Intriguing, Funny, and Sweet!

Would you consider the audio edition of Of Poseidon to be better than the print version?

I don't think so. If I could go back, I think I would probably buy the print edition. (reasons listed below)

What other book might you compare Of Poseidon to and why?

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini. It had a very similar feel to it. Also, they both are full of Greek mythology.

Which character – as performed by Rebecca Gibel – was your favorite?

Emma. She did a really great job capturing her personality.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed the idea of the Syrena ("They're NOT MERMAIDS!!" lol) and wish that we would have learned more about them in this book. However, it is the start of a series so I'm sure we'll get more in depth in the following books. I did figure out the big "surprise" about halfway through the story, so it wasn't especially suspenseful.

I really enjoyed the chemistry between Galen and Emma. Galen was hot (of course) and funny and sweet, and Emma had a hard time resisting him. I sometimes felt that Emma was being overly dramatic (the opening scene for example), but she was sweet and I did like her. I also really liked all of the secondary characters, especially Galen's "family." I had two slight complaints with the book, but I think the fact that I listened to the audio version is mostly to blame for both of them. First was that It was difficult to tell when the book was switching between Emma's and Galen's point of view. Secondly, It was also difficult to tell when there was a break in the story. Thankfully it wasn't so annoying as to take away from my enjoyment of the book.

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20 people found this helpful

Love both books! This is book 1

I love this series. Just to be clear this is book 1. Of Triton is book 2. Coming soon is Of Neptune (book 3 not available in audio yet). Legacy Lost (The Syrena Legacy, #0.5) could also be considered book 1 but is not available in audio yet.

I'm annoyed that audible doesn't clearly mark books in a series. I listened to these out of order and was extremely confused during a good chunk of listening to Of Triton (book 2). I loved both books and you will enjoy the second book thoroughly if you like this one. The narrator and author do a wonderful job. The characters are not reintroduced so it's clearly intended to be read as a second book. Rant over.

This is a coming of age tale for discovery, mystery, magic, and lust. It's very pg-13 for young adults (YA). The innuendos are full of fish humor, which is awesome since the book is all about mermaids (who hate being called that-Syrena is their preference). Who knew even fish want to go PC these days.

There are multiple mysteries to uncover, an antagonist who will carry over to the second book, magical abilities passed down from the Greek gods Poseidon and Triton. Throw in high school and hormones .. This book has it all. I loved it. Definitely worth the credit.

The description of Galin is swoon worthy. Not a bodice-ripper or "50 shades" kind of book as some have implied. While there is a lot of lusting, nothing goes past kissing and implying future "mating" so it's perfectly fine for teens IMO. I'm an adult long past my teens and still very much enjoyed this book.

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13 people found this helpful

Gross & Uncomfortable

I'm very hard to displease, but, this book had me saying "Wow, gross." every 5 minutes. Where do I start? Gaylen is sexist, controlling in a creepy way, and a stalker. "Oh woe is me, I'm a gorgeous and rich prince of the sea." His sister is needlessly vile towards Emma to the point of saying something completely unforgivable. The sad thing is I can actually believe Emma becoming friendly towards her after that just because Emma tries to help her escape her marriage that her brother forced her into without her consent.... Oh wait, right. She was only "playing games" and actually loves the man who tracks her down and sneaks into her bed at night after begging him to leave her alone and busting his lip open. Emma can't even bring herself to say "Oh my god" it's always "oh my sweet goodness", but, she can say things like "schizo" and "beaten like a stepchild". They even fell into a troupe of killing off all your token POC. Chloe's whole.... everything felt off to me, like she was coded by someone who has never met a POC before. Emma's ability to get over the graphic death scene so quickly is disturbing. She grieves for maybe a week then just decides to get over it. Even Emma's mom is a toxic creep. She somehow manages to be both entirely useless and unrealistically overbearing while still making time to laugh at a 4-year-old's pain and not see why that would hurt her. I'm shocked that a woman with children wrote this. Are you okay, Anna Banks? Do you need a therapist? How does this even happen? It's managed to take all the toxic parts of the Twlight series and make it worse and with fish people. I never should have bought those other books in the series to binge before I started this one. I regret spending my money on this.

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9 people found this helpful

Utter Disappointment

The story was cliche, the characters flat, it was sexist, a lot of insulting sterotyping especially with the one POC character. There was zero character development too. The author jumped from 1st person pov to 3rd person which made for an awkward and slightly confusing listen/ read. the female MC was very annoying, a lot of whining going on plus she wasnt the brightest tool in the shed. and if i hear "oh my sweet goodness" one more time i might dislocate me eardrums" on the other hand the male mc was self obsorbed, sexist, controling. and not the oh he just wants to protect her controling. it was more im obsessed with you never breath without my knowledge controling, very unattractive. over all it was a terrible experience from beginning to end and i kept searching for redeeming qualities with in the story but i have honestly turned up blank. and even though the narrator was decent it didn't make up for the dissapointment that is Of Posiedon. Save youself the pain and the credit and go read something decent.

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8 people found this helpful

1 Hour In

I am 1 hour into the 9 hour story and I’m kind of pissed.

The black girl dies first and the main man is a jerk.

I am giving this story a second chance but if I don’t change my review later, then you will understand why.

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4 people found this helpful

Not what I was expecting... in a good way

If you could sum up Of Poseidon in three words, what would they be?

Cant wait for the next one. I was super surprised how much I liked this book. It was a different book than I am used to. It keep me asking my self questions at each turn and then wanting more. Must listen too.!

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3 people found this helpful

If you have any melanin or self respect skip this garbage

I don’t know when this dumpster fire came out but it is a legitimate example of an out of touch bigoted writer. Only got five minutes in but the main female character already displayed whiny self absorbed woe is me traits that gets old very quickly. And secondly, this writer obviously has never had a friend darker than vanilla ice cream because no black woman or child would ever insist on using their white friends id for anything. If you don’t understand the whole trauma and politics behind this then don’t write none white characters. And don’t write a black character as the angry vindictive friend from the get go. This book is so problematic from page one I don’t know how it got recommended to me or has a high rating.

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2 people found this helpful

Great start to the series!

Any additional comments?

This is my first official mermaid book! I’ve had this book since it came out, about two years ago, and as much as I love the cover and the concept of the story, I just can’t seem to turn off my brain when it comes to mermaid books. Am I the only one that wonders silly things like: where and how do they use the restroom, do mermaids get periods and how does that work (why does nobody address periods in books?), what do mermaids eat, and perhaps the most important (to me) is how do mermaids have sex??? I guess I’m just a curious person. (I will never understand why Goofy can talk but Pluto can’t when they are both dogs!) I have a few mermaid books on my TBR, but this one was always the one I wanted to read the most. When I found out Rebecca Gibel narrates the audiobooks, I couldn’t pass it up when my credits kicked in. *Please note that this is an audiobook review and some character/place names may be spelled incorrectly as I can’t see the actual spelling of the words.*

Of Poseidon captured my attention right from the beginning. Not only do we get a cute and funny scene when Emma and Galen first meet, but I was in for a huge shocker when Emma’s best friend Chloe dies in the first chapter (it might be more than one chapter since I heard the audio, but it was right at the beginning) of the book. I was not prepared for that. And although I had just briefly met Chloe and wasn’t invested in her as a character, I liked her. Plus, the way she died was just horrible…and odd. During the attack, which Galen tries to stop but can’t, he discovers that Emma has the ability to talk to sea creatures. Emma’s ability means she is ‘Of Poseidon’ and she can save the Syrena race. Convincing her of that won’t be easy.

One of my favorite parts of the book was when Galen would try to learn current lingo. But the best part was the chemistry between Emma and Galen. Galen is conflicted most of the book because even though he clearly has feelings for Emma, she technically should be mated to Galen’s brother. (Not that Emma is planning on going through with this) I really liked all of these characters. Emma was a feisty girl, sweet but definitely had a temper on her. I loved how she didn’t take any crap from Galen, or Toren, or Reyna. Galen was one of those tortured guys which can usually be hit or miss with me. The fact that we had Galen’s POV scenes let me understand his conflict and reasoning, no matter how screwed it may have been at times. Although I was a bit frustrated by his reluctance to let Emma know his feelings, once he did, all the swooniness that ensued was worth it. I liked Torin and Reyna, (Galen’s best friend and sister) and thought their relationship was cute. Rachel, Galen’s ‘assistant’ was a favorite character of mine. She was hilarious.

I’m glad I finally ended up reading this one, and although I still have a lot of questions on how mermaid/Syrena mechanics work, we did get a few answers. I’m hoping we get more in the next books. I was kind of weirded out that the Syrena ate fish at first, but I what else would they eat? One of my favorite scenes was when Emma and Reyna got into an epic girl fight. I thought it was funny that Galen and Toren just stood back to watch and provide commentary, but obviously these girls aren’t human. They broke through hurricaine-proof glass! Obviously they don’t need a guy to rescue them. I’m excited to continue with this series, especially after that ending!

Audiobook Comments: I’d already heard two audiobooks by Rebecca Gibel (Splintered and Unhinged by AG Howard) so I was already a big fan before going into this. Her ability to pull off different voices and accents is amazing. While I loved that we had Galen’s POV scenes along with Emma’s, I wish we would have had a guy narrator to do Galen’s scenes. Really, this should be rule number #1 of ALL audiobooks: Male POV’s should have a male narrator! It annoys me to have to listen to guy’s thoughts in a female voice. Luckily, some really good narrators can pull it off. Rebecca Gibel is one of them. She was able to give her voice a different…tone for Galen’s scenes, without making it sound like a girl trying to sound like a guy. It worked for me. I know I’ve said I’m not a fan of accents but I loved the way the narrator pulled off the side character’s Jersey accents. My favorites was Rachel’s. I’m glad I went with the audiobook for this one and will continue the audiobooks for the rest of the series.

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2 people found this helpful

If you need to laugh this book is it!

This was a fun book! I'm glad I found it. Clean and fun! One like this is hard to find. I don't know if the next book is clean too but I soon shall see!

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1 person found this helpful

Wow just wow

I listen to audio books while cleaning and doing random things and I couldn’t stop listening. This is fantastic. It’s very predictable but so worth it.

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