Promise Bound

December 15, 2013
This conclusion to Brown's mermaid trilogy follows efforts to reunite families and to gain power among the mermaids of Lake Superior. Lily, at age 18, is a bit of a reluctant mermaid. She has a human mother who's afflicted with multiple sclerosis and a father who, as a merbaby raised on land, was not returned to the mermaids as required by an unbreakable mermaid promise. Lily's heartthrob, Calder, is actually around 50, but as merpeople age far more slowly than humans, he looks like an adolescent. Learning he was kidnapped as a toddler and transformed into a merman, Calder heads north to try to find his biological human parents. Meanwhile, Lily tries to convince one of the mermaid sisters--both locked in an internal power struggle--to transform her mother in order to save her life. All the while, Lily seems to be in contact with the spirit of Nadia, who wants somehow to keep her broken promise to Calder's birth mother to return her son. Brown writes with more sophistication than usual in mermaid fiction, lifting this book a bit above the norm for the genre, and she displays a good touch for characterization, thanks in part to an alternating first-person narration; even the more villainous mermaid sister feels well-rounded and believable. Good entertainment for fans of the genre. (Paranormal suspense. 12 & up)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-The last installment of the trilogy brings this paranormal romance to a satisfying close. A clan of mermaids have been wreaking havoc on the shores of Lake Michigan, and two young lovers-mermaid Lily and mostly-human Calder-are trying to stop them while also coming to terms with their own identities and destinies. While the romance between the teens remains the focus, their family histories and backstories are fleshed out. The narrative revolves around details of mermaid mythology that will be confusing for anyone not familiar with the first two titles. For fans, a twist at the end makes for a strong finale, and most plotlines are neatly tied up. Recommended only where the first two books and other mermaid fantasies are popular.-Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA

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December 1, 2013
Grades 8-11 Brown concludes her paranormal romance trilogy with a crowded but propulsive tale of love and war among a dysfunctional family of merpeople. Now that Lily has become a mermaid, Calder's feuding sisters pressure her to choose a side, each promising something she desperately wants. Meanwhile, Calder searches for his human mother to fulfill a promise made long ago by Nadia, the deceased mermaid matriarch. Calder and Lily react poorly to their separation, unable to control the merpeople's instinctive killing urges. While most of the characters' stories have satisfying, if hasty, resolutions, a few are left in frustrating limbo. As finales go, this is uneven but essential for series fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)