Gah, I'm not sure where to go with this review! I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley through their romance section, but in spite of a romantic element, it's really sci-fi with a touch of fantasy (because mermaids). (Actually, while the characters are adults, the story reads a lot more like a YA dystopian novel, so if that's your jam...) Anyway, I almost lowered it a star, but then I just saw the author's post on Goodreads, and she clearly says it's sci-fi fantasy and not romance. So any disappointment with the direction the story goes in the last quarter of the book is really because of a misclassification and not the author's intent.

I don't like spoilers, but I feel like--for the sake of the romance lovers out there--I have to at least let you know POSSIBLE SPOILER: There's a not unhappy ending, but there's no HEA here. END SPOILER.

For me, I suspected what was happening pretty much immediately, and I was disappointed to be right. Apart from that, the book is well written, and I suspect that sci-fi fans especially will find the book to be solid and satisfying.

So how to rate it? As a romance, it's zero stars for me, but it's not supposed to be a romance. I don't read a lot of sci-fi, so how it compares within the genre, hmm, dunno? So I'll just go with how the story flowed for me. Mostly good characters, a fast and exciting plot, an original idea, and a decent ending (with a possible sequel) = 4 to 4.5/5.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks!

I really enjoyed this book. Theres everything from merimads to a high society. It sort of reminded me of a grown up little mermaid. I adore the premise of the range of different creatures.

What happens when two creature met who aren't on terms and don't have equal power together.

This whole book has a twist at every other page you turn.

Sariana is a mermaid who's brother got killed by humans. Since then all she wanted was revenge. Evan is an ex-Marine who was saved by a mermaid when he was drowning when he was sailing with his friend, Dan. But ended up in the dome, the place underwater where secret experiments were going on by humans. He met Ana and they both fell in love despite their moral differences and trust issues. But then when it came to choosing between love and their believes, everything went downhill. Secrets were revealed which turned everyone's world upside down.

I liked Evan as a character; he’s a disillusioned former marine, full of remorse and prey to flashbacks. His best friend’s death in the shipwreck doesn’t help, and when he’s offered to stay and work in the submarine base he accepts without many questions. But very soon he feels something is amiss, and instead of turning a blind eye like the others, he seeks answers then decides to act in order to put things right.

The main feminine character, Sariana, is part of the sea people, and she poses as a human to try and get useful information for her people. The reasons why the sea people are at war with the base’s scientists are partially shown in the first chapter, and we discover as we go along the horror of the experiments done on mermaids as on humans (some staff members who are forced to cooperate under the threat of reprisals against their families), in order to create super warriors.
Between them there’s some attraction quite fast, but each distrusts the other, and there are some repetitions especially in Sariana’s thoughts concerning the fact he’s human.

In the secondary characters, there are of course some of the base’s staff, some of them nice who become kind of friend with the hero, others more unpleasant like a soldier who likes to attack Evan, or the chief scientist that I’d have liked to dissect alive myself. We also meet several members of the sea people, like Sariana’s sister and her husband.

I liked that the author took the time to show the impact of human’s activity on the mermaids’ living place: pollution, death of some seaweed, However I found the story wasn’t flowing enough, at times it seemed like parts, explanations, or some depth were lacking.

This novel reminded me the science-fiction novels I used to read when I was a teen: there’s the mystery about the base, the supernatural creatures, the disillusioned hero who turns out to be morally very decent, and signs of a love story. I even remember reading a story where the heroine got gills after a scientific experiment that seemed less painful than the one Evan goes through. However I didn’t expect the final twist, even if afterward there were some clues that could have warned me.

All in all I still appreciated this novel in spite of the points I noted earlier, and if you don’t have prejudice against SF without HEA, you should appreciate too.