Dark Water by J.A. Armitage

Dark Water

2.5 out of 5 Stars *PLEASE READ MY THOUGHTS!*

Synopsis:

You think you know the story of The Little Mermaid…
A tragic accident on the eve of her eighteenth birthday leads Princess Erica to a chance encounter with a mysterious man on the beach. When he turns up at her birthday party and whisks her off her feet, she knows she has to find out everything about him, but why won’t he speak and where does he keep disappearing to?
Ari knows he’s crossed a line by mingling with the land humans, but how can he resist the beautiful princess whose life he saved? He must decide whether to stay on land and become like her, or continue to live without her in the depths of the ocean.
Trapped in a centuries long battle between his kind and hers, his decision will rock both their kingdoms.
With a sea witch that needs repaying and the small matter of Erica’s engagement to someone else, Ari knows the odds are stacked against him.
Dark Water is the fourth in the Reverse Fairytale series and the first Little Mermaid retelling by USA Today bestselling author J.A.Armitage. Take everything you think you know about fairytales and turn it on its head.

My Thoughts

I always try to read everything with an open mind. Even if it isn’t quite my type of book I try my best to be open minded and look for the good and bad with an objective eye. I will say right now that I just think that this book was a little too tough for me to do that.

I was almost tempted to not even put a rating…. but, this is my blog and I still have a right to my opinion, even if the book wound up not being my thing.

This book was RIFE with tropes. I’m usually fine with YA novels, I actually really enjoy them. But, this seemed like a YA novel written by a young adult. And, NO. I am NOT saying that young adults can’t write. I have met many young people who are WILDLY talented. This was just one of those insta-love trope, meets love triangle (square?) trope, meets so many other tropes I’ve lost count all crammed into a reverse Little Mermaid that seems to be trying too hard to be The Little Mermaid.

There was quite a bit of awkward phrasing in the book that added to the juvenile feel of the writing,

“My mother sighed and began again as if her keeping talking would somehow change my mind.” 

…….keeping talking??

“Funnily Enough, marriage didn’t seem so ludicrous when he was in my mind.”

….FUNNILY??? Ok. I know it’s a proper word…But, I hate it. I HATE IT SO MUCH.

“The writing was scruffy, almost as if a child had written it, and yet, I knew it was his writing. It was strange how someone as well dressed as he would write so scruffily.”

I just feel as though the phrasing could have been cleaned up a little.

Now, in saying this, I feel like there may be people out there who really enjoy this story (although, I also wish I could have given some input into the end of the book! I think that it could have been ended earlier and gone in a different direction that could have kept me reading the rest of the series!!). I wanted to put up the disclaimer just so people out there knew WHY I gave it the rating I did, because the reasons may be exactly why other people love the book!

Pick Up your Copy HERE

 

Author Bio

dark water author
J.A lives in a total fantasy world (because reality is boring right?) When she’s not writing all the crazy fun in her head, she can be found eating cake, designing pretty pictures and hanging upside down from the tallest climbing frame in the local playground while her children look on in embarrassment. She’s travelled the world working as everything from a banana picker in Australia to a Pantomime clown, has climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and the bottom of the Grand Canyon and once gave birth to a surrogate baby for a friend of hers.
She spends way too much time gossiping on facebook and if you want to be part of her Reading Army, where you’ll get lots of freebies, exclusive sneak peeks and super secret sales, join up here
https://www.subscribepage.com/v7o8k4Somehow she finds time to write.Reviews for J.A.Armitage’s work.
Endless Winter is a unique story that takes place in a beautiful world. J.A. Armitage’s writing is lyrical and almost poetic. Janelle Fila for Readers’ Favorite

I devoured this book like a rich box of chocolates. Sara C Roethle

Author links:

40 thoughts on “Dark Water by J.A. Armitage”

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  1. Funnily Enough, I loved your review. Though it was scruffy but you didn’t write it scruffily and we are already married so it is not ludicrous. Whew got that out.
    Reverse mermaid = top fish, bottom woman hehe that would have been more fun to read, I bet. It would go with your bear reindeer theme, sexy Sunday

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      12. Exactly…. Now we have got to find such fish… Ummm…. Humans… Reverse humans… Reverse mermaids… Umm specimens.. To conduct experiments… 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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  3. Funnily enough, I thought those words sound like a very British person speaking! Lol Kind of stands out when I read so much Americanism these days! Not that I mean that’s bad 😬 but I do notice these things in books.
    It’s a beautiful cover but I don’t think I’d be any good reading it to review if I don’t already know the Little 🧜‍♀️ story. Or maybe that will mean this book is perfect for me because I’ll have no expectations?

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  4. I think you’ve got to be an extraordinary writer to take a classic fairy tale like The Little Mermaid beautifully written by Hans Christian Anderson and fuck with it successfully, I am thinking this is not the case with this author. Also, the last paragraph in the author biography makes no sense whatsoever. Also, WTF are y’all on in the comments section?? 😘😂

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  6. I actually think that you could enjoy this book if you don’t know the story of the Little Mermaid (P.S. WHO DOESN’T KNOW THE STORY IF THE LITTLE MERMAID?!) 🤔😂 Maybe you should give this one a try! I’d love to hear another person’s thoughts on it! 😊

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