Publishers Weekly
An evocative setting, an air of mystery and some intriguing love interests for Miranda, a 16-year-old budding scientist, will make Friedman's (The Year My Sister Got Lucky) novel irresistible to romance fans. It all begins when Miranda's mother inherits a house on the remote Georgia island of Selkie, a place teeming with legends of merfolk and sea beasts. While helping her mother prepare the estate for sale, Miranda is thrown off guard by her discovery of family secrets and the attention she receives from two boys: Southern gentleman T.J., whose father was once engaged to Miranda's mother, and native islander Leo, who seems to carry traits of the mermen Miranda has discovered in an ancient book of island myths. Miranda notices changes both in herself, as she tries to sort out her feelings for her suitors, and in her mother, "the harried surgeon," whose affection for her old beau appears to be rekindled. The effect of the island on the two women is movingly and convincingly drawn, effectively illustrating Einstein's notion that "the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." Ages 12-up. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up
Miranda Merchant arrives at Selkie Island to discover a place wreathed in mist and myth, but the practical, scientifically inclined teen has little use for the local lore. She's come from New York to help her mother oversee the disposal of a family summer home, inexplicably bequeathed to them by an estranged grandmother. As the 16-year-old reluctantly associates with the wealthy, privileged teens who summer on Selkie, she uncovers startling secrets in her family's history and starts a clandestine romance with Leo, a local boy working at the island's marine center, who may or may not be entirely human. Friedman is clearly of a more artistic frame of mind than her protagonist, as floridly romantic scenes and references to Shakespeare and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner abound. With its self-effacing heroine and forbidden, possibly supernatural leading man, the book is aimed squarely at the "Twilight" crowd, but folklore buffs may be disappointed to learn that these resident sea creatures are garden variety merfolk, not the Irish seal-people usually associated with the name. A decent selection where the demand for romantic fiction is high.-Christi Esterle, Parker Library, CO
Kirkus Reviews
A watery and predictable supernatural romance. Miranda Merchant, accustomed to city life, visits Selkie Island (off the Georgia coast) when her mother inherits a house. Her mother intends to sell it and remain unattached. But Miranda falls in love with Leo, crossing Selkie's strict class division between the "heirs" (including her family) and the working-class residents. She supposedly overcomes the snobbery that thinks heirs "b[ear] the beauty and grace that c[o]me from generations of careful breeding," but even at the end, she refers to Fisherman's Village as "the wrong side of the island." Leo's a mythical ocean creature, but the text never formally confirms that. Friedman tells rather than shows, and Miranda's voice alternates between incongruously nostalgic ("I'd forgotten how comforting it was, the casual intimacy that could exist between girls") and flowery (iced tea from a pitcher is "a waterfall of amber-colored liquid pour[ing] forth"). Miranda leaves for New York knowing she'll return, but Leo's promise of a happy ending "[s]oon" doesn't offer enough suspense for an ending without closure. (Fantasy. 12-14)
From the Publisher
"An evocative setting, an air of mystery and some intriguing love interests for Miranda, a 16-year old budding scientist, will make Friedman's novel irresistible to romance fans."-Publishers Weekly"Romantic scenes and references to Shakespeare and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner abound."-School Library Journal
