Book Review: The Rising by Terra Harmony

The Rising

Terra Harmony

271 Pages

Fifteen-year-old Serena is the youngest member of a dying race. The increasing acidity of the ocean is destroying her home, slowly eating away at the once thriving underwater landscape. But since the night of Serena’s birth, it is an outside force that most threatens their dwindling population. Werewolves, who once served as protectors for mermaids in the Kingdom of the Undine, now seek to eliminate all who dwell in the ocean — and Serena is about to find herself right in the middle of the deadly conflict.
Given the title of Werewolf Liaison, Serena is determined to make things right for her people. When she ventures to The Dry, she meets Liam, the werewolf with hazel eyes, and her whole world gets turned upside down. As Serena discovers the real history between werewolves and mermaids, she is left wondering who her true enemies are.

The Rising is the start to a new trilogy called the Painted Mermaids Trilogy, and it's a great, strong beginning. I was drawn in by the stunning cover and the interesting and new to me premise of the story. I mean, how often do you see books that involve both mermaids AND werewolf's? I don't read too much of either, but I've been making an effort to change this, and The Rising was a great start for me.

Serena is your average girl living underwater. She's feisty but not overly so, and she sees things in a completely different way from others living in her undersea kingdom. Her viewpoints are different, and she challenges everything people believe in, which I loved about her. Strong female characters are always, always a win for me. Brains over beauty any day!

The other characters were equally strong and interesting, and I even found myself admiring the king of the kingdom... so surprising for me since I really quite disliked him at first. He came off as selfish to me upon meeting him, but this has to do with a sad past that you have to read about to truly understand.

This isn't your typical love story and there was so much more to it than I has been originally anticipating. Though I has expected a cute and unique love story between a werewolf and a mermaid, the story was about so much more. The final chapters were a race to the finish for me, with secrets and action and so much goodness packed into about 50 pages. I can't wait to dig into the next installment!