Book Review: When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal

 

Goodreads Summary: 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.

Goodreads Ratings: 4.19 stars with over 151,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Mystery, Chick Lit, Women's Fiction, Book Club

Goodreads Challenge: 14/50 

2021 Reading Challenge: #32 Read a book by an author with the same first name as one of your grandparents (find the full challenge here)

Book Review:

So one of the ideas behind the Reading Challenges is to help get people out of their reading comfort zones. This is one of those examples for me. I doubt that I would have gravitated towards When We Believed in Mermaids otherwise, but it fit the grandparent category and seemed mildly interesting. I will say I thought it was going to be more of a mystery than what it was. I'd consider this more a contemporary romance than anything. When I think of mystery, it makes me think of solving a case, whereas this was more explaining a situation that happened but leaving certain pieces out to build suspense. 

I did enjoy how the story unfolded. Each chapter gives one sister's perspective of both their current view and the past. It's done in a way that allows the story to flow without the Kit or Josie restating what the other sister already told. I feel like the "mystery" is more what happened to Josie and why she did the things she did. All of this leading up to what happened to Dylan, their sort-of adopted brother. What happened to her was sad, but at the same time, I hated her for the decisions she made. That may be intentional, and probably a bit how Kit felt. I think the way the story was told was meant to keep the reader guessing about the secrets, but honestly, I didn't find them all that surprising. 

I felt like Kit built such a wall around herself that it made her lack personality. Her story was interesting, but she wasn't. Hopefully, that makes sense. Surprisingly, I didn't mind her romance with Javier. I thought he came across as sweet. I did enjoy the casual meeting of staying in the same building while on vacation. I liked that Kit started to let loose once she got comfortable with him. 

I did enjoy the subtle psychology that When We Believed in Mermaids contained. Kit and Josie came from the exact same neglectful environment, and how they handled that neglect showed in two very different ways for most of their lives. I will say that I think some of this is Josie's experiences were a lot harder than Kit's because Josie and Dylan protected Kit from what they experienced. 

The ending was a bit cheesy, and I didn't really feel like certain parts fit with the story. Maybe it's my logical brain over-analyzing things, but I didn't really feel like Josie's husband Simon's reaction was genuine when they surprised Kit. It just didn't make sense with the last few chapters. I also thought way too long and too hard about the legal ramifications of Josie's situation, but I won't get into all of that.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was easy to get into and stay interested in. It's only about 345 pages, so I ended up reading most of it in one night. It was a little predictable, but not so much that it was boring. The characters were decent enough. I didn't love them, but I didn't hate them either. If I gravitated towards books like this, I'd probably have liked it more than I did. But I think if you're a contemporary romance/thriller reader, you may like it quite a bit. Some topics discussed in When We Believed in Mermaids can be sensitive subjects for some like rape, drug use, alcoholism, and child neglect to name a few. I figured I'd mention this as a trigger warning. Otherwise, if you don't have a problem reading about those subjects, it was a decent book.