Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Book Review: Ripple by Mandy Hubbard

Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren - a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi's curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she's ever had to make: the life she's always longed for - or the love she can't live without?

My thoughts:
While reading Ripple, I think I felt more sorry for Lexi than I have for any other characters in a long time. I can't imagine going to high school and trying to live a normal life while trying to deal with both the tragedy from her past and the insane pain she goes through if for some reason she can't swim at night. Even if Lexi tries staying away from her old friends to avoid another tragedy or having someone find out that she's a siren, and even if she pretends to be fine with this, you can tell how hard it is on her to not have any friends at school. 

Even if I loved Lexi, I never really liked either one of the main boys in Ripple. Cole, the new boy who starts talking to Lexi even when everyone else avoids her, just fell flat for me. Sure, he was nice, handsome, and helped Lexi out in a way no one else did, but there was still something missing. As for the other boy, Erik, he was just horribly predictable. I never saw why Lexi would even be attracted to him, other than those amazing blue eyes and oh, the fact that he's a water spirit who can break her curse.

Ripple is a very cute story, but I would have loved to see some more siren action - too much of the book felt like normal high school drama to me. It's well worth the read, and I know plenty of girls who loved both Cole and Erik, but for me it was not my favorite.

Cover:
The cover was what made me pick out this book at the library, and I still love it.

My rating of this book:



Want to know more?
Visit Mandy Hubbard's website
Follow Mandy on Twitter

Full disclosure:
Checked out at my local library

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and online book stores like Amazon and The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store has free shipping to about 100 countries.

7 comments:

  1. Håper det er greit jeg svarer på norsk. Høres ut som en veldig spennende bok:) Fikk lyst til å lese den:)

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  2. I have seen this cover for a very long time and have been intrigued with this story. Shame the guys were flat, but the fact that the protagonist could elicit such strong emotions is a good thing. Great review.

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  3. Interesting book! I like the way she has to swim. Which is rather evil on my behalf, but I bet it makes a great story.

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  4. Sounds like a cool book. Shame the guys in it weren't that great.

    Giselle
    Xpresso Reads

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  5. Sorry to hear that neither of the love interests really captivated you. I'm definitely interested in seeing Mandy's take on the siren mythology, I love seeing the different twists authors put on creatures. Although a shame that you mention there's more HS drama than emphasis on the sirens.

    Still, glad you enjoyed it and connected with Lexi, I hope to get my hands on this soon! Great review :)

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  6. I remember this book! Yup it was the cover, i always remember those if I thought extra about the book

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  7. I really enjoyed this book! I agree about needing more Siren story line but I liked Cole. Erik was just creepy though and I also don't see why she is attracted to him. You can see my review here

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts =)