Title: Salt for Air
Seventeen-year-old Ellie dreams of mermen. She writes fanfiction about them and spends time in underwater kingdoms in her imagination, trying to escape the sad reality: she is an orphan. And not only that, but she’s bullied every day at school -she’s a nerd, she hates sports, she loves books and she used to be overweight. What’s not to bully?
One day, the bullies go too far. They try to drown her, but at the last minute an otherworldly creature shows up in the water. He keeps her breathing and tells her to live: “How will you be able to save anyone if you can’t even save yourself?”
She thinks it was a dream, but the emerald-eyed merman boy who rescued her appears in her school the next day. Is he really the exiled prince of an ancient kingdom that’s on the brink of utter destruction? And is he asking her to save him? Or is something far more sinister and deadly lurking in the water that surrounds her little Greek town?
When myth and reality collide, can love save their lives?
I dove into this novel with an open mind and a hope that it will be right up my alley. This review isn’t negative or positive in the least, it’s just my opinion and completely unbiased.
The novel followed Ellie as she and a merperson, named Ky, try to save Ky’s world from the inevitable war. However, there is a small tiny problem. Ky is wanted dead. Why? He’s to be crowned king. So as a young kid, he flees to another realm, Ellie’s.
Interesting, right? RIGHT!
What I really enjoyed was the new concept of mermaids. It was very different and I don’t think another book can be like it. Mix this new realm with an interesting backstory on a mythical Greek god and you have an exciting new world to explore.
I loved how the characters were introduced strong and had a purpose. You learn about each character and learn to love them all. However, there isn’t a lot yet about them. I think a little more could be added to learn more as you go about each character.
The concept of “time” travel, is very neat. I loved how it’s a different possibility.
The relationship with Ellie and Ky was a little to predictable for me. Ellie is your very typical nerdy teenager becomes heroine. The story is your typical YA teen romance, which is a trend I was hoping wouldn’t be included. Girl meets prince. Girl falls for prince, girl then saves the day and then has to decide to stay with prince or return home. But then it wasn’t as strong as I hoped. Ky was like every other YA boy you read about. Way to cocky and not enough humility and a major god-complex.
Now I like my reviews short a sweet with a lake of spoilers. I try to stick to the point. While there is definitely an audience for this book, in the end, it wasn’t for me. Would I continue if there was a book two? Yes.
Until next time my dragons.
