The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan

Lena just turned sixteen and wants more than anything to learn how to surf. Problem is, her father refuses to let her. When she finally does get a chance to learn, she realizes that not only does surfing come naturally to her, but she is good at it, too! That is, until she spots what certainly looks like a mermaid off in the ocean's distance. Suddenly everything Lena has known about her life so far is turned on it's head. Figuring out who her mother really was is not going to be an easy task, but it will be necessary if Lena wants to learn who she is as well.

My first thought about this book was that it read a lot younger than I expected it to. I am a huge fan of mermaid stories, and so I was super stoked to read this one. However, when I began reading, I was immediately turned off by how young and spoiled Lena sounded. The rest of her family is so understanding and nice! I also liked her boyfriend Kai a whole lot better, and would have liked to see more of him in the story. After a few chapters I got into the story, but then the second half of the book (when Lena begins to really get some answers) slows way down. This slower pace pulled me out of the story and made it a lot less urgent to keep reading the chapters. The parts I did enjoy about the book were the surfing scenes, and the scenes where Lena was super tender with her brother Cole. There was also some interesting mermaid lore, for those mermaid fiction fans out there. A good story and a worthy read, but in the end was nothing special.

Overall rating: 3 Stars