I'll start at the top.įirst, I was intrigued by the author's choice to switch narratives between the mermaid and the princess that SPOILER the prince ends up with in the end of the original fairytale. However, after the first 50% of the book, when the mermaid first got her legs, I began disliking it tremendously. I enjoy reading fairytale retellings, and I enjoyed this one when I first started it. She is willing to trade her home, her voice, and even her health for legs and the chance to win his heart….īeautifully written and compulsively readable, Mermaid will make you think twice about the fairytale you heard as a child, keeping you in suspense until the very last page. Meanwhile, the mermaid princess Lenia longs to return to the human man she carried to safety. Sure that the mermaid brought this man to her for a reason, Margrethe devises a plan to bring peace to her kingdom.

As Margrethe nurses the handsome stranger back to health, she learns that not only is he a prince, he is also the son of her father's greatest rival. By the time Margrethe reaches the shore, the mermaid has disappeared into the sea.

One gloomy, windswept morning as she stands in a convent garden overlooking the icy sea, she witnesses a miracle: a glittering mermaid emerging from the waves, a nearly drowned man in her arms. Princess Margrethe has been hidden away while her kingdom is at war. A surprising take on Hans Christian Anderson's classic tale, Mermaid is the story of two women with everything to lose.

Carolyn turgeon books