Of Neptune is the third and final installment of the Syrena series by Anna Banks. This review will not contain spoilers for Of Neptune, but it will have spoilers for the first two books in the series.

After the chaos that ensued as Emma and Galen worked to save the underwater kingdoms, what they really need now is to get away. Away from the pressures of the kingdoms of Poseidon and Triton. Away from the home that reminds them of the person they lost. Away and alone. 

So the Half Breed Emma and the Triton Prince Galen take off from a vacation to the mountains. At the suggestion of Emma’s grandfather, the Poseidon king, they head for Tennesse, only to discover the small town of Neptune. A home for Syrena, Half-Breeds, and humans. It all seems too good to be true.

Their vacation quickly takes a turn for the worse when a Half-Breed named Reed invited them over for dinner. Between the broken laws and Reed’s constant flirtation, Galen is eager to head back to his salty home. Unfortunately, Emma does not feel the same way. The duo finds themselves trapped in the small town as centuries of secrets are revealed and the land dwellers request their help. Will they be able to help the Neptune settlers or will the pressure break not only their love but also their kingdoms?

Do you ever read a book and just have no idea what you think about it? That is how I feel after reading this book. While I really enjoyed reading it, I felt like this “conclusion” to the Syrena trilogy had absolutely nothing to do with the first two books. It all ties in well enough and it’s the same world and characters, but there was just a huge disconnect from the other two books.

With that being said, I think this might have been my favorite of all three books. There was quite a bit more of all the good stuff. There was action. There were tests for the relationships. I was left questioning what was going to happen next at every turn. There was quite a bit of additional worldbuilding as well.

I think my favorite this about this book was Neptune. I noted in my other reviews that I loved that this series acknowledged that both Poseidon and Triton were “real” and gave them each a kingdom instead of picking one. In Greek mythology, Triton is Poseidon’s son, while Neptune is basically the Roman version of Poseidon. However, in the series, Poseidon and Triton ran different kingdoms and Neptune was a separate person who was friends with Poseidon. I really enjoyed the fact that each of these three major sea gods were featured throughout the series.

Emma and Galen each showed another side to themselves in this book, but neither of them broke character. Sometimes you read a new book in a series and you feel like the decisions being made are the exact opposite of what you think a character would do. I did not feel that with these characters, instead I just felt like I was learning more about them as I read.

As for the writing itself, I have the same complaints about the technical aspect of this book as I did with the first two in the series. But since I already knew what to expect going in, it bothered me a lot less than it did in the first one. I don’t know if it actually got better or if I stopped paying attention to it though. I’m going to assume that it probably did improve at least a little bit because the first book was hard to get through and was extremely jarring and this one wasn’t. I did notice it a few times, but not nearly as much as I did in the other ones.

Overall, I still only gave it 3 out of 5 stars. While I stand by my admiration of the idea, I just wish that it had been done better.

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