Review: Between The Land And The Sea

"Something extraordinary is lurking in the deep ocean waters off the coast of Aptos, California. Just a few weeks after moving to the 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 manage to survive her increasingly dangerous encounters with unpredictable mermaids, she might just 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."

- Goodreads

Stats:

• Format: ebook

• Publisher: Self-Published

• Release Date: March 19, 2011

• File Size: 460 KB

Favorite Quotes:

“The dense fog blurred everything at a distance, and I had the sensation I was walking along in a bubble created by my own little field of vision.”

I’m sorry to report that this is the only quote I highlighted during my reading- I got so into the story that I forgot to make notes!

Review:

Between The Land And The Sea is the first book in the Marina's Tales series by Derrolyn Anderson.  In this book, Marina has spent her life traveling the world with her father who does research in agronomy.  Marina is sent to live with her aunt Abby and her cousin Cruz so that she can spend some time in a regular high school and meet people her own age.  Marina immediately feels at home and is glad that she came to this small town.

Although Marina cannot swim, she is drawn to the ocean and can't seem to stay away.  She begins to have strange encounters with different sea animals and meets a mermaid named Lorelei.  Marina's mother had died during childbirth and Lorelei tells her a secret about her that explains a lot of the strange happenings.

Admittedly, I love love-stories.  I'm a total sap when it comes to them and Ethan, Marina's love interest, couldn't have been more perfect.  He is sweet, thoughtful, and really goes out of his way to help Marina and take care of her.  Their relationship is adorable from the very beginning and I was rooting for them throughout the entire book.

I thought that the descriptions in the book were really good; I was definitely able to picture the scenes and the people.  There were a few typos in the book, but nothing that distracted me too much. 

While the book is centered around Marina's sea-life woes, I felt it to be more of a love story (or a flirtatious, high-school relationship story).  I really enjoyed reading this book and was interested in finding out what was going to happen.  Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down and finished in one day.  I am really excited to read the next two books in the trilogy and am glad that I didn't start the series before they were all published!