Mermaids? Fantasy is not usually my thing. But Marissa Meyer, who wrote the awesome Lunar Chronicles series, recommended Fama on her blog, so I decided to jump on it. And she did not lead me astray!

Here Fama writes a story going back and forth between the present day (2002) and the late 1800s. A mermaid falls in love with a man, leaves the water, and gets to absorb the consequences in Puritanical Massachusetts. In the present, 17-year-old Hester is scared of love, knowing that there is a long train of women in her family who have died immediately following childbirth.

The way the stories intertwine and Hester uncovers the mystery will keep you reading for hours. I finished this one in a day. Fama is a wonderful story weaver, and I will be on the lookout for more of her work.