I love a good villain origin story.

With that being said, I'm completely on Sereia's side.

It all starts out with a father who favors his oldest and youngest children and completely disregarding his middle child. I can only assume it's because of his fragile masculinity and how he seemingly can't deal with how strong and powerful she is in comparison to his precious male heir.

This fragile male ego was passed down to his son who couldn't handle that his sister was better than him so he did what he could to get rid of her.

While in exile Sereia learns the truth about her father and gets to experience life away from men who only seem to want to bring her down. However, the fact that she can't get revenge out of her head seems to be her final undoing.

I feel that if she were able to actually let go of things, she would've lived her days happily in Atlantis.

As a grudge holder, I can understand not being able to let go of things, but she seemed to have so much going for her once in Atlantis.

Triton eventually gets his dose of karma, even if it took centuries.

I enjoyed this origin story and I think I like Ursula even more now.

It took me until the end to realize that this is an origin story; prior, I'd just thought it was a "twisted telling" of The Little Mermaid. There are many recognizable elements from the well-known story and this iteration isn't without some dark elements of its own. Sereia and Triton are pitted against each other. There are boundaries in place to protect the merpeople. There's still a romance. There's still a divide between humans and people of the ocean. There's still so many turns where things could've been different... but as soon as the story takes off, it's easy to see how vengeance becomes a motivator for several characters.

While the characters weren't particularly engaging for me, I did appreciate floating along the story and seeing where it all ended up. This is a good YA story.

Overall: 4 stars (I really liked it)

**Thank you to NetGalley & Swift & CamCat Books | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks for the free ALC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

i love a good mermaid story and this one is a little mermaid retelling from ursulas perspective on how she becomes evil. if you enjoyed heartless by marissa meyer you will definitely like this one as well. parts of it were a little predictable and slow paced so it got a lesser rating from me and some things in the book dont get resolved so theres that as well which bugged me. i did love her character arc and thought it was well done and of course ya gotta love the female rage when it comes out

Our Vengeful Souls is a fantastic origin story, which I didn’t realize going into. It’s engaging from the get-go. You’re thrown into a world under the sea where siblings compete for a crown, hoping to outshine one another in their father’s eyes. When the brother becomes overly jealous and worried he’s losing, he curses his sister and sends her on land.
The author's novel had me rooting for our FMC, waiting for her to avenge herself and claim the throne. What disappointed me, though, is that I didn’t care as much for the romance. I know this is a YA novel, but I couldn’t get behind the romantic interest and was unconcerned by his fate.
I did enjoy the narrator. She did a great job acting out all the characters' lines and pulling me into the story.

This would be an excellent book for younger YA and readers looking for clean but whirlwind mermaid book.

Thank you, NetGalley, Independent Book Publishers Association, and Kristi McManus, for the advance listener copy!

** spoiler alert ** I was very surprised at the end. I don't always read the epilogue but this time I felt I needed to because the storyline was kind of lacking at the end. I am so glad I did. The author has great word imagery. She does a great job of explaining the world around them and even emotions.

Now lets' talk about the story itself. This story takes place when triton of The Little Mermaid was younger. It is not Triton's story though. It is his sisters. Sereia is a powerful mermaid. Her parents are thinking of giving her the kingdom but Triton will have none of it. So he attacks her with a poison that turns her human. If she returns to the sea she will turn into a hideous creature and not ever be able to return to her kingdom. As I was reading all of this all I could think is it is similar to The Little mermaid.

She washes up on the shore of Atlantis. She is Saved by a nice gentleman that she eventually develops feelings for. She joins the Guard and has a rivalry with a fellow Guard who eventually gets banished for attacking her during a battle. She is shown the library and the temple. Where she finds another trident that can help restore her and return her to the ocean.

Overall the story is kind of slow and a on the confusing side till you read the epilogue. I would go more in-depth in the story but I don't want to ruin it for everyone. Bit let just say I did not expect who the story was about and it broke my heart how sad her story is.

Overall it is well written and i really enjoyed the story. I did do audiobook and the narrator did an amazing job reading the story.



For those that made it this far down and want the last spoiler the story is about Ursula the sea witch in The Little Mermaid.

I don't want to reveal the plot too much as that's half the fun of this book but it revolves around Sereia, Poseidon's second child, who is betrayed by her jealous and insecure older brother with a curse that renders her mortal. She finds herself in the city of Atlantis and is consumed by her need for revenge.
I really enjoyed this book, it's actually hard to find anything negative about it (my one tiny eyebrow raise was referring to Ashira's power as being her beauty, particularly as this is aimed at a younger audience).
The audiobook is tagged as Middle School, teens and YA and I agree with the latter two but the book is perhaps only for more mature middle schoolers (there is one fade to black scene). Otherwise the author has done well at writing a book that is accessible and largely suitable for teens whilst not feeling immature for adults.
I felt the plot points in the story were well spaced and the ending was really well done, although I certainly wouldn't complain if the book was longer and spent more on Sereia and Callan's relationship.
Sereia is an interesting and complex character and though the ending was not a surprise I found myself wishing the subsequent story ended differently!
I'd also like to note that I thought the narrator was great.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of novel in audiobook form.

Great audiobook. Story keeps you enthralled throughout. The twists and turns of the story make it an engaging story to listen too

A little mermaid retelling!! How exciting. I enjoyed this one so much so thank you NetGalley. The author did a really good job at keeping the book engaging and interesting. The ending was such a shock. Definitely check this one out if you want an interesting spin on one of the best fairytales.

I really enjoyed this audiobook, it was unlike anything I've read. The world building was great and I loved the character development our FMC went through.
I didn't realize until the end this was an origin story, which probably allowed me to enjoy it as much as I did

This story was enjoyable and engaging, but the dialogue was distracting. The characters lacked any real depth, but it was still a good time.

The narration was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and CamCat Books for providing the audio version of this book in exchange for my hones review. This is a story about a mermaid who ends up with legs and living on land and falls in love with a human male. No, not that story, this is about a different mermaid. I don't want to spoil things but there is a connection between the two stories. It's hard to review this book without being a little spoilery so I'll give warning that there might be some elements of this review that would be considered a spoiler, you have been warned! Overall I would say that this book was okay. Not great, but not terrible either. I feel like the story could have been half as long and been far more enjoyable. In fact, I actually sped up the reading speed on the audio book and decided that was an improvement. The story because much more interesting about half way through, and from there it is pretty engaging from that point on. The only major plot hole that I struggled with is how the "bad guy" knew the best way to defeat the fmc. There's no reason that he should have known what would affect her. I usually prefer a book with a happy ending but that's not real life, is it.

"Don't feed your fear; it will only swallow your strength."

I dived into this without realizing it was a fairytale retelling. I loved the surprise at the end when I discovered who Sereia is within "The Little Mermaid."

This is a true exploration of the different paths of vengeance.

If you love:
>Fairytale retellings
>Mermaids
>Magic & curses

This book is for you! I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator kept me engaged the entire time.

The ending truly shocked me. I went back and re-listened to it a second time because I didn’t believe it! Sereia truly decided to take her revenge to the next level.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

I do love myself a good villain origin story, and Our Vengeful Souls did not disappoint.

The story gave me all the things I look for in a good fairytale, love, family, betrayal, friendships and most of all revenge!

It’s a must read!

I've always been a fan of retellings. I realised early on that this was a Ursula retelling and yet I still found myself hoping and rooting for Sereia. Seeing her build a life on Atlantis with her new friends was heartbreaking when you know where she ends up and how her story will inevitably end. Her pain and rage were so visceral that you can't help but root for her regardless of her less-than-ideal choices.

It truly is a story about a young girl who was betrayed and so consumed with a vengeance that she couldn't fathom a life in which she didn't enact her revenge on her brother.

The critiques I have of this book is that sometimes the dialogue, especially when Sereia was reasserting her power to herself, was a bit clunky. The final confrontation between Sereia and Triton, and their father, was a bit anticlimactic, I thought that it would hit much harder than it did.

Thanks to NetGalley, Kristi McManus, and CamCat books for the chance to review!

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this audiobook… I have to say I truly enjoyed this book it was full of everything you need in a book action, adventure, love, betrayal, loss, and mystery.

This book kept me hooked from beginning to end. A retelling of the origins of the sea witch and her brother Triton and how they became who they are and let me tell you it made me feel different about some of the characters in the Little Mermaid🧜‍♀️. The ending was something different one minute. I was so happy that Serina was getting the life she grew to love then the next it was torn from her piece by piece by piece…such a fun read.

3.5 rounded up. I have SO many feelings about this one. On one hand, I read most of it in 1 day and loved large parts of it. On the other hand, I personally was not at all invested in the romance and felt like it was silly lol.

The mythology in this book is fantastic! McManus gets all the points for how well the mermaid world is developed & for showing some awesome and sometimes gruesome magic scenes. I was very on board with the magic of this world.

The romance.... I just didn't buy into it. They did not seem to have much chemistry together and some of the choices that were made by the main character were pretty unforgiveable.

The audiobook narrator did a great job and added tons of personality to the reading!

Read this one and let me know if you were also frustrated, but in love with mermaid lore lol!

Thanks to NetGalley, Kristi McManus, and CamCat books for the chance to review!

I listened to the audiobook on NetGalley, and enjoyed this fairytale origin story /reimagining of Triton and Sereia (aka Ursula).

I'm in my fairytale retelling era, and the audiobook was a fantastic way to experience this story!

A great journey of a cursed and thus vengeful soul.

Recommended if you enjoy fairytale retellings/reimaginings, especially The Little Mermaid.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to enjoy this journey!

This was a pretty good listen. I really enjoyed the narrator and the storyline. The main character is a strong female, princess of the sea and a strong contender for the throne. When her jealous brother curses her to live on land, she must adapt to survive. We see Sereia as she grows new perspectives on the world, has harrowing new experiences, and learns who her family and enemies are. I really enjoyed the progression of the book and the twists and turns along the way. This read was very focused on the character building and world building and light on the romance.

I don’t usually go for this style of reading but I’m glad I did as I enjoyed this book. Sereia is a powerful mermaid who is treated badly by her father and jealous brother- her brother puts a curse on her to live in the human world, she gets saved by an unlikely character and learns the value of true love. I loved following Sereia’s journey- it was a true fairytale!

OMG WHAT AN ORIGIN STORY!!! I loved this book.

This books ties Disney's The Little Mermaid up in a neat little bow. Of course she would temp Ariel with life on land, SHE KNOWS THE LIFE!

This was an amazing dark fantasy filled with romance, action, family conflict, and a strong female main character!

This is my first time reading from this author, but it will not be my last.