Lita's Book Blog: Blog Tour: Review: Tears of the Sea + Excerpt

Blog Tour: Review: Tears of the Sea by MaryLu Tyndall + Excerpt

Doomed by the evil warlock Forwin to wander the ancient seas as a mermaid
for all eternity, Perdita longs for the release death would bring. Every ten
years she has a chance to break the curse when she emerges from the sea fully
human for one month. The catch? She must find a man willing to die for her.

Captain Savion Ryne wants nothing to do with beautiful women. It was one such
woman whose betrayal ruined his life and his reputation. After nearly drowning
in a storm at sea, he wakes on an island with visions of a dark haired mermaid
pulling him from the water. When a woman similar in appearance begs for his
protection, he is suspicious.

Perdita has never met anyone as honorable as Savion. Even though he shuns
her every advance, she falls for him. But as the end of her time on land
approaches, she faces the hardest decision of all, save Savion and remain
cursed for all eternity or break the curse and watch the man she loves die.

:*:･｡,★゜･:*:･｡,★゜･:*:･｡,★゜･:*:･｡,★゜･:*:･｡,★゜･:*:･｡,★゜･:*:･

★★★★

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember getting this ARC in the mail, I was so ecstatic, the beautiful, gorgeous cover was finally in my hands. I didn't read it right away. One being that I had other scheduled reviews but I read pretty quickly so there wasn't a time that I did not have the opportunity or get the temptation to open that succulent, clean-cut looking beauty(I know, its not a piece of meat). I was scared, because I got that feeling that it was too good to be true. I know, weird.

But considering that I drowned in its contents, that was not the case. This was the first story I've ever read with a mermaid in it so I was utterly enthralled.

This story follows the two main characters Perdita and Savion who are both evidently cursed. Perdita is cursed to ponder the life in the seas, whereas Savion is banished from his homeland to search across the sea to fulfill his journey in saving someone in order to break a curse.

Perdita has come across many lost men of the sea in all of her cursed years and it seems that no matter how many years pass, they are always the same. Until now.

Perdita's character seems very mature, but also in other ways unbeknownst to many things. I have to admit, she did make me crack up here and there with her acting skills. There is also mention of her previous life as a human and came across as a bit mischievous. Savion has all the attributes any and every man should have. However, Savion has also come across someone that has made him feel the same things Perdita feels. In a way, both of there past experiences kind of run on these crazy parallels and has jaded them. Damien just bugged the heck out of me while Sal grossed me out. Verrad on the other had, I just knew something was fishy about him.

In the end, I was excited to finally get through it all and experience the HEA Perdita and Savion deserved. The writing style was simple, yet enticing with its great plot and extraordinary characters.

The one hang up I had that seems pretty ridiculous, but nonetheless bothered me to no end was the name Perdita. I could not stand it, because I could already here how some people would pronounce it and slaughter(Karin) the name completely: purr-dee-tuh. Uh, no mam. So throughout the whole story, every time her name popped up, I would say Dita in my head, with my own Hispanic accent, because it sounded better to me, it sounds the same as my own nickname, I'm too lazy to role my r's every time I say her name in my head (even saying it aloud is making my tongue tired), and it also doesn't sound like I'm trying to call over a little female dog in Spanish.

Overall, I had a tremendous time getting into this wondrous story and hope others get the chance to enjoy the read as well.

Excerpt:

Immortality ends tonight.

Standing on the ledge of a mountainous cliff, Perdita gazed over the
majestic storm raging beneath her. Mountainous swells thrust foamy claws
into the sky. Black, slick as ink, spewed from angry heavens. Lightning hurled
white-hot forks toward Erden, while thunder announced the doom of all in the
tempest’s path.

Perdita had been waiting endlessly for such a violent squall. Mayhap this
would be the night. Mayhap this would be the moment the unbearable pain
in her heart would end. Oh, let it be so! What would it be like to die, to
finally close her eyes forever? To know naught but darkness and emptiness. Nothingness. Part of her feared it. Most of her yearned for it. At least her agony would be no more. The pain, the loneliness gripping her heart would finally cease.

Tears spilled from her eyes but the wind stole them away. Even her tears
were not her own. After tonight, she would cry no more. Finally, her three
hundred-year nightmare would come to an end.

Wind whipped her naked body, forcing her against the cliff wall. Jagged
rock slashed her skin as the tempest roared madly all around her—berating
voices from a thousand rejections. She jammed her hands over her ears, but
the voices taunted her mercilessly...reminding her that no matter how hard she
tried, she failed to obtain the one thing she desperately craved, the one thing
that continually eluded her, the one thing—the only thing—that could liberate
her from infinite torment.

She trembled. Rain pelted her like rocks from a cruel god. Welts rose on
her skin. Ignoring the pain, she drew a deep breath and fought through the
wind to the edge of the cliff. It wrenched around her, punching her, pulling
her hair, beating her for being so worthless, so useless. Then lifting her arms,
she closed her eyes, and leaned over the precipice. At first, like a benevolent
friend unwilling to let her go, the wind held her back, buffeting her in place. But soon even the gale couldn’t hold her up, and she felt herself tumbling down ... down ... down ...

She shattered the surface. Seawater engulfed her, ramming into her from
all sides. Deeper and deeper she descended. The jolts mutated to gentle
caresses and the sounds of the storm muffled to mere whispers. Her legs
melded together. Awkward kicks transformed into one efficient, powerful
stroke. Tingling skittered over her body, molding skin into scale.

Perdita released her breath. Bubbles rose. She gulped. Water flooded her
lungs—always uncomfortable at first, but then as her skin breathed in the sea,
more natural than she cared to admit. More normal to her than breathing air. As normal as the grief that ripped through her every time she dove in the water and became a creature she loathed.

Slipping with ease through the dark sea toward her destination, she soared
upward and punched through the surface into the storm once again. Wind
spit salty foam in her face. A massive wave carried her high into the night sky
like a princess on her chariot. Scanning the turbulent scene, she spotted the
monstrous rock—the one they called Hades’ Gate—just half a mile away, aptly
named for the number of sailors who had died upon its barbed spikes. Sharp,
craggy spears stuck out in every direction as if Natas himself crouched in the
sea with a thousand claws extended.

Natas or not, Perdita hoped she would be the next victim.

If only she could position herself just right so the next colossal wave would
smash her against the rock with such force, such ferocity, that her body would
be completely shredded.

If only ...

It had to work. ’Twas her last idea. She’d tried everything else: poison,
pistol shot, starvation, stabbing, even leaping into a fire. Each time she’d
suffered terribly, but she had always healed. The last time, when she’d jumped
off a cliff into a deep ravine, it had taken much longer to recover, and she
realized that there was a point past which her body, immortal or not, would
not be able to mend itself and would hopefully drift into that peaceful state
that was the reward of all mankind. Death.

Ah, sweet, sweet death! To at last find the rest her soul craved. To be
free of the tormenting bitterness and despair that plagued her by day and the
perpetual hopelessness that assaulted her dreams by night. She must be free—
now!

Leaping off the crest of a wave, she dove into the trough and swam to just
the right position. Then, arms by her side and tail strong and taut, she swooped
up inside the next undulating surge, allowing the force of sea and wind to lift
her to the top. Water caressed her body and gurgled and sloshed past her ears
in a magnificent orchestra that would put great composers to shame.

Bursting through the foamy cap, she glanced at Hades’ Gate. In perfect
position. Daggers of lightning scored the sky. Thunder bellowed its displeasure.
No matter. She only needed to ride this swell until it hurled her onto the
barbed rock that would set her free.

Some people said if you spoke King Abbas’s name, he would hear your
plea and answer. Perdita had always thought them fools. How could he hear
anything from here in Erden when he lived far across the chasm? She wasn’t
even sure he existed, for no one had ever seen him. Still, mayhap ’twas worth
a try. “King Abbas, help me this night, I beg you. Help me find peace.”

Facing forward, she started to close her eyes, wanting to enjoy her last
moments as the wave carried her along, but a flicker in the distance snagged
her attention. A flash of light, then darkness. Wiping water from her face, she
focused on the spot. There it was again. A burst of light. Then black.

She adjusted her body and flapped her tail to keep up with the wave. Foam
spun around her. The sea roared its fury. Whatever the flickering light was,
what did it matter to her? She would be gone soon enough.

A shout battled for preeminence over thunder. A scream echoed over
waves. Against her will, she stared into the darkness for its source. A ship
appeared, tottering on the churning swells like a child’s toy in a rushing creek.

One of its two masts lay on its side, half in the water, half on deck. Sails and
rigging tangled on the ship like a fisherman’s net. The vessel dove into a trough
and disappeared from sight. Wails ricocheted around her—wails of impending
death. She knew them well.

Had envied them for so long.

The ship appeared again, spinning on a coiling whitecap. Men clung to
yards and railings while others scrambled across the deck in a frenzy. Three
men raised axes to chop lines in an effort to free the broken mast that
threatened to drag them to the deep. One of them crawled precariously out
upon the wood, hacking at the rigging with a desperation inherent only to
mortals who dreaded their lives cut short.

He fell. One minute he was there, chopping the ropes, the next gone,
swallowed up by a raging sea that showed no mercy—except to Perdita.

“Zost!” She swore, glancing back at Hades’ Gate. So close ... just moments
away. She faced the ship again, drifting farther and farther from the man, who
was now but a knot of flailing arms atop liquid coal. What did one more life
matter? This was her moment, her time to find freedom. Many sailors fell into
the sea with no one to save them. Who was she to disturb the natural course of
life and death?

A giant swell grabbed the man and tossed him in the air, then smothered
him with raging foam. He disappeared below. One glance behind her told her
she had but one more minute and she’d slam into Hades’ Gate. One more
minute and the man would drown. Life was precious. All life but hers. She
could not leave him.

“Zost!” She groaned and dove into the agitated foam.

About the Author:

Best-selling and award-winning author, MaryLu Tyndall dreamt of pirates and sea-faring adventures during her childhood days on Florida's Coast. After obtaining a degree in Math and working as software engineer for 15 years, she

decided to test the waters as a writer. With now more than fourteen books published, she makes no excuses for the spiritual themes embedded within

her romantic adventures. Her hope is that readers will not only be entertained but will be brought closer to the Creator who loves them beyond measure. In a culture that accepts the occult, wizards, zombies, and vampires without batting an eye, MaryLu hopes to show the awesome present and powerful acts of God in a dying world. MaryLu makes her home with her husband, six children, and several stray cats on the California coast, where her imagination still surges with the sea.