TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Mermaid Of Brooklyn

Author: Amy Shearn
Title: The Mermaid Of Brooklyn
Publisher: Touchstone
Publish Date: April 2, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours & the publisher

Book Blurb: 

SOMETIMES ALL YOU NEED IN LIFE IS A FABULOUS PAIR OF SHOES—AND A LITTLE HELP FROM A MERMAID.

Formerly an up-and-coming magazine editor, Jenny Lipkin is now your average, stretched-too-thin Brooklyn mom, tackling the challenges of raising two children in a cramped Park Slope walk-up. All she really wants is to survive the sweltering New York summer with a shred of sanity intact. But when her husband, Harry, vanishes one evening, Jenny reaches her breaking point. And in a moment of despair, a split-second decision changes her life forever.

Pulled from the brink by an unexpected ally, Jenny is forced to rethink her ideas about success, motherhood, romance, and relationships. But confronting her inner demons is no easy task. . .

Review: The Mermaid Of Brooklyn is one of those books that you can't help but keep reading. It isn't because this is a fantastic work of fiction. In fact, the first part of the book is pretty darn depressing. When Harry up and leaves Jenny without a word, you can't help but hate him.

Why?

Because Jenny is so very inept. She's a harried and truth be told, not a very good mom, and probably not a very good wife either. There were times throughout the book that I really wanted to slap her simple and the fact that she disliked Juniper, her husband's dog didn't endear her to me much at all.

I don't like animal haters and Jenny felt like one, so we didn't get off to a good start.

Then she dies...or well she doesn't..because somehow a mermaid decides to inhabit her body, giving her a second chance at life.

Thanks to the mermaid, Jenny becomes a slightly better mom, a bit of a business women and possibly even a better person, except for the whole thing around "Cute Dad" Sam.

Just about everyone in this novel is dysfunctional. Harry has disappeared before this, as he has a gambling problem, Jenny's friend Laura is recording interviews with random people at a diner late nights when she can't sleep, and then there's Sam, who is married but in a less then perfect relationship. (And yeah, things happen with Cute Dad Sam)

Most of the time I was reading this, (and I read it in one day) I was thinking, I'm so glad I don't know Jenny.

You know from the start that Harry is going to come back, but I was so surprised that after all that had happened that she takes him back and because both of them had gone through changes that things would be just fine?

WTF!

The best character by far in the story is voice of the mermaid that is inhabiting Jenny's body. You get a little glimpse of what her life was like before she became a rusalka.

This book was definitely different and unexpected. Not a happy go lucky romp or even fantasy oriented as you might think with the title...its just really "Real" with a touch of something different.

Rating:  4 flowers

About Amy Shearn

Amy Shearn is the author of How Far Is the Ocean from Here. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota’s MFA program. Her work has appeared in Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The L Magazine, Opium, and Five Chapters, and she writes for Oprah.com and RedbookMag.com. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. Connect with Amy at her website, Facebook or Twitter @amyshearn.