FIRE OF THE SEA by Lyndsay Johnson
Synopsis:
Sharp, sleek, and golden. Like the dagger she has worn since childhood, eighteen-year-old Aeva is all three of these things. But there is something else that this mermaid and her prized weapon share. They are both hunted.
Hidden within the caves off Iceland’s jagged coast, Aeva waits to take her place as the next ruler of the Meriads.
But new rumors of an old enemy begin to taint the merfolk’s guarded waters. Delphine, the covetous shapeshifter from Aeva’s past, has emerged from hiding. She comes for the blade said to grant immortality, and is drawing Aeva closer to a forbidden shore.
When Aeva uses her potent and alluring song to save a drowning human, the balance begins to shift dangerously. Realizing she has unexpectedly bound herself to Gunnar—the raven-haired stranger with eyes to match an arctic sky—Aeva is torn between a promise to protect the Meriads, and leaving the sea for love on land. Surrendering to fate, she painfully severs one life to begin another.
On the unfamiliar banks of Iceland, Aeva soon finds herself not only rejected by the sea, but also stalked by dark forces. As the worlds of myth and man intertwine, Aeva looks to Gunnar’s family to help protect both her sacred relic, and the man she loves. But legends and lies cast an intricate net. With time and safety quickly unraveling for Aeva and Gunnar, there is only one clear course: Find and defeat Delphine before she can shift again.
My review
I have a confession - When I saw those so beautiful cover I said to myself ...hmm.... I must read this book. I just couldn't stand the idea of not putting my hands on it. Now add to this the subject of sea, mermaids, selkies and i fell completely under it's spell.
Now to the reading -
The plot start in a prolog : Aeva is eight years old, she and her parents and their retinue on a journey. Suddenly the water get dark, the visionary is limit and under it an attack, there is a fierce battle. under her mother golden hear little Aeva strain to see what happen. On her hand she feel her armlet tighten painfully. All she see can see in the gloom is the hovering wall of smooth, dark tails encircling her family.
Suddenly she feel her mother trusting into her hand a smooth golden dagger, while saying: “This will be your guide. Let it not control your actions, but aid them.” And then, she suddenly finds herself alone, facing the seas greatest monster who is on the hunt for a prized treasure. With all the force of the ocean she cry out , summoning a shield of water around her. In the Call her young voice who flood the Nordic Seas with its silvery, haunting sound, commanding the waters, and halting the slightest currents.
When all stand still she see that only she and a giant black octopus left alone and the octopus want the fire of the sea. When it plunge its arms to take it, the dagger in her hand shocks her toward the coming beast. and sinks deep into the soft crease just behind a glacial blue eye. Writhing in pain, the creature coils in on itself, shrinking, flails and howls. At the same time Aeva dart between the white suckers on her spiraling arms and retrieve her dagger.
Now 10 years latter we meet as 18 years old Aeva, and just when everything seems to be falling into place, something unbelievable happens. She saved a human – a race that she is forbidden to interact with. This changes everything and Aeva feels love for this human, Gunnar. And Aeva the mermaid that must make a choice between duty and love.
She choose to sever one life her connection to mother ocean and to her royal Inheritance, to begin another. she chose love and land over reign over the Nordic seas. Soon she finds herself not only rejected by the sea, but also stalked by her old enemy - the shape shifter Delphine, that she first encountered as the black monstrous Octopus.
Delphine is demigoddess, mean, is only part goddess, and she desires immortality. She believe she will acquire immortality with the fire of the sea, and she'll everything in her power to get it.
“How can Delphine truly be defeated? Like her father, the Greek demigod Proteus of the sea, if you bind her through three consecutive shifts of her form, she will lose all power. (see explanation below)
Gunnar Viggoson - is the human that Aeva saved from drowning. Then it was the second time the she used her voice in the call on purpose to revive him. His great love is to built viking ships as they used to do it in the past. But Gunnar himself is a descendent from the gods through his Viking lineage. His Icelandic forefathers who hail from the kings of Norway—beloved to be the true sons of the Norse gods.
Along the book, Aeva mature learning to trust her inner self and the right characters around her. She will challenge fate to protect her own sacred relic and the man she loves. and all while, the worlds of myth (Nordic and Greek) and man and man inheritance (Vikings) intertwine.
The Setting - the fjords and the shores of Iceland and the ice caves of Greenland.
The book is a great summer read. The language is clean fit for young and old .
Njord is the God of the wind and fertility as well as the sea and merchants at sea and therefore was invoked before setting out to sea on hunting and fishing expeditions. He is also known to have the ability to calm the waters as well as fire.
Njord, one of the Vanir gods, was first married to his sister Nerthus and had two children with her, Frey and Freya. His second wife was Skadi (Skade), a Giantess. When Skadi’s father was killed by the Aesir she was granted three “acts” of reparation one of which was to let her choose a husband from among the gods. She was allowed to pick her new husband but the choice had to be made by looking only at the feet. She picked Njord by mistake, assuming his feet belonged to Balder.
Njord and Skadi could not agree on where to live. She didn’t like his home Noatun at the Sea, and he didn’t like hers Trymheim, in the mountain with large woods and wolves, so they lived the first half of the year in Noatun and the other half in Trymheim.
In the story, the Meriads claim Njord of the Vanir gods, as their forefather.
Selkie (Selurs) is a word for ‘seal’ found in modern Shetland, Orkney, Caithness and Moray dialects (in Cromarty also sealchie). In Faroese and Scottish mythology selkies (or silkies) are seals who can take the human form when they take off their seal skin. “The Selurs claim Jötunn Ægir, the sea giant, as their forefather. Both Jötunn Ægir and Njord , are gods of the sea, as the selurs and the meriads are not of the same birth, they belong to different kingdoms but they are allies, if not kin. The dagger was made from the very sword that was carried by Heimdall, grandson of the god Ægir. The selurs share the same lineage with Delphine, through the goddess Atla. Atla the daughter of Ægir, is the mother of both Heimdall and Delphine. The Father of Delphine is the Greek demigod Proteus of the sea.
About the Author:
Lyndsay grew up in the wide expanses of Texas, where the only thing stronger than the accents was the state pride. An over active imagination, tale-telling father, and encouraging librarian mother lead to her love of all things creative.
When she is not writing, you can find Lyndsay spending time with her family in the Rocky Mountains of Utah. She enjoys sitting in dark theaters, trying new gluten-free recipes, watching breaking storms over the peaks out her window, and secret naps.
When it comes to books on her bedside table, young adult lit has always been a favorite (Blue Balliett, Libba Bray, and Stephenie Meyer, to name a few.) But it was actually an old, yellowing copy of Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales that planted a particularly relentless seed.
Shape shifters and sea nymphs began forming the seed of an idea that would eventually grow into Lyndsay’s debut novel, Fire of the Sea.
Cover Reveal Hosted By
No comments :
Post a Comment