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The following awesome line-up of authors will be hosting a book party on November 29th:

 

11:00 - 11:30am ~ Christy Sloat
11:30 - 12pm ~ Melissa Toppen
12:00 - 12:30pm ~ Shane Morgan
12:30 - 1:00pm ~ Kimber Leigh Wheaton
1:00 - 1:30pm ~ Tiana Warner
1:30 - 2:00pm ~ Megan Crewe
2:00 - 2:30pm ~ Karen Amanda Hooper
2:30 - 3:00pm ~ Ruth Silver
3:00 - 3:30pm ~ Meg Collett
3:30 - 4:00pm ~ Laura Howard
4:00 - 4:30pm ~ Erica Kiefer
4:30 - 5:00pm ~ Cameo Renae
5:00 - 5:30pm ~ Melanie James
5:30 - 6:00pm ~ Kerr-Ann Dempster

 

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Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner

***Disclaimer: I received a copy in exchange for a review.***

 

Synopsis: A mermaid’s supernatural beauty serves one purpose: to lure a sailor to his death.

The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.

Eighteen-year-old Meela has already lost her brother to the Massacre, and she has lived with a secret that’s haunted her since childhood. For any hope of survival, she must overcome the demons of her past and become a ruthless mermaid killer.

For the first time, Eriana Kwai’s Massacre warriors are female, and Meela must fight for her people’s freedom on the Pacific Ocean’s deadliest battleground.

 

The Pacific Island of Eriana Kwai has been in a war with the demons of the ocean, mermaids, who have been known to eat human flesh. Isolated and unable to even fish, the inhabitants of Eriana Kwai continuously run low on resources and send their young men on a massacre against the mermaids every year. When the massacres start to fail, a new strategy is developed to train and send the young women of Eriana Kwai, since they can not be hypnotized under the mermaids spell. Meela is one of the twenty girls chosen to train for the massacre. As a child Meela thought she had befriended a mermaid, only to find out she had been tricked. Her brother was also killed on a previous massacre. Now, Meela must decide if she wants to fight for the freedom of her island at the sake of killing an entire species.

An awesome mermaid story, with strong female warriors that were both human and mermaid. I loved that the mermaids were fierce, creatures that were capable of destroying humans with their super strength and speed. The set up of the relationship between Meela and mermaid Lysi was really interesting, not really knowing what the drive behind it is. The added dramatics of twenty young women on a ship together was almost as intense as all of the battle scenes themselves, creating internal as well as external struggles. I can't wait to learn more about what the mermaid king wants as well as where Meela and Lysi's relationship is going...very intriguing.

 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

 

 

And...Ice in the title for Holiday Bookish Bingo:

 

 

I would like to thank the author for providing me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Doing so does not sway my review in any way.

One of the first things that really caught me off guard with this book was the way I started feeling nostalgic while reading it. I felt like I was back to my teenage days, in my bedroom, the window open with a slight breeze coming through as I laid across my bed reading about mermaids and mermen. I forgot just how much I loved the stories of the sea and the mermaids seducing and picking off the sailors. Bringing back that feeling was amazing on many levels and I even mentioned it to a couple of my coworkers.

Meela is written strongly, both as a 10 year old with a secret but deadly friendship, with a young mermaid, and as an 18 year old, coming into her own as an adult, a woman and a uncertain warrior. The story evolves from a girl who doesn't see black and white, but the colors in between, in people and creatures. She is very trusting of what she doesn't really understand. This trust is betrayed and the author gives us the insight to see how that impacted Meela and sculpted her in the years to come and to the point she becomes part of the team that goes out to seek revenge against the mermaids.

The author lets us in to Meela's head, lets us know how she ticks and lets us understand her compassion with the mermaids. We feel the betrayal, like a slap in the face. We feel the fear, the anger, the indecision's, everything that makes up Meela as a child and as an adult. She is bullied by the same girl for years and in a way it creates a certain armor for her. As an adult, she is able to understand better the things she learned from the mermaid of her youth and in many ways it works to her advantage.

With this story, you learn about the island that Meela and the villagers live. The hardships brought on by the constant killings of fisherman and such, but the mermaids. Women becoming widows at a young age. The fear of the sea and the beaches while being surrounded by such, because they are on an island. You also learn the plight of the mermaids.

A very well written book, it grabbed my interest quickly and took me along for the ride. When I wasn't reading, I found myself thinking about the story and the characters, wondering what was going to happen and how Meela was going to get through it all. By the time you get to the end, you will be wishing the next book was out. Now, this book isn't all about the interaction of Meela and the mermaids, but also about a war that is being waged between humans and creatures of the sea. There is graphic violence involved, so consider yourself warned.