Book Review: Tempest Unleashed

Author: Tracy Deebs

Publication Date: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Walker Children’s
Series: Tempest #2

Tempest Maguire is happy with her decision to embrace her mermaid nature and live among her mother’s clan within the ocean’s depths. Even though training to one day ascend the throne for the aging mermaid queen is rigorous, she finds refuge in the arms of Kona, the selkie who first opened her up to her mermaid side. But when word comes that one of her brothers has been gravely injured on land, Tempest immediately rushes to his side—which also brings her back to her old flame, Mark. And in her absence, a deadly battle begins raging at the hands of Tempest’s old nemesis, the sea witch Tiamat. As the dangerous war erupts, Tempest’s two loves—Kona and Mark, sea and land—will collide for the first time, both to protect her and to force her to choose.

Who, as a young girl, has not been swimming in pool on a hot, summer’s day and not dreamt of becoming a mermaid? I know that I did, several times. This cover is just so breathtaking because I automatically began imagining life as a mermaid. What color would my tail be? Would I have matching color tattoos like Tempest? I definitely know that I would be a mermaid with an attitude! The cover has the effect of being underwater and has a glowing shimmer to it. Did I mention that it made me want to go the ocean really bad? Well, it did!

Tempest Maguire is an all out mermaid who has recently chosen her fin over her feet. Following in her mother’s footsteps she journeys into the ocean to live out her calling as a mermaid and to defeat the dreaded sea witch, Tiamat. Tempest is coming into her new born powers that include calling storms and bringing down dreaded lightning bolts, along with her newest power of being able to reign down this large array of high powered electricity voltage. She is destined for great things and everyone in the sea knows this. A mermaid comes into her powers at the age of seventeen and Tempest has recently had her seventeenth birthday and has already shown so much potential with her incoming powers.

The majority of the book was a struggle for Tempest between her human half and her mermaid half. She often made comments that let me know just how much of a trial this was becoming for her, “For a second, I longed for life before my seventeenth birthday when my body actually did what it was supposed to, what I wanted it to.” Tempest had to leave her father and two brothers behind and was now feeling remorseful, just as her mother had done many years before her. She blamed her mother for leaving them for so long, but now Tempest is beginning to understand what “the call of the sea” really means. It is powerful enough to draw her away from her family, but not powerful enough to make her forget them.

However hard Tempest’s struggle may be, I still love to read about the fantastical world that she lives in. Everyone tends to think of the ocean as such a majestic entity and we often forget just what the depths of it hold. Tracy Deebs does a great job of writing a wonderful world under the sea. The creatures and places that she describes could make anyone wish they could sprout a tail and gills and explore it for themselves. My favorite example of this would have to be the shark-men or shark-shifters. Tempest describes them as, “Half men, half shark, they shark-men had a great white’s tail with a human torso and head, while their faces were a weird amalgamation of shark and human. Small, black eyes, long rounded nose, with rows and rows of sharp teeth behind their human like lips.” The ocean springs to life through Deebs’ descriptions like the one I have mentioned above. I wanted more and more descriptions of creatures like the shark-men!

The last thing that I would like to make reference to is the love triangle that Tempest finds herself a part of. She is in a relationship with Kona who is the Selkie prince and lives under the sea with her. However, at one point in the book Tempest is forced to return to land and is reminded of her love for her ex, Mark, whom she left when she became a mermaid. Let me point out that I still have not decided whose team I am officially on! Both of the boys have excellent traits and I can see why she is attracted to both of them. I will tell you that she always speaks of Kona in such a sincere and genuine tone, “Kona had always been incredibly supportive- and tolerant- of me.” At times I feel that she takes Kona for granted, even though he can be a little hard on her but he is only trying to protect her after all.

Tempest’s world is one that I loved reading about and I love the audacity and tenaciousness of Tempest as well. She was fierce and up against a powerful source of magic, but you really were never able to tell that she was fearful or concerned. She did things her way which I really loved about her. She was not going to make the same mistakes that her mother did and she proved that to everyone. I love Tempest and I hope there will be more books in the series! This is a great summer read and will really pull you toward the sea! Get lost in Tempest’s world (:


**This book was provided to me by Netgalley! Thank you so much**