Review- Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

Summary-

Serefina, daughter of Isabella, Queen of Miromara, has been raised with the expectation - and burden - that she will someday become ruler of the oldest civilization of the merfolk. On the eve of the Dokimí ceremony, which will determine if she is worthy of the crown, Sera is haunted by a strange dream that foretells the return of an ancient evil. But her nightmare is forgotten the next day as she diligently practices her songspell; eagerly anticipates a reunion with her best friend, Neela; and anxiously worries about Mahdi, the crown prince of Matali, and whether his feelings toward her and their future betrothal have changed. Most of all, she worries about not living up to her mother's hopes.

The Dokimí proceeds, a dazzling display of majesty and might, until a shocking turn of events interrupts it: an assassin's arrow wounds Isabella. The realm falls into chaos, and Serafina's darkest premonitions are confirmed. Now she and Neela must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the mer nations. Their search will lead them to other mermaid heriones scattered across the six seas. Together they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence. 

Review-

Deep Blue was lying on my shelf since a really long time but because I am doing a review pile reading challenge I decided to finally pick it up. Firstly, I'll tell you the reason I didn't pick up this book earlier. Its because its a mermaid book with mer creatures and all that stuff. I like fantasy but mermaids are far fetched and I didn't have a lot of interest in them.

Deep Blue turned out to be better than my expectations but that's only because I had none to begin with. This is the story of Serafina who is to be the Queen of Miromara. She has to rule the merfolk and his been trained for it since she was little. But unexpected things happen on the day she is to be declared the Queen and so she escapes with her friend Neela.

The whole world that Jennifer Donnelly has created is interesting. There are various kingdoms in the oceans and Serafina is to rule one of them. But there are people causing havoc and killing merfolk who need to be stopped. I liked Serafina as a character. She had a lot of weight on her shoulders but she loved her people.

I also really loved her friend Neela. Neela was the bright ray of hope in Sera's life and I just overall liked her personality a lot. The person I didn't like was Sera's betrothed, Mahdi. I'm glad we don't get much of him in the book. By the end of the book, Deep Blue goes in a different direction. The series is actually about 6 mermaids who have to come together and find talismans if they want to save the mer nations.

I liked all the 6 mermaids so I wish we'd gotten more of them from the beginning instead of the book just focusing on Sera for three fourth of the time. Deep Blue was a very different read for me as compared to what I usually read but even though I am curious to see what happens next I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next book in the series right away though its out already.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by Hachette India in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.