Review: In Over Her Head

Summary: He lives under the sea…

Reel Tritone is the rebellious royal second son of the ruler of a vast undersea kingdom, and he's always been fascinated by humans…

She's terrified of the ocean…

Marina owner Erica Peck would never go swimming willingly—but she's forced into the water and is nearly eaten by a shark. Luckily Reel is nearby to save her, and he discovers she's the woman he's been searching for…

Before she knows it, Erica is off with Reel on a wild underwater adventure to recover a stolen treasure, battle a jealous sea monster, and, of course, defy a death edict from the kingdom's high court. But even if they make it through their madcap mission alive, can they find a way to stay together when she hates the water and he can't survive on land? -- Sourcebooks

I admit that I almost never read books from the romance genre, but I thought I'd make an exception for IN OVER HER HEAD by Judi Fennell. You see, I read about Ms. Fennell and her award-winning novels in my Penn State alumni magazines; and I thought I'd give a few of them a try -- she is a fellow PSU grad. In fact, the article that mentioned Ms. Fennell and her books was the inspiration behind my new "Back-to-School Feature."

When I read the summary for IN OVER HER HEAD, I thought it sounded pretty cute. While I knew I wasn't going to fully appreciate all of the romance aspects of this novel, I still thought the storyline unique enough to make the book enjoyable. And since I enjoyed The Little Mermaid movie, I assumed that this novel would have some things in common with that story. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much fun this book was.

The story was very cute, and I really liked how Ms. Fennell created such a creative underwater world. I enjoyed reading about all of the characters, both Mers and other sea-life. Her descriptions of the sea were extremely vivid, and I had no problem imagining the beauty of this world while reading the book. Ms. Fennell also incorporate a lot of humor into this story. The characters (and sea-life) were very funny, and Ms. Fennell definitely took advantage of every marine-related pun that she could.

Since I'm not the biggest romance book fan, I also liked how the book was more than just a hot. love story. There was definitely action and adventure to the storyline, and lots of good versus evil. I also thought that some of characters were pretty well developed (ha ha -- get it? I can do puns too!) I definitely found myself liking Reel and Erica, and I wanted them to end up together despite everything that was going against them.

I have to be honest with you that I didn't really "get" all of the love scenes, nor did I read them all that closely. That's just not my thing, but I'm pretty sure that Ms. Fennell has quite the talent for writing those passionate scenes. Both the characters and their love scenes were definitely hot! And, Ms. Fennell did a great job of building the sexual tension.

I'm probably not the best judge of what makes a good, romantic story, but I did enjoy IN OVER HER HEAD. I actually think fans of the romance genre or even fans of The Little Mermaid will appreciate Ms. Fennell and her storytelling abilities!

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this novel.