Genre: Historical Romance, Fairy Tales, Folklore & Fantasy, Action & Adventure, 237 pages
Price: $4.99 ebook, $9.18 paperback (at time of post)
Publisher & Date: March 1, 2015
Price I Paid: Zip, Due to Amazon Prime subscription.
My Thoughts: To Wish or Not Wish?
This book was such an interesting very imaginative story that was wonderful to read from beginning to end. I am extremely close to my sister, so I must admit that is one thing that drew me to this book. Another was just the premise, the girls turn 16 and her sister begins turning into a mermaid?! (okay not exactly the plot but close) So I thought let's try this one out. Immediately when reading this book I felt like I was reading a Tolkien-ish kind of journey with Wizard of Oz type fantasy meets Peter Pan like adventure and mischief type stories meshed into one book for Y.A. So if you like stories with mermaids, spells, potions, faeries, dragons, circus, and wishes, Oh and maybe a HEA, you should pick this book.
The heroine of the story is 16 yrs old when first introduced, her name is Clara. She lives with her Auntie Verity and sister Maren in the Llanfair Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1870. However, you are quickly told that Clara and Maren were brought to their Auntie in strange ways. Auntie Verity is half Fairy and an apothecary master, but was alone for a time until she was mysteriously delivered a huge conch shell, which held Maren, and a stork carried Clara to her a little later. Maren obviously being from the sea, never really seemed to be an issue for the family till the girls 16th birthday (darn that puberty) then Maren begins to show her true nature, which is a mermaid and starts changing daily little by little. Poor Clara is left with this problem of wishing nothing more than to help her sister be well and have what she wants, which is to be of the sea, but to do that means Clara will not get her wish, which is to always have her sister with her.
Overall, I loved this book and I'm sooo sharing this with my sister. It's clean refreshing and unique which are rare traits for a lot of Y.A. books. Plus the world it's set in but not really set in makes it all magical and I just really like the fairy tale aspect not being written in a cheesy Disney princess way but in a more semi-real sojourner kind of way. I must say I will definitely read more from this author in the future, especially if she does more from this unique world she has created.
