Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath #2)

Going in to Deep Betrayal, I knew two things: I had really enjoyed Lies Beneath and I was looking forward to learning more mermaid lore. As the story unfolded, I kept waiting to be wowed by Deep Betrayal, like I had been with Lies Beneath, and found myself growing more and more disappointed. While I really enjoyed reading things from Lily’s perspective, with Deep Betrayal the mystery and allure surrounding the mermaids in Lies Beneath was mostly absent, making for a slightly less exciting read.

One of the reasons I loved Lies Beneath, besides my fascination with evil mermaids, was thanks to Lily – she had a quirky style, a spunky personality, and was pretty self-confident. Unfortunately, in Deep Betrayal I had a hard time seeing any of those qualities in her. For the first 20-30%, she spends most of her time moping about because she hasn’t heard from Calder, and then when he does show up, she’s whining that he’s spending so much time helping her dad.

“Tell me how long you’re going to be gone, ” I demanded.
“Its just for a little while,” Calder said.
“But I haven’t seen you in over a month!” I hated how hysterical I sounded, but I couldn’t help it. This was unfair, and Calder didn’t seem to care at all."

She became a different person, someone who was selfish and unable to understand that her life wasn’t the only one that was changing.

“You know what? I wish I’d never told you about any of this. This was my secret. I shared it with you, but now you’re taking it from me.”
“Lily, I’m not taking anything from you. Frankly, I don’t want any of it.”

It made it really hard for me to remember why I had liked her so much in Lies Beneath. Fortunately, once she finally understands the seriousness of the situation (at about the halfway mark), she’s able to think of people other than herself and put her big girl panties on.

Once Lily was able to get over herself, I really started to enjoy Deep Betrayal. The mystery surrounding the attacks built up a tension that oozed off the pages, even though I felt like we were being sent on a wild goose chase with each new clue. The slightly circular route it took for the attacker to be unveiled did get a little tiring, but I did appreciate that it wasn’t the obvious choice. It also opened up the opportunity for us to learn a little more mermaid lore, which helped to ease my disappointment over not getting to see a lot of Calder’s ferocious mer-sisters. I was actually quite upset with their treatment in Deep Betrayal. I wanted to see more of the slightly devious and twisted sisters from Lies Beneath, the mer-sisters who’s beauty was only matched by their deadliness, and instead they were made weak and pathetic, fading away into mere shells of their former selves from lack of proper nourishment.

As for Calder, he had his moments where he reminded me why I really liked him in Lies Beneath, and then he had such cold, distant moments that I wondered how Lily could fool herself into thinking he could ever care for her the way she cared for him.

"For the first time, I was getting a sense of how truly destructive Calder could be. What could he make me think, be, do, if he really wanted to? Could he have made me go to the Bahamas with him, even though he knew how important it was for me to come back with my dad? Could he have made me forget my family even existed, if it meant keeping me for himself? Hadn’t he once told me merpeople were essentially selfish?"

I didn’t understand why his ability to influence Lily’s mind was suddenly working, since that’s something that I seem to remember him having difficulty with in Lies Beneath, and I didn’t like how he spoke to Lily at times, demanding that she stop sulking so her negative mood didn’t impact him so much, or forcing her to remove her pendant because it made her aura look different (the reasons for that effect never being explained) and he didn’t like it. Those things aside, I did enjoy watching Calder struggle with his merman instincts, fighting to overcome his nature when he knew Lily expected more from him. He also had some sweet moments, where he would apologize to Lily in such a genuine way for being short with her, that I couldn’t fault her for forgiving him so easily.

While I didn’t love Deep Betrayal as much as I might have hoped to, I still mostly enjoyed it. I loved watching how Lily’s fathers’ choice affected his whole family, and some (literally) electrical moments between Lily and Calder reminded me why I enjoyed them as a couple. And, while slightly cheesy, I couldn’t picture a better ending, though there is definitely enough left open for a third book!