Storm and Sea by Tereza Kane

The biggest problem I had with this book was that it inspired almost nothing in me. It had five POV characters, all of whom had identical voices. Luckily, it was easy to tell from context who the POV character was, but if I stopped reading mid-chapter I might have to take a moment to remember.

The pace was slow, which isn’t always a problem, but it also went nowhere. The mob/gang storyline was just sort of… there… and never felt like a real and present risk even as they actively harmed and terrorized one of the characters. It’s just that we barely saw that, only the aftermath, and only for seconds at a time.

The book is set in post-WWII Italy and that just… literally doesn’t matter. It could be set anywhere coastal except for the Italian phrases thrown in… when the characters are supposedly speaking Italian anyway…. It could be set in any time, as well, as the elements of homophobia (internalized or otherwise) that appear in the TW at the start of the book are just not that present. Also, one of the elders in the book was a soldier. In Italy. In WWII. And the implications of that are never discussed or implied at all. Which, sure, most of the POV characters wouldn’t know all the implications of the human war, but some of them sure would. There’s also a lot of modern references and manners of speech – the Spongebob meme appears twice in the book and had me cringing both times.

A lot of the reviews I’ve seen praise the romance and my main question is: where? One of the ‘romances’ is odd and strained at the best of times and the other doesn’t get there yet by the end of the book.

I didn’t hate this book, though. It just never actually went anywhere. The plot is kind of dead in the water (pardon the pun) and there’s no push back to their solution.

If you want a summertime mermaid book with some family drama and found-family, this is a cute and easy read.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that it inspired almost nothing in me. It had five POV characters, all of whom had identical voices. Luckily, it was easy to tell from context who the POV character was, but if I stopped reading mid-chapter I might have to take a moment to remember.…