Forgive My Fins Blog Tour: The Mermaids + Giveaway!

Terra Lynn Child's Forgive My Fins is one enchanting book - I fell in love with its mermaid mythology right off the bat and so, given the opportunity to ask TLC to guest post for the Forgive My Fins UK Blog Tour, I jumped at the chance! Want to read more of the Thalassinia? Check it out below:

I don’t remember exactly when my obsession with mermaids began. Maybe when I wasalittlegirl playing with Sea Wees (bath tub mermaid dolls with floating sponge lily pads) or when Ifirst saw the movie Splash. But I’ve been in love with mermaids for as long as I can remember and, yes, dreamed of becomingone. When I got the idea for Forgive My Fins I was excited to finally create my own mermaid world.

In bringing half-mermaid princess Lily to life on the page I had to develop two parts of her life. First, I thought about the underwater world. What would a mermaid kingdom look like? Where would it be located? What would everyday mermaid life entail? Second, I imagined being a mermaid living on land. What would be different? What would be the same? How would she be affected, physically and mentally, by being out of the water? These were the questions I had to answer as I wrote the book.

My first priority in building the underwater kingdom was to make it as believable as possible. A mermaid kingdom is a completely fantastical world, but I wanted mine to conceivably exist in our world. The buildings in Thalassinia are covered in anemones, seaweed, and starfish, disguising their underlying structures. They are built from coral and natural-looking rock formations. The kingdom looks like something you might actually see if you were snorkeling in the Bahamas.

Once I had the overall world designed, I layered in small details of everyday mer life. I thought about things we take for granted as normal in our world—mattresses, cars, refrigerators—and tried to imagine how those things would be different in the sea. Their beds are shaped like shells, they get around on seahorses and water-powered wavemakers, and their food stays cold enough in the chilly ocean water. Everything is slightly different because of the wet and cold and floating in the sea.

For a mermaid living on land, our ordinary human things would be very out of the ordinary. I had to imagine myself as someone from an underwater world, and was suddenly living on land. In Thalassinia sea slang is common, but on land it’s weird to call someone a son of a swordfish. There are no beverages in the ocean because they’re surrounded by water already. On land, a mermaid dries out and has to take saltwater baths to stay hydrated. Lily has to make lots of little adjustments to life above the water.

It was an amazing challenge to try to create a realistic mer world, one the reader could easily imagine actually existing beneath the Atlantic, and then to write a character who grew up in that world and is living in ours. As a writer, it’s my job to make the world of my story as real as possible, and hopefully these details of mer and mer-on-land life help make Forgive My Fins more believable.

Needless to say, I was swept away by Thalassinia and its lovely, mer

people, including Quince, of course!

Want more? Forgive My Fins was published 1st July 2011 in the UK by Templar Publishing. In the unlikely event of you not having your copy in your hands just yet, here's a little extract to tempt you!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops and enter the giveaway below to win a fabulous new copy of Forgive My Fins! Do read the rules below - and good luck!

GIVEWAY

• UK only.
• You do NOT have to be a follower to enter - everyone is welcome!
• Deadline for entries will be on 11th July 2011, 12MN BST.
• Winners will be drawn through random.org.
• Winners will be contacted via e-mail.
• Any details will be deleted after use and will never be passed on to any third party, save Templar Publishing.
• Fill out the form below!

Book Review: Forgive My Fins (Terra Lynn Childs)

Half-mermaid princess Lily Sanderson has been living on land for the past three years, crushing on Seaview swim-god Brody Bennett, dealing with annoying biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher, and just generally trying to figure out this whole human thing. But everything changes when she accidentally bestows her magical first kiss on the wrong boy.

Forgive My Fins appeals strongly to my giggly inner teen. Fresh, romantic and magical, Terra Lynn Childs' third novel is one to love!

Essentially, Forgive my Fins is about Lily's attempts at correcting her accidental 'marriage' with Quince, the next-door neighbour who just happens to be the one person who can worm his way beneath her fins and irritate her. An unexpected kiss between these two bond them together as mermates and between that and Lily's undying, three-year affection for Brody, they spell trouble with a capital T.

Lily is a loveable character. Bubbly and charming, she has an authentic feel to her voice. Her use of sea metaphors and references (for instance 'son of swordfish') saturates her narrative, is incredibly funny and is critical to that 'mermaid feel' in her voice. The author's use of a first person narrative gives a sense of direct communication between Lily and the readers so every bit of her mermaid lore and terminologies act much like an introduction to a riveting mer kingdom I could not have enough of! Thalassinia comes to life in Lily's vivid descriptions and immersing one's self in mermaid lore is an engaging side effect of reading Forgive My Fins. The author has crafted a very authentic, very magical underwater world in this book!

Quince is a darling. Obnoxious, slightly irritating but overbearingly sweet, he is simply character to adore. I could not help but root for him throughout the book. Quince and Lily's love-hate relationship is such a classic, but it's clear from the beginning that there is more to it that just teasing. In the same light, as the plot progresses, readers learn more about Quince, and he begins to be a character with depth. Despite their classic relationship, the originality of the plot offsets this. You'll not only lose yourself in Quince and Lily's banters but also in their underwater adventures!

I love every Quince-Lily moment - innocent, sweet and full of witty exchanges, I just could not help but giggle. I was so giddy with these two! I had so much fun to watch the conflict between Lily's strengthening bond with Quince and her feelings for Brody, not to mention the reluctance of her father to grant them the separation. Best of all, it was interesting to note the changes in her feelings and the growth that she undergoes throughout the novel.

What makes Forgive My Fins such a delightful read is not limited to her attempts at having the bonds severed, but what occurs between the lines at her every attempt. Quince's constant presence in her life - now even more pronounced because of the bond - forces her out of shell. Lily learns to appreciate beyond the superficial and gain her much needed courage.

There is little I didn't like in this novel. There is the lack of characterisation with the foils, for one. Believe me, I love all the characters, but they only slightly developed. They were not very relevant to the plot, but still. I felt like I know Aunt Rachel's cat more than Aunt Rachel, and that is slightly worrying. Nothing much else, I have yet to resurface from Thalassinia magical hold on me!

With a charming array of characters, a magical underwater kingdom to feel at home in, and a sweet romance in the whole midst of it, what better book to immerse your summer with than Forgive My Fins?

Four Stars.