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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Ripple by Mandy Hubbard

Ripple
Mandy Hubbard
Publication: July 21, 2011

Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren - a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi's curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she's ever had to make: the life she's always longed for - or the love she can't live without?

When Lexi turned sixteen, she felt the sudden urge to go for a late night swim. Her soon-to-be boyfriend Steven, whom she had longed to be with for soooo long, got dragged along.  Once she burst into song, Lexi's sudden urge felt fulfilled, and to her horror, she found Steven's body floating lifelessly in the ocean. Shunned by her friends, Lexi spent the next two years being tortured by her ex-best friend (Steven's sister) because no one bought that such an excellent swimmer just happened to cramp and drown with Lexi by his side. Except Cole, Steven's best friend, who incidentally had been attracted to her for years regardless of the accusations.

Lexi's finally on the verge of being happy again when Erik shows up and tells her he's a Nix, her male complement. He's on the verge of becoming a Nix at eighteen and claims that if a Nix and a Siren can fall in love and accept one another for what they are, both their curses can be broken. And though she tries desperately to fall in love with Erik, her heart seems to remain with Cole...

Ripple was completely predictable, so don't start this book thinking you're gonna get a whopper of a twist thrown at you. However, I still found the story really enjoyable. The prose was simple and sweet, Lexi had decent character growth and her romance with Cole developed at a believable pace. All in all, Ripple was a good book and worth picking up.

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