Tangled Tides: An Intricate tale of the Sea

5 out of 5! The world building was beautifully created by the way each group interacted with one another. There were mermaids, sirens, selkies, gorgons, and humans. It was beautifully done, though you didn't see much of the humans in this one. The characters didn't grow like I liked, but the story and plot came together enough to make it a good book despite it. The main male character was a merman...yeah you heard me right, a merman. Kind of like this..

Only hot and blue. There was even a ranking system with mermaids. It follows the colors of the rainbow, which may sound cheesy, but it shows their life patterns and what they do as they get older. Each color is a rank and a job. It beautifully blends wisdom and time together to make a system that keeps things in line. It shows orders and chaos. There is a lot of juxtaposition in this book. The selkies are different than some of the ones you are used to. The selkies in this book look like this

so as to better work as an opposite of the mermaids. However, mythology says selkies are human without their coats, like this

However, it was done up rather well. It has a whole back story on why the world is created in such a dynamic, the selkies are half human half seal, why they don't get along with the mermaids, everything. That's really important to me. Even the main character has a detailed back story to go with things. Our main character is Yara Jones. During a hurricane she is turned into a mermaid, and she must learn to live with it while finding out her entire life has been a lie. Rownan, her boyfriend, is a selkie, but there has been so much of her past erased from her, connecting her to Treygan, the main merman of the book. Rownan and Treygan are half-brother, but what was their father and is their dangerous past? All the while the fates conspire against a budding romance between Yara and Treygan, and destroys the romance that Yara felt for Rownan.

So all the while Treygan and Yara are trying to stay

so as to not ruin the only chance at returning all the sea creatures to their home Rathe. The gate has been closed, and Yara is the key to opening it. A tragedy struck 18 years ago, and trapped them all here on Earth where they must smoke c-weed and seagarrettes to survive. I actually thought that was pretty clever. All the while the dual nature of the selkies and mermaids are explained and elaborated on, making a very vivid story. It's beautifully done.

The next book comes out this year...my reaction?