This is a romantic YA retelling of The Little Mermaid, with a gender reversal. The first half of the book was a tad slow for me, but the second half sped nicely along.

In the original HCA story, the little mermaid is a girl, and she falls in love with a human prince. In this retelling, it’s a merman and a human princess. The author adds some backstory. There was a war between the people of the deep and the people of the land, and in order to restore peace, the people of the air imposed a “silence.” No mer-person can break the surface without perishing, and any human who plunges into the ocean risks getting pulled below and drowned.

So, how are our two kids going to fall in love? Well, the first half of the book answers that question, and the second half depicts everything in the world trying to tear them apart. Hoyle does a great job of keeping the stakes high, which is important because the plot points closely follow HCA’s, so most of us have a good guess as to what happens next. With much higher stakes and a much sweeter romance than in the original, this story is actually more entertaining.

Hoyle threw in some great plot twists in the second half that left me so glad that I finished! I was a tad under the weather when I was reading the first half, so it was hard for me to concentrate and stay awake…mostly due to congestion and fatigue, lol. But I’m glad I pushed through because I read the second half in a single night. Yee-ah.