When you read the third book in a trilogy, do you want it to be wrapped up at the end of the story? Or do you mind if it’s left as a cliffhanger, wondering what will happen to your characters next?
With the third book in Kathryn Lasky’s “Daughters of the Sea” series, we meet Lucy, the last of the mermaid sisters to be reunited. She is the adopted daughter of the Reverend Stephen Snow and his wife Marjorie. When they receive an invite to summer with society’s grandest figures, Marjorie is sure this is the ticket to the big-time. Her husband “will be rubbing shoulders with many of the gentlemen who influence the nominations for the bishop of New York.” With the current bishop in poor health it is looking very promising for Rev. Snow. And why not find a suitable society husband for their daughter, Lucy, while they are there?
Lucy, however, is not interested in the high society circles, nor the tea dances or the yacht trips around Bar Harbor. Instead, she is ecstatic about living close to the ocean. She has dreamt of the sea and longs to swim in the ocean.
With possible suitors from families with prestige, money, and power, her mother is overjoyed. Lucy, on the other hand, knows there’s a bit more to it than that. Augustus Bellamy, while fun and handsome, has eyes for someone else. The Duke who charms all the old ladies is superficial. Then there is Phineas. Phineas who dreams of boats and the open water catches her eye and her imagination. Phineas, unfortunately, is one of the locals, and not on her mother’s radar as an appropriate gentleman.
As both Phineas and Lucy navigate an understanding of each other, the Duke is none too pleased that he’s been picked over for a common local man. In this time of the late 1800s, being proper is everything. Status is everything. When Lucy follows her spirit and defines who she is by way of swimming in the ocean, learning she has mermaid sisters, and falling in love with a local, her whole world and worldview shifts.
What happens when these worlds collide will surprise the reader and make them want more.
If you’d like to read a copy today, the San Jose Public Library has three copies. Pick one up today.
