The Prince and the Sea Witch by A. G. Marshall Review

 A. G. Marshall is one of my favorite authors of all time. Her writing style is a great balance of humor, romance, seriousness, and action. She is also really good at creating retellings that pay homage to the original source while still making the story her own. I honestly cannot get enough of her books. She had also written one of my favorite Little Mermaid retellings, Princess of Mermaids (which I will be reviewing sooner than later). So when I learned she was writing another Little Mermaid book for A Villains Ever After series (a series where twelve authors each contributed a book about a villain becoming a hero) I was excited. As the eleventh book in the series I had to impatiently wait for it to be released but it was worth the wait. The book was not quite as good as Princess of Mermaids I still really enjoyed it. The Prince and the Sea Witch is considerably darker than A. G. Marshalls previous books, since the mermaids are much more like sirens whose song makes men drown themselves but that didn't detract from its enjoyment. 

The book introduces us to Briony a mermaid who is about the experience her first feast. She along with the rest of her class (which includes a little mermaid named Lyra) sing their siren songs to a ship filled with sailors. However Briony is horrified to discover that their songs lure the men to jump into the sea where they drown. Her horror only increases when she discoverers the mermaids then kiss the men and steal their souls. Mermaids don't have souls of their own (as a result they won't go to Heaven when the die) and so they feast of the souls of sailors. The souls then leave a streak of silver in their hair which increases their magic making their singing voices stronger then before. Briony is shocked with these practices and takes her drowned man to the shore where she releases his soul to the stars. Refusing to take part in the mermaid horrific feastings she instead becomes an outcast who makes potions. She lives an industrious but lonely life with only her sea lion companion Pup as her friend. One day she saves the life of a young man named Harlan who immediately takes an interest in her unaware that she is a mermaid. When Briony returns to her cave she is approached by the little mermaid Lyra who wants a potion to make her human. Lyra has always wanted a soul but the only way for her to get one is for a man to love her and kiss her. In doing so part of his soul would flow into hers and she would become a human and someday go to Heaven. Briony doesn't truly believe that any human man could love Lyra who has taken more souls than any mermaid she had ever known. Briony tries to persuade Lyra from her plan by asking for her tongue as payment but Lyra is undeterred. Reluctantly Briony gives in realizing only too late that the man the Little Mermaid wants for her own is Harlan. Will Lyra succeed in her quest? Or will Harlan have only eyes for Briony? Find out by reading the book.

Briony is an interesting take on the Sea Witch character. For one she isn't evil and doesn't have tentacles instead of a mermaid tail. However like the original Sea Witch she is an outcast who makes potions. I really enjoyed that the reason why she is an outcast is because she refuses to do what is considered normal among the mermaids because it is just so horrible. The other mermaids look down at her because of that and call her a witch. It saddened me to see how lonely Briony felt and that not even one of the other mermaids tried to befriend her. So when she meets Harlan for the first time and he doesn't treat her awfully it felt like a breath of fresh air for both myself and her. Briony is such a kind character with a strong sense of justice that she was extremely enjoyable to read about. 

Harlan I felt should have had more time in the spotlight. I just felt like I didn't know him as much as I wanted to. He is clearly kind and caring and worries about the state of his kingdom. With the mermaids drowning more and more sailors each day his kingdom is essentially trapped. They can't travel overseas and they can't fish which is honestly a quite scary situation to be in. It is also clear that he will make a good ruler of the country someday. However I wish I could have seen more of his personality. He just seemed a little too perfect which is both good and bad depending on the reader's opinion.

Lyra was just so evil! I have never read another retelling where the little mermaid is the villain. And although it took some getting used to it did work well with this story. Lyra has stolen so many souls and is extremely ruthless. I won't go into too much detail on her character but lets just say she was quite the scary little mermaid. 

Overall this was a very enjoyable read. I give it 4.5 stars. My biggest complaint is that this book should have been longer. I know most of the books in A Villains Ever after series are less than two hundred pages but still. But what we got was an excellent book. I definitely recommend it. Expect more Mermaid books to be reviewed in the future for I am going to be reading a bunch of them from today to May 31st. Until next time. Emma.