I fully expected Scales to mirror the few things I have come to know about mermaids, thanks to The Little Mermaid. I thought how hard off can a mermaid really be? As I instantly became obsessed with this novella, which sadly ended way too soon, I felt the pain and torment that Verona was forced to endure her whole childhood right from the first page. I wanted nothing more than for her to finally be able to fit in with her clan, hoping she would choose to walk on land for 30 days rather than be shunned for three years as her Reckoning began. She was an outcast for many things but among them thinking there was more to a betrothal than how to raise yourself in status, value and gene pool improvement. Verona believed in love, something foreign to mermaids. And her dreams seemed to come to light as she watched a human, Betty, from outside her window. From the comfort of her sea Verona watched and learned from Betty and from the daily soap operas Betty unknowingly watched with her. Verona was forced to learn how to survive on her own, or she was supposed to until one Mer decided to lend a hand and quietly watch over her from the dangers that could come to a bottom feeder left on their own and in exile.
I love all of Pauline’s stories. Each one is so different and unique and I instantly find myself so involved I don’t even see when the end is coming leaving me sad and craving more. I felt the pain and happiness with Verona. I can’t wait for Verona’s story to continue.
Verona is a bottom feeder. She is the one mer in her clan who is considered the ugliest and least intelligent. Growing up with the constant bullying and abuse wasn’t the worst of what her kind had in store for her. At seventeen years old, she must now endure “The Reckoning.”
The scales will measure her worth to her clan. Will she endure thirty days as a land-walker to gather information and knowledge to appease her clan and return a valued member? Will she wait three years, until she is twenty, and find a mer of her kind to accept her and marry her? Or will she suffer exile for the rest of her life?
Genre: YA
Buy on Amazon Available May 26th
Pauline Creeden
Pauline Creeden is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy. In her fiction, she creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long.
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