The Mermaid's Mirror -- Don't worry about the Mermaid Thing . . .

When I first heard about The Mermaid’s Mirror, I thought this book had to be “hokey.”  I mean, come on, a teen girl swims with the mermaids?  But I found this book to be a touching, heartfelt, believable story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Lena, the main character, is always looking for something, but she doesn’t know what.  She wants to surf so badly, but her father refuses to let her because of a near-death experience he had when he was younger.  But …. there’s more to the story (of course.)  This book is about Lena figuring out the story that her father will not tell her.  And yes, this story has something to do with mermaids.

And added to that, there are accurate descriptions of surfing, there’s enough romance that I actually choked up a bit, and mostly this is a story about family and the strong ties that families have.

I never thought I’d read a story about mermaids that I thought felt “real.”  The characters, whether mermaid or human, were beautifully described.  I longed to visit the ocean after reading this because of the vivid descriptions of the surf (and there’s not one anywhere near me!)  The ending was appropriate, but I didn’t really “like” it.  There’s no “happy ever after” for everyone, but I guess that wasn’t ever possible.

Don’t let the mermaid thing turn you off – give this book a chance and I think you’ll like it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me an ebook to review.