Giveaway (INT) + review: Florence by Ciye Cho

Today is the release day of Florence, a YA mermaid book written by Ciye Cho. You can read more about it in the blurb. Firstly I will review it, to give you a first impression of the book. Secondly. the author was so nice he wanted to do a giveaway of an ecopy of Florence. If you are interested, you can enter :) Enjoy!


title: Florence
written by: Ciye Cho
genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
release date: July 1st, 2012

Seventeen-year-old Florence Waverley is out of her depth. Literally. Kidnapped and taken below the waves to the mer world of Niemela, she is the ultimate gift for merman Prince Kiren: a human familiar tied to his side. But nothing is what it seems amid the beauty and danger of a dark ocean.


Every Niemelan has a role to play, from the mermaids who weave towers out of kelp to the warriors who fight sea monsters. But in trying to survive, Florence will end up in the middle of a war between the mer and the Darkness. A conflict that will push her between two brothers: Kiren, the charmer inexplicably drawn to both her and the monsters; and Rolan, the loner who has been pushing her away since the day they met. But in order to take a stand--and find out where she belongs--Florence will have to risk it all: her life, her heart... and her very soul.

After reading the first two chapters to see whether I should accept the author´s review request or not, I was completely hooked into this story. The main character, Florence, is one I could relate to very easy, which is one of the best things about this book. Also, it was about mermaids. I just read my first mermaid book, and I just fell in love with the whole mermaid thing. Mermaids really are fascinating beings!

The whole story starts with an introduction to Florence Waverly. She is not like the others, she doesn´t really look like they do, and above all, she doesn´t really feel ´home´. On a school trip, she gets kidnapped, and that´s where it gets interesting.

She is brought to Niemela, as a gift to Prince Kiren, but Kiren -and the other Niemelans- don't want her. After some time is is accepted, and she starts to live a normal life, except that it is under water. She finds out more and more about the world she now lives in, and about the Darkness, that might end the entire world under sea. She may even play a decisive role in the battle! 


Niemela is a wonderful world full of surprises, in which I'd love to live. Niemela, with every being living together in harmony, must be one of the greatest places you could possibly live. If only Niemela were a real life place, and I could breath underwater... 

The 2 boys in this book, Kiren and Rolan, both were extremely attractive, and if I were Florence I would be totally overwhelmed by them. The 'love triangle' , a phenomenon I usually don't like, was not annoying at all! It actually improved this book! Yay :)

The writing style of Ciye Cho is really nice to read. The book is not extremely difficult to read, but I still learned some English words from it, which I really like. It didn't take a very long time to read Florence. Actually, I was wishing for more when the book ended!

Altogether I give this book 4 stars, and I truly recommend you to buy it, or at least enter the giveaway to win it! A book everyone who likes paranormal romance, mermaids will love, and a fun read for all!

book trailer: 

the Giveaway

Do you want to read Florence, too? Please enter this giveaway. Don't leave your email address in the comments!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


about the author: 
Ciye Cho lives in Australia and works as a graphic designer. He writes YA novels in his free time--and his head is often lost in the clouds or some place far from reality...
Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | youtube

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

title: Lies Beneath
written by: Anne Greenwood Brown
series: Lies Beneath #1
genres: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, merfolks
pages: 303
publisher: Delacorte books for Young Readers
publication date: June 12th, 2012

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistable good looks and charm on ususpecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

First of all, what a beautiful cover!! Secondly, Lies Beneath was my first book about mermaids ever, so I had no idea what to expect. I have never given much attention to mermaids, the only mermaid thing I have ever seen on TV in Disney's the Little Mermaid and the movie Aquamerine. I was expecting all mermaids to be like Ariel, all nice and friendly and girly, but only after reading the first chapters I was sure I was 100% wrong about them. They were badass killer mermaids!

Right after opening this book I was sucked into the story, told from Calder's -a merman- point of view. Calder was a great character, although he reminded me of Edward from the Twilight Saga at some parts of the book. The only thing he does is lying, not because he wants to, but for his sisters, who are definitely more kick-ass than he is. I absolutly love the whole woman on top thing :) Maris is the kind of annoying, but also the most dangerous of the mermaids. She wants to avenge her mother's death, and is prepared to do everything for that. Then there is the sweet one of the 3 sisters, Tallulah, and to me she seemed a porcelain doll, breakable but extremely beautiful.

The plot of this stories was very original. Killer mermaids, teenage romance, family drama, the whole package! Some passages made me smile, others made me sad. But at the end some of them just made no sense, and even annoyed me. I can't say much about it without spoiling, so I won't... But I was not very happy about it. 

Anne Greenwood Brown's writing style is not very special, but pleasant to read. It was not extremely hard, so I didn't have to pick up a dictionary every minute, and it had little pieces of poetry in it. I really love poetry, although I am really bad at understanding it... Furthermore, it was written from a single POV, which I really liked. Most of the books I read are written from multiple points of view, which sometimes confuses me. 

I give 3.5 stars to Lies Beneath, a very original YA romance with something for everyone, which I would recommend especially to people who have already read some other mermaid books and are looking for another gread mermaid book.

Love, Mar

*A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a honest review. This was done via Netgalley, an organization that connects readers with publishers and distrubutes eGalleys. I did not recieve any money or other payment for this review.*