Aurabel is the titular character whilst we spend our time under the sea. As tensions rise in the mer society, Sienna is rising up to try and take the crown. But she uses dirty tricks and both Aurabel and Lorali have a bone to pick with her by the end.
I didn’t realise this was a second in a series until I was nearly halfway through the book. It’s really confusing and definitely isn’t able to stand as a standalone book because of this. I struggled to understand terminology, and also the world building wasn’t adept enough, which I’m assuming is because it was done in the previous book.
I spent the majority of the book trying to figure out what a tapestry is for the mermaids. Instead of being captured by the plot, I was thinking ‘hmm is it their tails? or the stomach above the tail?’ Obviously this meant I was not enchanted by this book at all. I also struggled to imagine what Nevermind looked like – Apparently she’s massive and terrifying and huge and terrifying… yeah it didn’t describe other than ‘big and scary’ with better adjectives. When I can’t picture things, it just instantly pulls me away from a book.
Another problem I found was that the author was trying way too hard to ‘sound’ like a teenager. Every so often there’s a excerpt of a forum/message board type of thing. This is just full of ‘text speak’ and was hard to read without cringing. Some of the characters also suffered with trying to sound like a teenager. Obviously, this felt like it would alienate any actual teenagers as they don’t speak like that. At all. Please Authors stop doing this.
Overall it wasn’t a complete train wreck, I enjoyed the premise. I just think I needed that first book, and also it needed a fuller plot. So this felt full of filler conversations. There was never really something that drove the book forward for me. So it just wasn’t what I wanted. It definitely suffered from second book syndrome.
I received Aurabel* by Laura Dockrill as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.