Mermaid's Mirror, The

The Mermaid's Mirror had a ton of potential in my eyes. This was honestly one of the first books dealing directly with mermaids that caught my eye this year, and that alone captured my imagination! Unfortunately the mental bar that I sent for this book might have been a little too high. Despite the imagination that was definitely present behind the story, the plot just tended to drag and it was a bit of a difficult read to get through.

For me, Lena was not an attractive protagonist. Although her character is rather young in this book, I really felt like she was too stubborn for her own good. Constantly leaning towards selfish behavior, the way she dealt with a lot of situations in the book made me extremely frustrated. This problem has always been apparent for me when I read YA fiction. I tend to find that sometimes young female protagonists bring out the worst characteristics of the teen population. I like to give them more credit than that! In a way, I suppose her behavior lent itself to the overall plot, but it was honestly a difficult read for me because of it.

What really heightened my enjoyment of this book was the setting. The vivid descriptions of the ocean and surfers were wonderful! My favorite scenes in the book were when Lena was learning to surf. I was able to read the words, and feel the sea wind whipping through my hair. I could taste the salt on my lips. In all honesty, L.K. Madigan was spot on with the portrayal of the angry sea versus the calm sea. She captured the surfers and their absolute devotion to the ocean in a perfect manner. As a person who lives by the ocean, and sleeps and breathes salt air, I was extremely attracted to her obvious love for research into what she was writing about.

After a lot of thought, I still would definitely recommend this book as a read. The concept behind it is rather unique, and you may find yourself smitten with it where I was not! Overall it's a very solid story and I applaud L.K. Madigan.