Tera Lynn Childs entertained me her fun Greek God stories, and now she does the same with a new mythology- Mermaid Lore! What better for a fun, quick read than a story of mermaids and oceans and teenage angst! Forgive My Fins is a fun-filled story full of some goofy puns, but at the heart of the story are great characters and an interesting new world.
Lily is a mermaid, but she lives on land with her aunt and attends high school like a normal girl. As the princess of her underwater kingdom, she has a lot riding on her time as a terapod (person with legs who lives on land). She must find the boy who she wants to spend the rest of her life with. When she kisses him, they will be bound together forever and he will transform into a mermaid. Her crush, Brody, is finally single and she is ready to tell him all her secrets... and ask her to join him at the bottom of the sea.
When Lily's annoying neighbor Quince offers to help her catch Brody, something goes terribly wrong. Instead of meeting Brody in the dark library, Quince comes and gives Lily her first and fateful kiss. No she must explain to him why he keeps coughing and craves salt water like a dried up jellyfish. She takes him back home to her kingdom with the hopes that her father will break the bond. It must be undone quickly so Lily can go back to the boy she really wants. But when she gets home, her father surprises her by insisting she remain bonded to Quince for a week (then another week) to be sure she wants to be unbound from him. Lily and Quince resurface and Lily must face the glaring truth about her feelings for both Quince and Brody. When she finally returns to sea, her father agrees to the unbinding, but it means they must go through a series of tests before it can be completed. Will Lily recognize her feelings for Quince or hide them beneath an unrequited crush for Brody and lose Quince from the ocean forever?
At first, I am not going to lie, I was completely annoyed with the cheese factor of this book. The first few chapters are completely riddled with lame fish puns and ridiculous ocean cliches. In fact, I didn't think I was going to make it through the book at first, but I am glad I stuck with it. As soon as the story really begins, the fish nonsense dies back a bit (or becomes less annoying) and the story gets really, really cute. Granted, it isn't the most unique story out there (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy fights to get girl back), but it is a really fun, flirty story that just makes you smile. This story won't be bulldozing over any awards panels anytime soon, but it will certainly keep the reader engaged and interested.
The language is fairly simplistic, although a few made up words (like terapod) might be confusing to a younger student. The book is completely appropriate for a much younger student, but will definitely be great for an older, low-skilled student who isn't as mature as her peers (or just likes a good, cheese-tastic story). It is more of a girl book than a boy book, but I am pretty sure the cover will not appeal to most boys anyway. My favorite part about Childs is that she isn't afraid to invoke the Gods of Cheese and Romantic Comedies- in fact, she even throws them a party with each of her books. I am looking forward to the sequel for some fun, easy reading that makes me want to swim out to a kingdom in the sea!
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