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When We Believed in Mermaids
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When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal - February 2022
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I'm looking forward to reading this one next month.
Just in case anyone is looking for this book if you have Amazon prime it is available for free on kindle through prime reading.
Thanks for the tip, Paige. Just getting started.
I've started this one and to be honest its not pulling me in even if I live in New Zealand :-)Also, when Kit believes it's her presumably dead sister on tv, it didn't feel as big of a deal...I mean she was suprised but not shocked if you know what I mean.
I'm almost 100 pgs in.. And I don't know.. I'm curious. Something is fishy..
I’m just getting underway and about to start Chapter 3. I agree that the family’s reaction to seeing the presumed dead sister on TV wasn’t the over the top reaction I think an event like that would create.
I am about 60-ish pages in. It’s good so far. Not great but good. I do hope it gets better and ties things together towards the end. There are a lot of parts that seem disjointed right now. I am having a little trouble getting fully engrossed. Once I start reading I enjoy it, but when I’m not reading it I don’t miss it. If that makes sense at all lol.
That makes perfect sense, Paige. I've had that happen many times.
This was the book I voted for here based on the interesting title and blurb. Thanks for the Amazon tip, Paige; making the price right since it was not available at my overdrive library. I am on page 122. It was slow for the first couple of chapters but now definitely interesting. I like the dual points of view. I agree she wasn't shocked to catch a glimpse of Josie. Maybe (view spoiler)
Corina wrote: "I've started this one and to be honest its not pulling me in even if I live in New Zealand :-)Also, when Kit believes it's her presumably dead sister on tv, it didn't feel as big of a deal...I mea..."
That's cool Corina--Is Veronica based on a real person? Is the art like described on page 15 and later on in the book? Are feijoas tasty?
On pg 161-- WHAT is "her big secret" ?
I've googled to see if Veronica was real, but still not 100% sure as a lot of pages were related to this book. Then I stopped searching as I wasn't that interested to be honest and the Veronica story in the book didn't actually make sense to me. Not a fan of feijoas myself, you either love them or hate them. I wasn't born in NZ so I didn't grow up eating them.
Buddy read this book last year with my sister and it was sooo good! You will definitely appreciate the ending 👏🏼
Corina wrote: "I've googled to see if Veronica was real, but still not 100% sure as a lot of pages were related to this book. Then I stopped searching as I wasn't that interested to be honest and the Veronica sto..."Thanks for the info! No, it was not very important to the plot at all, I thought.
I appreciated the happy ending, but overall I didn't unfortunately enjoyed the book as much as I had hoped.
Corina wrote: "I appreciated the happy ending, but overall I didn't unfortunately enjoyed the book as much as I had hoped."Oh... bummer, Corina. I was planning to start this one soon.
Hope you enjoy it more than I did, Kristie!
I have finished. For me it was a 3 star book. An earlier comment resonated with me - I enjoyed it when I was reading it, but when I set it down I didn’t have a strong pull to come back and finish it. I thought the ending was a bit too tied up.
What does everyone think? I’m about 70% through the book and I’m struggling to finish it…I just don’t care enough about the characters
So this book was good but not great in my opinion. Nothing ground breaking as far as plotline. The last 60 pages or so really made the entire novel for me... Josie revealing her truths to Kit and Kit coming to terms with her different perspective of people in their childhood. The whole Javier/Kit coupling was a little far fetched for me... A famous singer/songwriter falling so quickly for a random girl on vacation?? I'm sure it is POSSIBLE but I honestly didn't think it added a lot to the main story other than showing that Kit eventually broke her walls down. I think if the author had left him as a vacation hookup it would have done just as much for the plot. I do think it would have been interested to have some of the perspective from the mother's POV along with the sisters. That may have possibly added a little meat into the story. I did rank it 4 stars... But it was more like a 3.7 for me so I rounded up. It would've been a good easy beach read, for sure. But I probably wouldn't recommend it or pass it along.
I definitely do that, Andrea. I've actually said to someone, "it's not really a very good book, but I love it" before. Sometimes books just have that *something* that speaks to you.
Please remember to include spoilers, I was reading the comments because I'm not very engaged by the story and pondering DNF due to some key plots being discussed. Thank you.I agree Carol, the reaction to seeing Josie is very modest, almost passe. Wouldn't the Mom reach out to the MC/daughter with a phone call instead of waiting for her to stop by? It doesn't make sense.
Andrea wrote: "Sometimes I fall in love with a book for its atmosphere, location, some kind of vibe. This book compensates for its lack of a great plot with the sensorial touches. Maybe because I grew up on a bea..."yes! that's what is was about this book. it had such vibrant descriptions of the atmosphere, the art, etc.
I hope you kept going if you were considering dnf ing this. I was crying towards the end and smiling at the end, so to me it was a worthy read. Plus look again at that pretty cover. I give it 🌊 🌊. 🌊. 🌊
Thanks Laura, I haven't decided yet. I appreciate your insights. I find it challenging when people don't mark spoilers in reviews since many read reviews to consider reading a book or discussions since people are at different points while participating on the discussion, I guess they assume people jump in when finished?
Hi Kristy,May I suggest using an alternative form of discussion? One group I was in had two discussions, one was spoiler free, where people made general comments as they progressed through the story, the other discussion was for those who finished the book and could share whatever because everyone had read the book.
I know it might be a bit more time consuming depending on the book and the number of readers but maybe not.
Thanks for your work as a moderator.
From the author of The Art of Inheriting Secrets comes an emotional new tale of two sisters, an ocean of lies, and a search for the truth.
Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news…
Josie Bianci was killed years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a few heart-wrenching seconds to upend Kit’s world. Live coverage of a club fire in Auckland has captured the image of a woman stumbling through the smoke and debris. Her resemblance to Josie is unbelievable. And unmistakable. With it comes a flood of emotions—grief, loss, and anger—that Kit finally has a chance to put to rest: by finding the sister who’s been living a lie.
After arriving in New Zealand, Kit begins her journey with the memories of the past: of days spent on the beach with Josie. Of a lost teenage boy who’d become part of their family. And of a trauma that has haunted Kit and Josie their entire lives.
Now, if two sisters are to reunite, it can only be by unearthing long-buried secrets and facing a devastating truth that has kept them apart far too long. To regain their relationship, they may have to lose everything.