Deep Betrayal by Anne Greenwood Brown

Author: Anne Greenwood Brown
Title: Deep Betrayal
Series: Lies Beneath #2
Publication: March 12, 2013
Publisher: : Random House Children's Books
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
~Website

Synopsis
It's been thirty days, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she's counting. And when Calder does return, it's not quite the reunion Lily hoped for. Especially after she lets her father in on a huge secret: he, like Calder, is a merman. Obsessed with his new identity, Lily's dad monopolizes Calder's time as the two of them spend every day in the water, leaving Lily behind.

Then dead bodies start washing ashore. Calder blames his mermaid sisters, but Lily fears her father has embraced the merman's natural need to kill. As the body count grows, everyone is pointing fingers. Lily doesn't know what to believe--only that whoever's responsible is sure to strike again. . . .

 

Lily has been away from home for months since the accident that almost took her life. Now, she struggles with the decision of telling her father that everything her grandfather said was true and that he is a merman. Calder has returned in time to help her father transition but it seems she seeing less of both men and they have no time for her. Lily never expects her father to take so quickly to this revelation but its like something clicks inside him and he can't stay out the water and neither can Calder. Yet, dealing with her loneliness isn't enough when bodies start appearing on the shore and her crazy neighbor starts spreading rumors that mermaids exist and that they are the reason people are coming up dead. In an effort to make sure her father is not responsible for these death's Lily along with Calder decide to do some investigating. What they may learn is that not all things deadly "lie beneath" the surface.

Lily is a rebel, every time someone tells her to not do this or that, she does. Her father asks her to do one thing, stay out of the water...she decides to go in an experiment. She's curious what her father's heritage makes her and dreams of growing a tale even though Calder has explained that's not possible. She begins to hear these noises when she's underwater and what she discovers will change her world. Calder seems dependent on Lily to keep him from reverting back to his old ways. I'm not quite sure but I think I liked him more in book one...he just doesn't move much for me in this one as far as growing from  the first book but remains a steady character. I think the writing is good and Brown has created an intriguing concept with this mermaid lore and that ending was unexpected. I'm curious how the next piece of Lily's story will unfold and how she will adapt to the changes in her world. Overall, the pace was a little slow at times for me but it's an okay read for those that love dark, dangerous tales about mermaids.