Review: The Mermaid’s Mirror by L.K. Madigan

Posted 6 July, 2010 by Danny in Danny / 0 Comments


The Mermaid’s Mirror

Author: L. K. Madigan
Publication Planned: October 4, 2010
Links: Goodreads, Amazon (NO Kindle edition is planned at the time of this review)
free eBook received from NetGalley by reviewer

Description:

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 …

Review

Pushy: I found this book while browsing upcoming titles on Netgalley and I have to admit I fell for the cover which just screamed Summer Read to me. But even as I requested the ARC I was leery of the topic. Mermaids? No offense to Prince Eric but I watched The Little Mermaid with my baby sister like a million times and I couldn’t help wondering, “What’s sexy about a fish tail?”

But from the very beginning this book had me hooked (OK, seriously, no more bad puns). I loved the descriptions of Lena’s everyday life. I loved the way she interacted with her family and friends, all of whom are richly detailed secondary characters. I love how the mystery at the center of the story unfolds slowly, drawing the reader into a deeper connection with Lena. I love how the fairy-tale world L. K. Madigan creates in this novel felt so very real to me.

This may come as a shock, but I loved this story. I hated every time I had to switch my Kindle off and I raced back to read it again as soon as I had free time. I was enthralled.

Danny: Note that date, because it never happened before that pushy gave a book a better rating than I did! I liked the book, truly I did. I loved the idea – I mean there are tons of Vampire and Faery books out there but no Mermaids. I adore the cover, I’m such a sucker for beautiful covers – I often don’t pick up a book if the cover is horrible…

I like Lena as a character a lot, she’s sweet and lovely but seriously, I love her Dad even more – believe me when I say she has the hottest dad ever!!! All the characters in the book appeared very real and detailed I could easily connect to them.
For me the only thing that was missing was a bit more romance. I need good heartbreakingly sweet romance. Don’t get me wrong we do get something, but for me it felt rushed and although it was supposed to be very intense the ending didn’t make sense for me. Pushy disagreed with me, she said it was totally understandable how everything happened and why. I just felt a bit cheated, there was the promise of sweet lovely romance and then … Ok, you have to read it, everything else I could say about this issue would be spoilerish so I leave it like this for now.

Bottom Line

While we both enjoyed it, Pushy clearly did a bit more so than Danny. Is it a book you should read? Definitely. How impatient you should be waiting for the release is a matter of debate. Pushy votes for pre-ordering NOW! Danny agrees because this would enhance the chances of a sequel!

Pushy gives it 5 out of 5 books.

Danny gives it 4 out of 5 books.
Final Notes

L. K. Madigan is also the author of Flash Burnout, her William C. Morris award winning debut YA novel. You can read all about it on Goodreads.

And, while L. K. Madigan doesn’t have a contract for the sequel to The Mermaid’s Mirror right now, we would LOVE to see that happen.

So if you wind up reading The Mermaid’s Mirror and loved it as much as we did, let L. K. Madigan know. She’s on twitter and, as you can see from the tweet above, she has the sequel all in her head. Maybe if she gets some on-line buzz going we might get to dive back in to this beautiful world. Yes, I lied. One last pun.

Now go and get lost…in a book!

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