Book Review: Drowning Mermaids (Princess of Ice) by Nadia Scrieva

Princess of Ice by Nadia Scrieva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book One of the Sacred Breath Series, AKA Drowning Mermaids

Although I adore stories about sea creatures I was not as in the mood for a mermaid story as I originally thought I was when I picked up the book. I am glad that I stuck with it despite my quandaries about what sort of story I actually wanted to read because I found it fitting better and better. This is not your usual mermaid tale or tail. These mermaids are like you and me, they just have a second set of lungs meant for the water. There have been stories about suck folk before, able to breathe both water and air (see some of the selkie tales in folklore). Unlike most of the folklore, these seafolk are not shapeshifters.

Since they are like us, and as it is acknowledged that there is a common root in the story between the sea and land folk, they have the same sort of problems we do; abusive fathers, nation wars, espionage, people not believing the truth when they are first told the truth, and many others. You are given the sense of well-developed nations moving behind the scenes and the complex (and often unknown) interconnection of the land nations with the water nations.

I was thrilled to see such a wonderful explanation of the Bermuda, Dragon Sea, and Alaskan Triangles given. The author actually made me fist pump at such an EXCELLENT use of modern and ancient folklore. We even meet the Ningyo people, who are a favorite subject of story research of mine, with their connection to the undersea dragons. Sadly, no dragons are mentioned, but an extinct species makes a living cameo!

The characters are also well done. I could feel the layers of Trevain Murphy (I usually think of Trevain as a surname, so that got my attention) and empathized with him. In many ways, that character was far more like me than I was comfortable with. I also had not expected what his ancestry was revealed to be when first meeting him at the beginning of the book. I loved the complexity of the female lead (Aazuria) balancing secrecy, her regal role, her role as a sister, and her role as a lover. Both of these characters did a ton of growing in this first book. I also particularly loved the metaphor for life that was done with the bonsai scene. Fantastic work. I look forward to reading through the next book of the series.

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