Mya Belan was invisible. A social misfit tolerated at the popular table only because of her best friend Jaimie… but ignored by everyone at school.
On the night of the big beach party before senior year everything changes. Mya rescues a drowning stranger from the sea and as the amnesiac boy “John” struggles with the after affects of his accident, Mya finds herself drawn to him - first as she nurses him and then as they form an unexpected friendship.
As Mya’s social star rises, so do the mysteries surrounding John. The more time Mya spends with him the more their attraction grows. But John is harbouring secrets that threaten to tear them apart. His flawless features and enchanting charisma hide an unbelievable truth.
Could John’s secrets put Mya and her family in danger?
I am first going to say that I have been search for a mermaid book that I liked as much as Promised and the whole Syrenka series by Amber Garr and I have found it with Susan Fodor's amazing story Silver Tides! I loved the fact that this book was fun, heartwarming, realistic, and made me laugh out loud!
Mya feels invisible, she doesn't think she is pretty and she thinks she is a little overweight compared to all the other skinny popular girls. Mya's best friend is Jaimie who is pretty and popular and is dating Tim who is also popular. Tim only puts up with Mya because he wants to date Jaimie.
The book starts with Mya being on the beach after a beach party and noticing someone off in the distance in the water floating. The person looks as though they may be dead and she tries not to think about that, but the young boy is very handsome and she hopes she can save him. Mya pulls him to the shore and performs CPR on him and saves his life. There is an instant connection between the two of them. Mya tries not to think that it is a possibility because he is so handsome and she feels that she is not good enough.
Mya tries to just remain friends with John (as he is named by the hospital since he can't remember who he is) so as not to get hurt. John has strong feelings for Mya and only has eyes for her. This makes Mya's popularity at school grow, she is no longer invisible. John 's parents start to come around and he discovers that he has been missing for over 2 years, but where he has been and with whom is still a mystery, and why is he so drawn to Mya?
I finally started diving into other mermaid tales recently, and I wasn’t disappointed with Silver Tides. Right away I felt compassion for Mya as she struggled to fit in and right away I hated all of the “mean girls”. The high school drama, cliques, bullying…yuck. But, it happens and I think Susan did a good job of creating that tension and making it more believable as to why Mya would be so drawn to an unconscious boy that washed up on the beach. And speaking of Daniel…right away you get a sense that he’s too good to be true and that he’s not what he seems. For the first two-thirds of the book, we are wrapped up in the high school life, so much so that I wondered when we would start seeing the fantasy aspect come into play. But once it did…wow! I absolutely loved the world Susan created and kind of wish the book would have started there. I also kept wondering how it was all going to tie together and kept waiting for something big to happen. And it did…the last few lines of the book! The complicated relationship between her parents was interesting and heartwarming, and I’m really curious to see how Daniel and Mya continue to develop in the next book. I’m very intrigued to say the least!
The Good: Great ending that tied some of the high school characters together. It makes me want to read more right now!
The Issue: Too much time spent on the high school drama and not enough on the fantasy world.
The Review: 4.5 stars. A mermaid and selkie tale wrapped in a world of fantasy and reality.
when I first started this book I was iffy about it. I wanted to put it down it seemed like it was going to be very slow and not my type of book.but than when she started visiting John/Daniel my heart felt for her, especially since Miranda seemed to want what wasn't hers, a lot of people can relate to that I know I can.I loved the book, and I can't wait for the next book.
This was a cute story. It was also my 1st mermaid book. I learned a lot. I also enjoyed reading about the concept of amnesia and deja vu. It reminded me of the heroine in my companion novel. This story has a great beginning and ending. I like the twist at the end, and wonder what's going to happen in bk 2.
Silver Tides is a young adult urban fantasy — it will come as no surprise to anyone who looks at the cover for more than a milisecond that the urban fantasy element is mermaid-related. (And just stop and look at that cover for a second. Wow.) But Fodor has put a great deal of thought into the way her mythological world works, so it’s more complicated than that. (I won’t go into it though, because spoilers.)
I had mixed feelings about this book. A lot of them come from the fact that Fodor drew the short straw when she asked for us to review her book — she got me, and I’m a professional grammar and punctuation nitpicker. :p That being said, with a professional edit this book would be a four- or five-star read, and not everyone is as fussy as I am about commas, so let’s leave it at that.
Some of the prose is absolutely beautiful in Silver Tides. Examples that made me happy were: “trees doing their autumn strip tease” and “I felt happy enough to burst and splatter glitter hearts all over the room”. How could the latter not make you smile? Come on, GLITTER HEARTS! Who hasn’t felt like that?!
There’s a fair amount of time spent on mean girl highschool politics in the first half of the book, which was a bit slow going, but from about halfway through things really pick up, and by the end even some of the mean girl stuff ties into the bigger plot. (I wasn’t much of a fan of Jaime as a best friend — why would she subject Mya to the bitchiness of the popular set after the way they treat her? Mya is definitely the giver in that relationship.)
Mya’s an interesting main character — there’s a bit of a Bella-and-Edward vibe between her and John (who turns out to be a Daniel once he gets his memories back). But, unlike Bella, Mya isn’t willing to throw everything in and join Daniel in his world without question. She has her own opinions and desires, and isn’t afraid to yell at Daniel when he’s behaving like a tool. (There’s a particularly lovely threat involving three Adam’s apples that I will remember forever!)
My only beef with Mya is that there’s a bit of confusion about what she actually looks like. She is very down on her own appearance — describing herself as the fat girl, which in a first-person narrative means it’s hard for the reader to see her as she really is. And she gets bullied at school for her appearance as well. But at the same time when she dresses up she turns heads, even with the popular boys. I think the truth is that Mya is an average teenage girl, with average body issues (and some average mean-spirited peers) — and when she starts gaining more confidence, that shines through. Fodor gets credit for trying to depict that very normal scenario (instead of making her character a ravishing beauty). It was just a little hard to decode because of the first-person voice.
Silver Tides has a cliffhanger in the epilogue, which was cute and left me wondering what would happen next. It was a fun read set on the coast of Victoria, Australia. If you enjoy high school politics, the beach and a good romance, this may be the book for you.
A girl from Australia. A guy with amnesia. Twilight references and a royal lineage. It kind of sounds like Melanie's Evanescent Journey until the guy returns to the sea. This is the first book I've ever read where mythical sea creatures were the main characters and I learned a lot I didn't know.
Mya is a high school senior trying to make it through to graduation. When she finds a drowning boy in the bay and administers CPR, her peaceful life is upended. When he awakes, the boy has no memory. He is drawn to Mya and she feels responsible for him. The boy's biological parents show up. He learns his name is Daniel and his father owns a huge oil company. His parents tell him he was dying from a skin condition. He has been missing for two years. His parents feel indebted to Mya, and soon Mya's parents and his become good friends.
Miranda, leader of the popular crowd and alpha mean girl, wants to get close to him. But Daniel rebuffs her. There is a lot of mean girl drama/conflict and it seems kind of overdone until you read the ending and realize it was put there for a reason.
Once Cordulla, Daniel's sea mom shows up, the plot plows forward at a rapid clip. Now Daniel knows where he's been for the past two years. He won't give up Mya. He is convinced she is to be his queen. Many secrets come out and Mya learns she has a different heritage than she thought. Once Daniel goes back to the sea, everyone around him develops amnesia. Except Miranda. It's like he never went to high school.
I liked that Mya's parents were present in her life, but Mya's mother was an enigma to me. She is portrayed as a compassionate, selfless, tree-hugger, but when Miranda hurts Mya she is out for revenge and even wants Miranda's dad to lose his job. She has always been one to preach forgiveness but not now. When Mya and Daniel are on a mission to save five lives she gets upset that they desecrate a grave and try to retrieve an ancient artifact. She lectures Mya on respecting people's property until Mya reminds her she is doing it to save five lives that are worth more than a piece of rock. There was a disconnect between word and deeds, but maybe Mya's mom is just a hypocrite like the rest of us.
Being a native Texan, it was fun to read about Australia and learning a bit of the lingo like op-shops, pop peeps, and pash. Can't wait to see what happens in book two.
Mya gets a lot more than she fishes for when she pulls a gorgeous boy out of the water and saves his life. As a next to invisible and socially awkward teenager, her life flips over entirely when Daniel sets the majority of his focus on her, while trying to recover from his amnesia.
Mya and Daniel were really cute together, as well as an effective team, rising to meet all of the challenges put before them. Mya was loyal, smart and open-minded, while Daniel was a supportive and strengthening match for her. Charlie was really cute and I found myself liking him a lot.
With a seamless mix of star-crossed romance, teenage angst and mermaids, 'Silver Tides' is an engrossing story that is both fun and emotional from start to finish.
This one was definitely a little younger than what I expected. The writing seems firmly planted in middle grade, but the content could easily fit into the upper YA category, which kept it from really impressing me because I couldn't get over the clashing styles. The story seems to drag a lot too, and I cared way more about the supernatural stuff than the cliche, but honestly depicted, bullying subplot, which becomes the plot for a good fifty to a hundred pages. That being said, I like the mythology, and while the plot twist wasn't entirely unexpected, it was still pleasant and an interesting addition to the story as opposed to just something for shock value.
From the very beginning the author thrusts you into this story already in process. Things get a little bizarre, and then they get a lot bizarre but Susan has done a wonderful job creating a relatable character to anyone that has ever felt less than adequate and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I would highly recommend this read for fantasy and romance lovers. I can't wait to read the sequel!
I was up and down with this one! Started out good, then a little boring near the middle (lots of unnecessary high school drama), picked up again toward the end, but the ending itself was kind of blah for me. Combine that with a fair amount of spelling/grammatical errors and I've got a book I can't give more than a 3 star to. I did enjoy certain parts and there was some decent writing but overall it wasn't as good as I'd hoped.
I'm finished with Silver Tides: Wow this book hooked me straight away. I must admit that I got a surprise a third of the way through when things started to fall into place. A modern day fable which is full of all the ways I would would like us all to embrace a great read for the young to learn from & for the more mature to be reminded of the values we would like to achieve
I'm kinda mixed with liking this book, well, because it reminded me a bit of Twilight, but I guess there were a lot of things I truly liked with the story may be the overflow of cuteness.