Ripple

Title: Ripple
Author: Mandy Hubbard
Rating: 4/5
Summary: 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?
My Thoughts: Teen girl turned siren. It was a concept I liked, and I wanted to see where the author went with it. I haven't read anything about these creatures since the ancient mythology I loved to read in my teens. I enjoyed the story. A little dark. A little haunting. A little sad. You definitely feel the MC's suffering throughout, and for once I don't mind that a protagonist doesn't really fight back when tormented and misunderstood by her peers, because the reason she doesn't is believable. I won't do the "spoiler" thing, but there was a little glitch with the love triangle that didn't click with me. But, the story held my interest, and after finding a little time to start the book one night, I ended up quickly finishing it the next evening with only a couple breaks.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.