L. K. Madigan

Lena, almost sixteen, has always felt drawn to the waters of San Francisco Bay despite the fears of her father, a former surfer, but after she glimpses a beautiful woman with a tail, nothing can keep Lena from seeking the mermaid in the dangerous waves at Magic Crescent Cove.

The Mermaid's Mirror

Sarah Sammis

The Mermaid's Mirror by LK Madigan blends surfing with the legend of the selkie. Lena has the sea in her blood and for her sixteenth birthday she desperately wants to learn how to surf. Her father, refuses, having nearly drowned while surfing many years ago. Meanwhile, a mermaid watches from off shore.

A series of events that start with sleep walking, help Lena unravel some secrets of her past. She already knows her current mother is actually her step mother but they are so close, she has been content to call her Mom. Now though, something is out of whack in Lena's life. Part of it is the natural teenage rebellion. But there is something more pulling Lena away from her family.

Ultimately Lena learns the truth and has to make a decision. She can leave the family she's known all her life behind and take on a completely new life, or she stay with them with full knowledge of who and what she is.

Lena lives in Crescent Cove, near Magics. For anyone familiar with the Bay Area, it's a fictionalization of Half Moon Bay and Mavericks. For me, the fictionalization a distraction and detraction from an otherwise delightful retelling of the selkie tales. It seemed that the town's location and geography changed repeatedly through the book to fit the plot. There was nothing about The Mermaid's Mirror that couldn't have worked if set in Half Moon Bay and points nearby.

Lena has lived her whole life near the beach – walking for miles up and down the shore and breathing the salty air, swimming in the cold water, and watching the surfers rule the waves – the problem is, she’s spent her whole life just watching. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Lena vows she will no longer watch from the sand: she will learn to surf. But her father – a former surfer himself – refuses to allow her to take lessons. After a near drowning in his past, he can’t bear to let Lena take up the risky sport. Yet something lures Lena to the water … an ancient, powerful magic. One morning Lena catches sight of this magic: a beautiful woman – with a silvery tail. Nothing will keep Lena from seeking the mermaid, not even the dangerous waves at Magic Crescent Cove. And soon … what she sees in the mermaid’s mirror will change her life …

Vicky  Nuñez 

The Story: A girl who has felt a deep connection with the sea finds herself restricted by her father's fear over a mysterious accident.
I am a big fan of mermaids, I always found them enthralling so I was very excited when I got this book. 
But I must admit it was very clichéish at times.
The Mermaid's Mirror is a great book for sea lovers and it's about a girls decision. I had great fun reading it, although not a huge fan of how things ended up. 
Complain: I did not believed how fast love developed between the main character and another character, but it was believable enough to make us want to read more. 
Overall, the Mermaid's book was not a great book, but a good one and a quick, nice read. And I sure hope there's a sequel to wrap things up.

Denne boka likte jeg veldig godt. Den var lettlest, men ikke barnslig, hadde akkurat passe lange kapitler og jeg følte at jeg kunne forstå Selenas (Lena) tanker og handlinger. Lite minus for at det tok halve boka før handlingen virkelig kom ordentlig i gang, men når den først var i gang så var den bra! Det Lena følte var som en drøm, det tok jeg meg selv i å tenke på som min drøm mens jeg ikke leste akkurat da, og skildringene var veldig bra. Lena’s forhold med lillebroren Cole var kjempesøtt. Slutten kom som et lite vondt støt, selv om jeg klarte å forutse hva som kom til å skje. Alt i alt, så er dette ei bok jeg likte veldig godt, og jeg ønsker supergod bedring til forfatteren.

Lena has always felt drawn to the waters of San Francisco Bay despite the fears of her father, but after she glimpses a woman with a tail, nothing can keep Lena from seeking the mermaid in the dangerous waves at Magic Crescent Cove.

Leelynn Brady

Find this review and more on my blog Sometimes Leelynn Reads.

"By the light
of the blueberry moon
we sang this song
in Lena's room..."

I read this book as part of one of my bookclubs last year, but I only just finished it today. I'm not sure what took me a while to finally get back to finishing the book, but I finally did. I'm glad I know what happened at the end, and now I can rest easy knowing that I actually don't have to worry about this one anymore.

This book was about a girl named Lena (her full name is Selena but nobody calls her that), a girl in California who just can't get enough of the ocean. The only catch is, her father refuses to let her swim or surf because of the time where he almost died surfing many years ago. He doesn't want the same thing or worse to happen to her, but for some reason, Lena feels the ocean calling to her. On her sixteenth birthday, she goes to her favorite beach, Magic's, and as she's looking out into the ocean, she sees a mermaid.

Yep, a real-life mermaid.

At first, she thinks she's going crazy. I mean, mermaids aren't real, right? That's what Lena thought when she first saw the beautiful creature. She soon became obsessed with seeing the mermaid again, and eventually, something else happened that she would have never imagined in her entire life.

Lena was the kind of character that you wanted to support through all of her decisions, but just couldn't. There were times where I understood why she was so angry but just couldn't imagine the actions she took because of it. I wanted to tell her "NO! You don't want to do that!" or "How could you be so cruel right now?" but of course, she couldn't hear me. Lena is an interesting character though, and when you follow her journey, you know that she is the kind of girl that will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

This was a beautiful story about my favorite mythological creature in the world, and I'm sorry that there will be no more stories about Lena and her friends. I hope to visit her world again one day, and dream about life under the sea.

Jessica Nottingham

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.

The Mermaid's Mirror

Reviews