A YA mermaid story that follows a 17 year old mermaid who is engaged to a merman. She catches him in manslaughter basically and reports it to the king. Things go cray cray in mermaid society after that. It was fun! It went very political and lots of riots so it was intense, but very well done! I'd read the next book for sure!

It was clean. No swear words. Would recommend!

This book was pretty hard to get through, because there worldbuilding was confusing (I had a lot of questions about this mermaid society) and none of the characters were particularly well developed, not even the main character. Nothing really made feel in the story or the characters , although I did think that the premise was interesting.

Sigh...
I always have hope with mermaid books that I will finally find "the one"----the perfect mermaid book that checks all the. right boxes and has all my favorite ocean related tropes----but I keep setting myself up for disappointment.
For starters, I do like a bit of political intrigue in my books, but not so much that it becomes all-consuming. I did not like the worldbuilding as much as I was hoping to, it felt really off for me.
Books don't necessarily have to be quick reads, but this one took me ages to finish, because I just couldn't get into it.

Oooof. Admittedly this was not a book for me. The writing wasn't a good fit and I found the storyline to be very familiar to several other YAs I have read recently. A DNF due to personal tastes and not really the fault of the book. It's just not for me, though I do enjoy the cover.

Undersea politics! Love a good mermaid book, this one was especially different from other mermaid books that I've read. I've never read a book about an underwater hierarchy

This amazing underwater world. Eeee! Action, excitement, intrigue, emotion, and everything!I was super bummed that I was unable to read this book in one sitting as I wanted to, BUT each time I returned back to BREAKWATER, it pulled me right back in

This book just wasn’t for me, the writing style and me just didn’t mix but I can see how this would be enjoyable for many others

I love books with mermaids, and I was so excited to read this! It was hard to get into it, however, and wasn't my favorite mermaid novel. I do want to give it a second try someday!

Breakwater is the first book in the Broken Tides serie by Catherine Jones Payne. It was a great start of a series. The writing was really good and the story also really good. Really liked it

I loved this book so much! I loved the characters and the world! I would and have recommended this book to all my friends.

I LOVE mermaid books and will dive in to just about any I find. I was NOT ready for the powerful undertones of racism, politics and power. centered on two races that have little love for one another but stuck in the same world, I found the world engaging and edge of the seat entertaining. The author did a great job creating a beautiful land for these creatures of legends. I thought the differences between the two and their strife for power was exceptionally well written and interesting. The main characters, however, almost seemed to be minor points of focus. I dont feel like I really got to know Jade other than on the surface. We see her now as everyone sees her change but its not. . .deep feeling to me. .its almost. . superficial? I will keep reading the series. . I just hope that the character become more. . .focused and real feeling.

The cover art is breathtaking.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get into this one. I don't know why but it just didn't grab my attention the way I thought it would. i mean come on!! Mermaids!! But in the end I did not finish. I am going to put it back on my list for this year and see if I can manage to get through it and see if I have a different experience.

I loved a good mermaid book so I jumped at the chance to read this one! However, it was not a perfect mermaid book that I had hoped for! The book was very politically charged and more akin to satire than YA. The world building was lacking and I did not care for the character development. Jade was a 2-dimensional character and really did not have the dynamic or flare that I was was hoping for. What I liked best about the book was the cover, obviously. The love interest was like a side note to the politics and as a result completely unbelievable.
I would probably never recommend this book as I have read way better mermaid novels. Apologies to the author and publisher.

I'm not a person who DNFs books lightly – I make it a point to push through as much as possible but I have a breaking point, I really do. And I admit I'm a person who suffers from being intrigued by books with gorgeous covers – the term "don't judge a book by its cover," however, is a good warning I should have headed in the opposite sense of what it means. This book, for me, failed miserably in several areas of what I think makes a book good.

The concept was great; it had the foundations to be a great story – with political intrigue and opposing classes (between nobility/well-to-do mermaids and the refugee naiads). The unrest between the two classes is probably the only interesting part I found about this book after I managed to push myself passed 15% – but even then, this world building was lacking. Jade, our main character, is part of the nobility class but there is no specific exploration as to where in the hierarchy of this world she stands – sure, her mother is an advisor to the king, but an advisor of what (apart from trying to improve naiad/mer relations)? How much power does this family have? Without this information, it's difficult to decide on how Jade and her family settle into this hierarchy in the first place, particularly as we don't see points of views from the opposite class.

Albeit, I only got to just past halfway in this book – but it took me forever to get to where I decided to give up. Jade as a character was, for me, kind of two-dimensional and flat – maybe even a little bit childish and innocent – which may have worked better in her story arc if there'd been an alternative character POV to contrast this ignorance. I felt very displaced – and that's because of the main character.

And don't get me started on all the side characters; why were there so many? There was that one character who was with Jade's family a lot but don't ask me why he was there, what his purpose was or his name – would have been nice to have a bit more depth in explanation as to why characters were relevant in the first place (even if it was just a little bit of info that threw the reader off a scent). [again, I DNF'd this at 51%, I have no idea how this book ended because I couldn't find the motivation to get past what I did not like about this book.]

The characters that were less relevant to the story, or not even relevant at all, would have been better omitted to showcase the actual storyline better. The interactions they had with Jade made me want to put the book away because the book wasn't moving forward with it at all and there was no point to them.

The pace was jumpy. I'm all for immediately bringing in a plot point that spurs the story on but because of this (right at the beginning), the story lacked that world building instead. Sure, I get that it needed to happen because it's the point of the story where stuff starts actually happening but it was a bit of a whiplash ride for me that then slowed down completely (because of those extra character interactions mostly), then spiked a little, then dimmed.

There's good-story-pace rollercoasters, but then there's just rolling-down-a-hill-in-a-hamster-ball-and-flying-all-of-the-place-inside ride (like in those hamster balls in Jurassic World? Yeah, that's what it felt like for me – just in the first half of the book). It was a bit disorientating and when I closed the book, I couldn't bring myself to pick it up again – I tried for almost 3 weeks now and I really don't think it's going anywhere (and there was the introduction to hinted romances when I stopped, and I loved romance).

Maybe one day I'll try again because some people really absolutely seemed to love this book and I hate that I didn't like this because I was expecting so much. Not high on my recommendations for mermaid books, but I'm not gonna tell you not to give it a go – you might see potential in it that I don't.

Wondering why I still gave it 2 stars? The writing itself wasn't bad and neither was the concept – it just wasn't well-executed together, if that makes sense. Also the cover I think deserves about half a star. So yeah, 2 out of 5 it is.

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This was an eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn't for me. Plain and simple. It suffered from constant scene changes and instantaneous plot progression that is told and not shown. The author is, however, very talented at describing surroundings and landscapes. I found myself more than once really picturing a clear image of the setting of the scenes she was crafting. While not my cup of tea I could see someone else enjoying this book.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I give this book only three stars. I love mermaid books. Although this was a quick read, i couldn't really get into any of the characters. I've read several other mermaid stories and this one just didn't connect with me. Lady Jade was kind of annoying and the book was very political. I think this book could of been so much more.

This is really cheesy and doesn't even give you a moment to get settled into the world before throwing you into a plot. It's not a great way to start a series

Loved this book. The story line had me hooked from the beginning.

A wonderful read. It flows well, with great characters and a wonderful plot. I loved this book, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I had to know what was going to happen next. What a cliffhanger, I can't wait to read the next book. I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Netgalley.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
This is a story is about 
Mermaids!!! It was such a unique novel!  I liked that the main character Jade, wasn't always right and had many flaws, but just like any of us, wanted to do the right thing. I found her very relatable. This was my first book by this author,  I enjoyed it for the most part. It was fast paced and just alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a 3.5 star rating!