Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs- Advanced Copy

The Gist

Tempest Rising
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Six years ago Tempest's mother left her and her family and swam out to see. She hasn't returned since. But Tempest is about to turn seventeen, and her mother promised she'd return by then. Because on her seventeenth birthday, Tempest will need her more than ever. On that day Tempest will need to decide whether she'll stay on land as a human or give herself to the ocean as her mother did six years ago - as a mermaid. Tempest wants nothing more than to stay human; surf the beautiful California waves and become an artist. Stay with her family and on-again-off-again (currently on-again) Mark. If she became a mermaid she couldn't keep those things in her life. And on top off that, she wouldn't be any better than her mother, just walking out on her family and life on land. Therefore, Tempest refuses to give in to the temptation of the ocean. As her seventeenth birthday approaches, a mysterious boy named Kona [Kai] suddenly appears in her life, popping in and out at the worst possible times. She doesn't know what to think - is he just human, or could he be something more? And if he is, will he try and convince her to choose the ocean over everything she loves? Tempest has to make an impossible decision; between Mark and Kona [Kai], between the ocean and land, and between what she wants and what she knows she has to do.

What We Think
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Number of Pages: 341
Usually I start a review with a sort of introduction. The content of which varies. But for this book, I really don't have much to say that doesn't fit into one of the categories up for review. So I'll just jump right into the reviewing and try to be as brief and painless as possible. Like ripping off a bandage.
The author's obsessive use of adjectives knows no bounds. As funny as that may be to imagine, it's torturous to read. A statement can never be just one thing. Like, it's never just "his brown eyes". No, it has to be something like "his deep, amazing, soulful, sexy, dark brown eyes". It was painful. So, as you may have guessed, I'm critiquing her writing style, or maybe just the writing itself. There's no sugarcoating it. It was terrible. Simply horrible. Sorry. Maybe that's the style for romance-esque novels - maybe they're all like that - but nonetheless it wasn't good. Just painful. Another thing I cannot leave out is how much the word "sexy" is used. When describing something she could not for the life of her leave out that cursed word. It had to apply to everything. Mark's hair, Mark's eyes, Mark himself, Kona [Kai]'s voice, Kona [Kai]'s mysteriousness, Kona [Kai] himself. It was too much. I mean, seriously. Not everything is that sexy.  Also? Too many metaphors and/or similes. Not just that, but they were all overly-dramatic and sounded childish - and very out of place in the mind of a seventeen year old girl. If I were her, I'd take out most of the similes and metaphors and replace the ones left with something a little less ridiculous. Still, with the majority of them taken out, they'd total an amount more than the average YA novel has. Ugh. Just no. The writing killed this book.
Speaking of killing the book: characters. They weren't good. There's no other way to say it. They were just plain not good. Tempest Maguire. Was she supposed to be likable? She was whiny even though she claimed not to be, and weak even though she claimed to be strong, and just altogether bad. I do feel bad and everything because her mom took off and what not, but that just makes me hate the mother, not like the main character. Overall, Tempest did a bit too much complaining about her problems and not enough trying to fix them. Mark, Tempest's boyfriend, was not nearly as annoying as Tempest describes him. He asks her if she's okay when she nearly drowns and what does she do? Complain about how nosy he was! Jeez, give him a break. I actually felt bad for him, for having to deal with Tempest and her never-ending mood swings. And by never-ending, I do seriously mean never-ending. Her mood is constantly flopping from furious to mad to not-very-mad back to furious again. And Mark had to take all that without complaint, or she's just get more mad. Mark wasn't a complete fail, as far as characters go. He was pretty observant, actually, which is interesting. But other than that, he's the typical good-looking pawn of a boyfriend who's always the last to know everything having to do with their girlfriend. Poor Mark. Kona [Kai] was...ambiguous. Mysterious and, of course, supposedly amazingly hot. Whatever. He was a creep. CREEPER. He just appears out of nowhere to Tempest when she's alone and professes undying love for her. Okay, maybe he never said the words "undying love" but that doesn't really make him any less creepy. Can anyone say STALKER? Because that's basically what Kona [Kai] was. He was probably supposed to come off as mysterious and brooding and (at some point) lovable. Yeah, no. He was just a little too much. At the same time, however...I felt bad for him. Because he, too, had to deal with whatever Tempest decided to dish out. Lovely. But that doesn't make up for his creepiness either. Okay, you're probably wondering why I keep putting [Kai] after Kona's name. Repeatedly. The reason is, when I first read this - as an arc - Kona's name wasn't Kona. It was Kai. I actually had no idea it changed...until I went to my favorite book store and happened to see Tempest Rising on a pedestal. I picked it up and flipped through it for laughs...only to find that the beloved Kai was replaced with  a stranger...weirdly named Kona (take note the I use the word 'beloved' with much sarcasm). I couldn't believe it. They changed the name of a vital character at the last minute - meaning probably within a few weeks of the release date. I went to her website - where the synopsis of the book is - and the name was still Kai! On goodreads, the synopsis still reads Kai. I thought I'd gone completely insane, imagining the whole Kona occurrence. But then I saw some other reviews that had the [odd] Kona name. So I knew I wasn't COMPLETELY crazy. So, what's wrong with the name Kai, I'd like to know. Whatever. I just had to include it. Anyway. Every other character was pretty minor...well, there was her father. Sure. He was alright. I mean, it's not like I think he should win the DAD OF THE YEAR award or anything, but it's not like he was horrible. Very mellow, very go-with-the-flow, with some underlying sadness. Yup. That pretty much sums his character up nicely. But altogether though, the characters weren't good. If the writing killed the book,  the characters managed to resurrect it and then kill it again.
What else is there? Plot? Ugh, well it's supposed to be a romance, right? Romances don't have plots. They kind of just have romance with something thrown around them like tinsel on a Christmas tree (see what I did there? Ha, ha. That's what her similes were like - except HUNDREDS of them) to make them seem more than they really are. But, whatevs. The plot was Tempest whining and trying to decide between two almost equally unappealing guys. Ha, ha, it sounds like Twilight. Anyway, that was basically it. There wasn't much there, really. I mean, there was this thing with a sea witch...eh. I wasn't impressed, to say the least. I guess. I'm tired. It's way to late to be writing a bad review about a bad book. Sorry. That was my impersonation of Tempest - whining about things the reader doesn't particularly care about. So, yeah, I'm done talking about the plot. It wasn't interesting and for the entire book I didn't really care what happened to her or what she chose to become. Very lack-luster and to some extent non-existent. Hoorah.
The beginning to the book was a very corny letter from mother to daughter. Tempest's mother writing a letter to her before she left for the ocean - never to return. So the first horrendous line is "My Darling Tempest," if I want to be technical. Because of how gross of a line that is, I DON'T want to be technical. So the first line goes "I was just in your room, making your bed, looking at all your little-girl things, breathing in the soft, sweet  scent of you, and wondering how I'm ever going to live the next part of my life without you,". It comes right after the darling Tempest thing. Honestly, though, this wasn't any better. If anything, it's certainly more creepy. Ugh, yeah that wasn't good. The last line was better. For this book, it was fitting and a good ending. Predictable, but it's a romance. How could it not be predictable? I realize I'm bashing the romance genre. Sorry. I'm not saying it's a bad genre (just not necessarily my type of thing), just that they tend to be more romance than plot twists and that they're predictable. I thought those were accepted stereotypes of the genre. Sorry if I offend.
Finally, I'll review something easy: cover and title. Sadly, I wasn't all that crazy about either. At all. And I know I'm not the only one, because when I brought the book to school to read, people actually commented on the cover and scoffed at the title. The cover I find to be disgustingly dramatic and just TOO MUCH. Same with the the title. Tempest Rising. What is she rising FROM? Am I supposed to know? Is is metaphorical, too?! Goodness gracious. I don't know. All I do know is that I didn't like either the cover or the title, and if I was the publishing company, the thing at the very top of my to-do list would be to change both.
Overall...just no. I know that may not have been as painless as I said it would be - like a bandage - but at least it's truthful. I honestly didn't like that book at all and would not recommend it to my friends or enemies. The only reason I finished it - that I can think of - was to get it over with and because I HAD to. It was an ARC. I couldn't just NOT read it. I wish it could have been good. But it just wasn't. At all.

Real Teen Review ~ D- : If you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to read.