Title: Treading Waves (Siren Anthology #3)
Author: S.R. Atkinson
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format: eBook (ARC)
Length: 664 pages
Publisher: IngramSpark
Publish Date: June 16, 2019
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Recommend: Yes

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to read the third installment of this series by S.R. Atkinson, and I am so glad I did. It definitely makes me want to read the first two books so I have a better understanding of what went down in this book, but I had a pretty good idea. It wasn’t too bad that I was completely lost and wasn’t able to enjoy it, so at least that was something.

In this world, mermaids are known as Serras, and humans are known as Crural. There are Kus that are almost described as someone’s energy or life force, and every single living thing has a Ku. It’s also interesting how the Serras use their Ku on one another (from allowing a huge group of Serras to hear someone speak, to feeling whether or not there is someone around you in the vast open ocean). That part kind of reminded me of sonar technology, so I think I understood it.

Santi (short for Santiago) is still the main character of this series, and we are following her in the aftermath of the second book. Terrible deaths occurred that affected both her and her childhood friend and mate Rogan. It’s gotten to the point that Rogan is almost numb and has lost all personality. It’s understandable though when it’s told who died (since I did not read the second book, having it told who was killed helped me understand why Rogan took it so hard), but it’s really bad. Santi doesn’t know how to help him, and not only does she have to deal with that, but also finding out that she’s the True Heir that will help the Serras kill the Siren Queen Zitja is probably not something she anticipated.

One think you have to understand is that Santi is Crural, while Rogan and the rest are Serras. It wouldn’t be hard to understand why Santi is worried about being deemed the True Heir when she wasn’t even born a Serra. She doesn’t have a tail like a Serra, she had to learn how to breathe underwater and swim underwater from Rogan when they were young, so she already doesn’t truly belong in their world. To have a total outsider be their “savior” against the Sirens can definitely feel like a slap in the face.

On the other hand, we also hear about Yemri, considered the Ocean Mother many years before, after Queen Nephira died and how she deals with Zitja before she comes the formidable Siren ruler. The prologue to this story gave me a brief understanding of what turned Zitja, since she was in training to be the Ocean Mother since she was many years younger (I want to say 11 years old? something like that) before everything happened. What happened that was so bad, that she ended up turning Siren? And what is the true relationship between Zitja and Yemri that doesn’t seem to be talked about in the present?

Unless I saw that Netgalley classified this as a Young Adult book, I really wouldn’t have thought it was. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I really didn’t get any YA vibes from it, which definitely made it enjoyable for me to get through. I love mermaids, so this take on them was nice to read about, and I definitely loved the story that Atkinson gave to us. I look forward to reading the first two books and coming back to this one with that back history. I’m sure knowing that will help me appreciate this ending so much more. I look forward to reading more books from her as well.