Little Mermaid: Ariel the Spy

And we're back to Ariel being the main character again, but this time she's doing something stupid, so it's not as bad as the earlier books, where she always had to be the one to solve the problem or save the day.

Ariel's reading a book on Mata Herring for school and she gets carried away with the theme. When a substitute teacher turns up instead of her favorite, she concocts this ludicrous plot that this sub has kidnapped her favorite, because they're both in the running for Teacher of the Year. She drags her friend Coral into it, as well as Adella and Attina. Of course she turns out to be very wrong and has to apologize to everyone in front of her father.

No new sister facts in this one. The high point of the book is meeting Coral, who's Ariel's first friend that isn't a fish or a bird. Not that she gets a ton of characterization, but at least she exists. The low point for me was that the author didn't seem to grasp either Adella or Attina. Attina's the bookworm, but she never read the Mata Herring book herself and she seems like one of the smarter characters, so I can't see her really being this silly. And Adella is tasked with talking to the substitute, because she thinks he's handsome, and she bombs it completely and looks like a total airhead. Definitely the worst of the first six books.

Little Mermaid: Arista's New Boyfriend

                

This one is quite simple. The princesses and their father are off to their brand new summer palace for the season. Arista doesn't want to go, because she'd rather spend the summer working with her sea horses than meeting titled merpeople. 

Once there, the other girls are all excited about meeting boys and dancing and parties (and reading, if you're Attina), but Arista goes to check out the new stables. 

And there she meets Dylan, the stableboy, son of the groundskeepers. He's the most handsome merboy she's ever seen and the best rider. 

So begins Arista sneaking out of parties to ride sea horses with Dylan, who becomes her riding instructor, friend and boyfriend. 

However, she keeps him a secret from her family, because she's afraid of her father's reaction to her hanging with a commoner. Ariel of course is the one to find out and then the one put in danger when Arista abandons an important earl's son at a party. Arista and Dylan use their riding skills to drive off the devilfish that's after Ariel and save the day, earning the respect of the titled merpeople and Triton. Although he is sure to admonish Arista for not telling him about Dylan. Dylan finds himself a part of summer social circle and presumably he and Arista can openly see each other for the rest of the summer. 

No sister facts this time. Arista gets the most character development of any sister aside from Ariel so far, so that's something. This is when I started to like her after her poor showing in Nefazia's book.