop the killings and bring her family back together again.

See the story sounds good and for the most part I was enthralled with it, but in the last few chapters things really fell apart for me.  I didn't like who the killer turned out to be at all.  That whole thing came out of nowhere and I kinda wish that the person we are led to believe would have been the killer.  It would have made a better OMG storyline in my opinion.  Instead we are left with a weird killer and a new bit of history that again didn't really belong in the story.  It felt like the author wanted to sidetrack the reader with a history lesson and the whole time all I could think about was Ursula from The Little Mermaid.  I didn't think the story really needed it since the murders were strong enough to hold the readers attention.

I was also more than ticked at Lily for driving off without Calder when she really could have used his help. Calder let her tag along to every dangerous stunt he had to endure but the minute the tables are turned Lily leaves him!  I was infuriated over her decision and it didn't make any sense why she would leave him.  Calder wasn't weak and certainly could have held his own so it was just irritating.

Even though I wasn't fond of the ending I did enjoy several parts of the story and with the way this one ended and I am more than a little curious how the next book will be.  The author leaves us with a bomb so I will definitely pick up the next book hoping that my killer mermaids come back in full force.

3 snowflakes

Want to read Deep Betrayal??  Click HERE for a chance to win!