Review: Of Triton (Of Poseidon #2) by Anna Banks

Firstly, thanks to Hardie Grant Egmont for this review copy <3



Date Read: July 6 - 7 2013
Release Date: July 1st 2013
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Source: Review copy via publisher
Genre: Paranormal
My rating: 

Synopsis:
"Emma is half-mermaid: a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. But she's in love with Galen - a gorgeous Syrena from the House of Triton, god of the sea. If Emma's secret is discovered by the Syrena, she risks being put to death as a Half-Breed.

Emma's heritage comes from her mother - a princess from the House of Poseidon who escaped the sea to live as a human. Aware of the danger her daughter faces, she is determined to keep Emma away from the Syrena. But her reappearance after so many years turns the underwater kingdoms, Poseidon and Triton, against one another.

How can Emma and Galen stay together when their two rival kingdoms, and two different worlds, just want to tear them apart?

Picking up right where Of Poseidon left off, this utterly irresistible story is full of humour, intrigue, and waves of romance."

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“It is thought that the gifts only occur when there is a need.” 

Of Triton has been a hard one to rate and review as I’m so undecided on how I feel about it. I really enjoyed Of Poseidon back when I read it last year so was extremely excited for the sequel. I thought Of Triton didn’t really meet my expectations – however, when I first read Of Poseidon, I was literally one day back into reading after not having seriously read for probably 6 months and it’s possible my expectations were a lot lower back then which was why I loved it so much. Either way, book 2 was a much needed continuation and I quite enjoyed it.

After the cliffhanger Banks left us with at the end of Of Poseidon, Emma and her mum are on the road. Emma’s having a freak out over the way her mum is acting and it’s a pretty legit reaction when your mum practically drugs you and you wake up driving on some highway far from home. As the book progressed I could tell that Emma was meant to be growing up and maturing, and she was trying definitely, but I felt that despite everything, she was still whiny and selfish. Especially with regards to when her mum was trying to protect her; I thought Emma could have gone about things differently – rather than being rational with her mum, she’d just go and act upon things because she wanted to be with Galen. At other times I admired Emma’s stubbornness and determination to prove her point and protect her loved ones.

“I also hate that I’m allowing myself to have a pity party when clearly bigger things than myself are happening.”

Like with Emma, I’m a bit divided on how I feel about Galen. I think he was a bit more mature as I felt his duty as a royal come through but I don’t know I just felt that his thoughts were constantly on Emma and he acted before thinking at times. I guess in defence a lot of the book is centred around Emma and the fate of the Syrena.

I absolutely loved Rayna and Toraf in Of Triton. I really enjoyed their banter in Of Poseidon but here they were even funnier and it was just great being able to see more of them and their stance on matters. I really hated Emma’s mum though. She’s a complete nut half the time and the stuff she said was not believable nor were her actions relatable. She was also unreasonable in her reactions to people – actually she was a complete hypocrite… She expected something of someone when she technically betrayed them. Yeah just what the heck with that character I’m not sure if Banks made it intentional but Emma’s mum was just horrible.

“Um. It’s a helicopter.”

“What does it do? Triton’s trident, it doesn’t fly does it? Emma? Emma wait!”

The romance was sweet and enjoyable. There was a more serious, intense and desperate edge to it compared to book 1. I admired Galen and Emma’s devotion to each other – call it pigheadedness or whatever you want but those two just HAD to find each other and be together no matter what. You know, just betray a parent here, defy a law there, no biggy. Either way, I do love these two together and I love how at ease they are when they’re in each other’s presence.

“He brushes his lips against mine. Once. Twice. So soft it barely feels like anything. But it also feels like everything”

Plot-wise… A LOT of stuff happened. And I know it was meant to be epic but I felt that it fell short of the huge bang Banks was going for. The events leading up to the highlights didn’t set my heart racing or anything, I was just like “oh ok, so this is happening” and when that moment came where I was supposed to have heaps of pent up emotions and be excited about everything unfolding I was just like “meh”. I don’t know what happened but everything just felt flat. It’s not like the stuff that happened was bad, it made sense but I just thought Banks could have gone about it in a more impressive manner. The Syrena politics were definitely interesting though and I liked how a whole system was devised and explained – I could tell a lot of thought went into how to keep things archaic/traditional but also in democratic way that could justify following these laws that governed a civilisation for millennia.

“It feels like the world suddenly got bigger.”

Banks’ writing style is something I’ve always been uncertain about. In both Of Poseidon and Of Triton, she writes Emma’s voice in first person while Galen’s is in third person. It’s extremely disorienting and I don’t understand why she did it like this – it’s given me doubts as to her ability to write from a male perspective. Other than that, I think her actual writing is pretty good and I liked the way humour is laced into the prose.

Overall, I really needed Of Triton for closure after the cliffhanger Banks left us with at the end of Of Poseidon. This sequel ties up a lot of loose ends and satisfies readers. Whilst for me not as enjoyable and suspenseful as Of Poseidon, I still enjoyed this and finished it in one day!

“No, this is where I belong now.”