A kingdom on the brink of war. 
A king on the fringes of insanity.
A family running for their lives.

Ash and Fin’s only desire is to be together and dive into their happily ever after, though their conflicting worlds work to pull them apart. Neither is ready to convert to the other’s life: become a human or a mer. Little do they know that somewhere in Natatoria a secret holds the fine fabric of everyone’s lives together. If the truth is discovered, Ash and Fin will no longer have the luxury of waiting. They’ll be forced to choose. But will it be for loyalty or love? Or will someone else make the choice for them if they can’t decide?

Enter the watery world of treachery, greed, and the binding mer kiss as the story continues with Evergreen, book two of Mer Tales.

Review:
I was completely thrilled and grateful when I got the news that I had been invited to be a part of the blog tour for Evergreen (for those of you who are new, or just don't remember, I participated in the tour for Everblue and the Onyx Talisman as well). I loved the first book of the series and I couldn't wait to dive straight into this one. When I did, I found myself not loving it quite as much as I loved the first one.

As always, the cover is simply gorgeous, following the tradition about Brenda's covers. I really love the cover model's eyes in this picture, the way they are so vibrant and well made up. Also visible is a headdress of sorts, beautifully setting off the lack of other jewellery with the exception of the ring. The makers of this cover didn't just pay attention to the bigger details, though. They also put in small ones like the reflection of the trees in the water. I hope on the next cover that we'll get to see Fin instead of Ash, but as long as it follows the beauty of the first two, I'll be a happy book blogger.

Ash and Fin were the two characters whose points of view were used to narrate the novel. I tended to enjoy Ash's side of the story more simply because it seemed like more of the action happened to her instead of him. Both characters were relatively the same as they were in the first book, though both seemed to get a tad bit more distant from their families. Relationship-wise there wasn't a whole lot of growth between Ash and Fin, but that was to be expected with the long distance nature that their relationship retained throughout the majority of the book. One fact I'd like to highlight is the fact that their romance is of the instant variety, though it is a well justified sort of instant love that I didn't end up minding. The lesser characters were great to read, too, but some of them were able to elicit stronger reactions from me than others (namely, Colin).

My biggest concern with this book was the writing. Though Brenda's writing is usually stellar, this time it just didn't quite keep up to her standards. That being said, it wasn't a terribly written book, but just not a particularly greatly written one. The story continued right from where Everblue left off without any stop or break before getting into the action. So far in this series, the story has been well balanced between the two books without creating a stereotypical sequel. Though I'm not usually a fan of books containing the instant love I mentioned above, this one seemed to pull it off with more grace than most books are able to. Whether that can be attributed to the story or the characters, I'm not sure, but I did enjoy it nonetheless. I can't wait to read the next book in the series to find out how the story of the star crossed ends and how the series wraps itself up.

I'd recommend this book to anyone in the mood for a book featuring a different paranormal creature or who have read and enjoyed any of Brenda's other works. I will be continuing this series when the next book comes out, but until then I give Evergreen a 3.5/5 for, unfortunately, not quite living up to it's predecessor.