[Review] Lyndsay Johnson : Fire of the Sea

Fire of the Sea by Lyndsay Johnson

eBook, English, 426 pages
Debut: March 24, 2014
@ Goodreads
Genres: Adventure, Norse Myth, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Heat Level : | Overall Rating:

Sharp, sleek, and golden. Like the dagger she has worn since childhood, eighteen-year-old Aeva is all three of these things. But there is something else that this mermaid and her prized weapon share – they are both hunted.
Hidden within the caves off Iceland’s dark shore, Aeva waits to take her place as the next ruler of the Mermaids. But when Aeva uses her potent and alluring song to save a drowning human, she disrupts a delicate balance. Realizing she has unexpectedly bound herself to Gunnar, Aeva is torn between duty and love.
Aeva severs one life to begin another, and soon finds herself not only rejected by the sea, but also stalked by an old enemy. As the worlds of myth and man intertwine, Aeva will challenge fate to protect her own sacred relic and the man she loves.
But legend and lies cast an intricate net. With time and safety quickly unraveling for Aeva and Gunnar, there is only one clear course: Find and defeat Delphine before she can shift again.

Read First: May 24-31, 2015 | Snuck from: Xpresso Book Tours -- I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Rogue Chronicles Entry

What a beautiful, beautiful story! The style was very descriptive, attention to colors, shapes, sounds, smells, there were so many details... It was perfect for a mythical narrative. Thus, it was a little heavy on the eyes at points, but I can imagine the audiobook being captivating and making your heart ache.

Right after style comes content, and it was just as amazing. This was heavy on the lore, not just because it's about mermaids and other mythical sea creatures, about their abilities and weaknesses, or because the sea really seemed like a living, breathing being that is a personification of balance, but this was very much about lineages, heritage, the power of blood -- and I just love this kind of tie to gods and such. This hit all my bottons, from love to fate, from family and the need to protect to the hunger for power and nothing else, a few riddles, destiny, and misunderstandings. Simply amazeballs.

The characters I had to warm up to a little, because Aeva started out sheltered, and she was just so cute and panicky in a naive kind of way, but she grew on me. And not just on me, she really grew as a person throughout this story. She learned to get over her fear, had to make some very tough choices, sacrifices even. All for Gunnar, who I liked right away, but later he even made me want to smother him with kisses as he showed his stubborn side and grew along with his relationship to Aeva. Those two were an epic match, truly the stuff of legends of the Norse! I don't often feel like YA characters develop a more solid sense of self (although it's what they are aiming to do) and purpose to a depth that satisfies me, but I really felt so with Aeva and Gunnar, which just makes me love Johnson's skill and understanding of her characters even more.

The minor characters were quite a few, but I liked all of them as much as I could with rather low screen time, but I most definitively loved the fact that they all held a piece of the puzzle that was this whole story / drama / adventure / destiny playing out.

Oh btw, I gave this a 5 on the heat scale, but it's totally suited for YA. Only kisses, but damn are those hot! I so wished it would've gone further, because in that writing style? Hrrrr!!!! I'm getting all tingly just thinking about it! I guess I can at least hope for Lyndsay Johnson to one day write a NA novel. 😉

Area Scan: Style/Vocab: 4.5/5 -- Plot: 5/5 -- Heroes: 5/5 -- Villains: 5/5 -- Sidekicks: 5/5 -- Hearts: 5/5 -- Heat: 5/5 -- Thrills: 4/5 -- Laughs: 3/5 -- Tears: 4/5

Discovered: 5 Hoods

Thank you for the approval of an ARC goes to:
Xpresso Book Tours