Review: Between the Land and the Sea

Title: Between the Land and the Sea
Author: Derrolyn Anderson
Series: Marina's Tales
Pages: 248
Published: 2011

Summary: Something extraordinary is lurking in the deep waters off the coast of Aptos, California. A few weeks after moving to the charming beach town, sixteen year-old Marina has nearly drowned twice, enchanted the hottest guy in high school, and discovered a supernatural creature. If she can only manage to survive increasingly dangerous encounters with unpredictable mermaids, she might be able to unlock the mystery of her past and learn how to appease the mysterious forces that seem to want something from her... And maybe even find true love along the way.

Review: To be honest, I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I first requested a copy of Between the Land and the Sea to read. I feared that it was going to be like all the other young adult books out there which all seem to have the same sort of plot line that drags on and on and on and ends up with the boy and the girl together and everything's perfect in the end. While it doesn't fully deviate from the normal expectations of YA books, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I ended up liking the book more than I thought I would have.

Starting off, I felt like this was going to be a novel that I rushed through just to get it over with. I had a feeling that it was going to be adequate in the terms of a novel, and it would be something that I wasn't impressed by in the slightest. I think a lot of that came with the fact that initially I didn't like Marina at all. I was bored with her character and was much more interested in the side characters rather than her.

It wasn't until somewhere around a third of the way through the book that I realised that I really did like Marina as a character. She seemed well-rounded. Foolish, but well-rounded. She had a wide variety of feelings and they weren't too intense nor timid. She's a good character, and I really like the way that we got to experience the story through her eyes and yet still got a feel of what was happening around her. Most first person novels that I read have a tendency to completely forget that there's a world outside of the main character, and I was glad to know that Between the Land and the Sea wasn't like that.

My downright favourite character was Cruz. He is absolutely adorable and I want one for myself so that I have someone to design amazing clothing for me. Plus, fashion designer cousins are always a wonderful concept.

Between the Land and the Sea was a pleasant read, and I have a feeling that I might read this book again in the future. I greatly enjoyed it, and I hope that others will be able to enjoy it the way that I did. If you're looking for an interesting tale of mermaids and wonderful cousins and friends, then this is a book for you.

Rating: ★★★★ 3.5/5 Stars