Book Review: Water So Deep by Nichole Giles

Quick Facts

My Rating: 4 stars

Series: N/A

Date Read: January 15, 2015

Source: Free review copy from Netgalley

Publication Date: February 2, 2015

Publisher: Jelly Bean Press

Genres: Young adult, fantasy

Summary (taken from Goodreads): I'm choosing not to share the Goodreads blurb here on the blog, because I personally find that it gives far too much of the story away. However, if you would like to check it out for yourself anyway, it can be found here.

Review

Emma is a changeling. When she was an infant, she was dropped off with a human - her Gran - to live on land for eighteen years. After this time passed, she would be physically forced to return to the sea. 

This left Emma living with her parents and her younger brother. The only person who knew about her condition was Gran, who insisted they not tell her parents until the change happened. Emma, attached to her life and the people she loved on earth, did not want to leave for a mate and a new home in Atlantis.

I expected much different things from this story. Admittedly, that's not the book's fault. Going in, I thought that Emma's life would be split more evenly between water and land, when it actually all happened on land.

The lack of mermaid parts were disappointing, but I quickly got over it and took the story for what it is - which is, primarily, a young adult romance. Once I accepted this, I fell in love with Emma's story. And that is why the ending to this book upset me so much.

Without giving spoilers, I can say that this ending left a lot to be desired. I don't think the concept is bad, although it's disappointing. But my problem is how many plot points get started in the end, but don't follow through. There are connections that began to come together, then were left alone. A character did something completely unexpected, and that action was never explained. 

I don't think this is a book that, if ended right, would have needed a sequel. I don't think the main story line requires a sequel, although I would love one for that too - but there were several important side plots that need more explaining. The side plots needed an ending too, and they just did not get one. As far as I know, this is a standalone, which disappoints me.

Still, I focused a lot on the negative in this review - and that is not entirely fair. While I had problems with the ending, the rest of the story was wonderful. I loved following Emma and her life, and I admired her strength throughout the story. I fell in love with James - although he thought far too much about Emma being 'different from other girls' because she was complex, which all girls are. I was rooting for them the entire way.

Ultimately, I cannot give this any less than four stars. But if a few more things had been wrapped up, I would easily give it five. 

A Quick Update

Since it's Wednesday, I just wanted to update you guys quickly and say that I won't be doing Waiting on Wednesday posts anymore.

The thing is, sometimes I don't look into new releases for awhile. Sometimes I am not excited enough about any releases I know about, to feature them on the blog. And this leads to me feeling like I have to post about an upcoming release every single week, so I search Goodreads until I find something. At that point, I'm not even excited about the "something" that I find. I'm just glad my search is over and I have a post.

I don't have any plans for Wednesdays yet. Lately it's been difficult finding topics to discuss on Thursdays and Fridays, which are my other "free" blogging days. (AKA days when I'm not posting reviews or weekly memes.)

This kind of brings me to my next discussion: I'm going to attempt to be a more relaxed blogger from now on. The concept still freaks me out a little, like ... what do you mean I don't have to post every week day??

But I don't. I don't have to keep weekly posts like this around just to fill up space. Nothing on this blog should be here for that purpose. It should be here because it's something I am honestly excited about and want to share with you guys.

I might take the blogging down to say, three or four posts a week -- which is still great. It's still consistent and it still takes effort on my part, just hopefully not stress.

So, yeah, I'm still going to blog about upcoming releases I'm excited about. It'll just be in more of a discussion post format, and it will be less often. I'll also still blog consistently. I just won't pressure myself so much to get a post up every single day.

I'm going to cut this off here, because it doesn't look so much like the "quick update" I promised anymore. But let me know what you guys think -- will you miss Waiting on Wednesday posts? Do you even read them? Are they a part of your own blog?