Galen is a prince of the Syrena who lives part time on land to study and observe humans. Emma McIntosh is a seemingly ordinary eighteen-year-old girl who unbeknownst to her has Syrena ancestry. When the two meet in Florida, both are instantly attracted to each other, and Galen strongly suspects that Emma isn't just an ordinary human. Galen and his sister Rayna follow Emma to her home in New Jersey so they can determine if she really is Syrena.
The books in the series:
- Of Poseidon (2012)
- Of Triton (2013)
- Of Neptune (2014)
The Syrena Legacy contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Galen calls Emma "Angelfish."
- The Beastmaster: Emma has the Gift of Poseidon, which means that sea creatures obey her commands, including marine birds like penguins. She first used her gift at age four, when she almost drowned in her grandmother's pond and the fish saved her.
- Bridal Carry: Galen enrolls in Emma's high school. On his first day, Emma accidentally knocks herself out by running into the cafeteria doors. He carries her to the nurse's office in his arms.
- Cement Shoes: Galen met his human assistant, Rachel, after she was thrown into the Gulf of Mexico tied to a cement block. After Galen rescued her, she told him that she has been keeping secrets for thirty years and was almost killed for knowing too much.
- Chick Magnet: Half the girls in Emma's school have crushes on Galen. During Galen and Emma's break-up in Of Poseidon, Galen gets so much unwanted attention that he calls Rachel and pretends he's talking to a new girlfriend so they'll think he's taken and leave him alone.
- Collateral Damage: In Of Triton, Rayna uses the Gift of Triton to flood the island of Kanton in order to rescue Jagen and Musa, two Syrena who have been taken prisoner by humans. Rachel scatters life jackets around to prevent any humans from drowning. But Rachel is captured by humans and locked in a room with bars. By the time the Syrena realize what happened, she has already drowned.
- Cut Himself Shaving: In Of Neptune, Tyrden tells Emma his injuries from fighting Galen, whom he kidnapped are from falling downstairs.
- Fantastic Slurs: To the Syrena, "mermaid" is an offensive slur.
- A Glass in the Hand: In Of Poseidon, Galen sees Emma flirting with another boy. He snaps his plastic fork in half between his fingers.
- Half-Human Hybrid:
- In Of Poseidon, Dr. Milligan runs some tests and X-rays on Emma and finds that her heart rate and bone structures are halfway between that of a human and a Syrena. He concludes that she must be a hybrid, even though it's strictly forbidden for Syrena to mate with humans. Genetic tests confirm that half her genome comes from each species. It turns out Emma's mother is the long-vanished Syrena princess Nalia.
- In Of Neptune, Emma and Galen discover Neptune, Tennessee, a whole town of freshwater Syrena who live in harmony with humans. Most of the inhabitants are of mixed ancestry. They live far away from the ocean so the Syrena won't wipe them out. Reder tells Emma that there are similar towns around the world, but he doesn't know how many.
- Hide Your Otherness: In high school, Galen wears blue contact lenses to hide the purple eyes that all Syrena have, including Emma.
- How Dad Met Mom: In Of Triton, Emma's mother tells her the story of how she met her unnamed father, who died of cancer two and a half years ago. Nalia, living as the human Natalie, was working at a freak show in a mermaid costume. Her future husband saw her swimming in the tank and asked her on a date. While he was walking her home, he told her he had seen her breathing underwater. Nalia, in a panic, tried to mug him. Instead of giving her his wallet, the man offered her a deal: he would give her money and place to stay and never tell anyone her secret, and in exchange she would let him study her. The two became close friends, although they were never in love. After Emma was conceived in what Nalia calls a moment of weakness, they entered a Marriage of Convenience.
- Impaled Palm: While Tyrden is interrogating Reed and Galen in Of Neptune, he shoots Reed through the palm to show what will happen if they lie.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Rayna collects human junk from shipwrecks and shipping routes. Nalia also used to collect human things. After she disappeared, her father, King Antonis, suspected she'd gone on land.
- Jail Bake: In Of Triton, Galen and Grom give Nalia, who is being held prisoner in the Ice Caverns, a codfish that has a lionfish spike hidden inside.
- The Kindnapper: In Of Triton, Nalia has spent the last seventy years living on land and thinking Grom, the Syrena she loved, was dead. When Galen blows Nalia's cover and then leaves her with Rayna while he fetches Grom, Nalia thinks that Grom is actually an imposter who means her and Emma harm. She chloroforms Emma and Rayna and leaves Rayna Bound and Gagged while she takes Emma on an involuntary road trip. When Emma tries to contact Galen, Nalia thinks Galen has manipulated her and supervises her more strictly so she can't do it again. The two of them spend several days driving from one dumpy motel to another before Rachel tracks them down.
- Long-Lived: Syrena have much slower heart rates than humans, which causes them to age more slowly. They reach physical maturity at nine or ten, but after that, they live for centuries. Dr. Milligan estimates that it would take 750 years for a Syrena to reach the equivalent of age 80. If a Syrena spends extended periods of time out of the water, their heart rate accelerates from the effort of fighting gravity, shortening their lifespan. This is one of the reasons human/Syrena relationships are forbidden.
- Making a Splash: The Gift of Triton allows a Syrena to use their voice to control water. In Of Triton, Rayna develops a mysterious throat ailment that turns out to be her developing Gift. Once she gains control of it, she uses it to flood Kanton.
- Meet Cute: Emma trips on her flip-flops and faceplants into Galen's chest.
- Mermaid Problem: When Syrena are in their mer form, they have a fish tail and no reproductive organs. In order to mate, they have to go onto an island and turn into their human forms.
- Never Found the Body: In the 1940s, Galen's brother Grom was betrothed to Nalia, princess of Poseidon. They were deeply in love, until they accidentally set off a mine left by humans. In the aftermath of the explosion, Grom couldn't sense Nalia anymore. When her body was never recovered, everyone assumed she'd been blown to bits. Grom spent the next seventy years grieving. It turns out his senses were discombobulated by the explosion. Nalia survived and, thinking Grom was dead, went on land to live as the human Natalie before either she or Grom could recover enough to sense each other. The two are finally reunited in Of Triton.
- One True Love: Some Syrena feel "the pull" towards someone who is their perfect match in every way. Galen dismissed it as a myth until he felt it towards Emma. It explains why Galen has never found a mate before, although he's old enough that he's expected to do so - most young Syrena males become attracted to several females and can decide which would be the most suitable mate, but Syrena who feel the pull experience Single-Target Sexuality.
- Photographic Memory: Syrena have this ability, allowing Galen to ace all his classes in school even though he's ignorant of many things that humans consider common knowledge.
- Protection from the Elements: Syrena are unaffected by water temperature, as Emma discovers when her powers awaken - hot showers and the cold ocean both feel lukewarm to her.
- Punch a Wall: During Galen's temporary break-up with Emma in Of Neptune, he punches a tree until the bark wears off.
- Seashell Bra: Female Syrena wear a seaweed wrap.
- Secret-Keeper: Not only Rachel but also Dr. Milligan, Galen's human friend who lives in Florida, and who learned about the Syrena when Galen and Rayna saved him from dying in a snorkeling accident. Both have been sworn to secrecy about the Syrena's existence. Dr. Milligan was the person who alerted Galen to Emma's existence when he saw how aquarium fish flocked to her at the Gulfarium.
- Switching P.O.V.: Chapters alternate between Emma, who narrates in the first person, and Galen, who narrates in the third person.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: When Emma and Chloe were in ninth grade, they baked laxative-laced cookies for their science teacher so they could get more time to study for an exam.
- They Called Me Mad!: Dr. Kennedy was one of Dr. Milligan's friends who saw Galen and Rayna. Unlike Dr. Milligan, he told everyone, but no one believed him. He developed a reputation as an insane "mermaid hunter," and his academic career was destroyed. By the time he finally finds proof of the Syrena in Neptune, he blames them for ruining his life and gets revenge by kidnapping and beating Galen and Reed.
- Threatening Shark: Early in Of Poseidon, Emma's best friend Chloe is attacked by a shark, which tries to drag her away. Emma fights the shark for several minutes, to no avail. Eventually Emma, not knowing about her abilities, yells "Stop!" and the shark swims away. By that point Chloe is dead.
- Your Favorite: On Emma's first day of school without Chloe, her mom makes her favorite food: garbage eggs, which are eggs with lots of random ingredients mixed in. Unfortunately, Emma is Too Unhappy to Be Hungry.
- Your Makeup Is Running: In Of Triton, Emma's mom cries trails of mascara down her cheeks when she's reunited with Grom after seventy years of them both thinking each other were dead.
