Alice at Heart by Deborah Smith

I read this in a single night, it was that good.  The writing is extraordinary.  Ms. Smith is a master of wordcraft.  It just flows seamlessly from passage to passage.

Oh, but the story.  Alice Riley is an outcast.  She can swim in frigid water, submerged for hours will no ill effects, likes to eat butter like ice cream, and has peculiar webbing between her toes.  Mocked and humiliated all of her life, her only solace is within the depths of her mountain lake.

Griffin Randolph is from a wealthy merchant family from Georgia.  He is sort of like Robert Ballard, searching for sunken ships beneath the waves.  His parents died in a shipwreck during a storm off the Georgia coast when he was four.  He knows he was rescued by three of his mothers relatives, but what little he remembers seems impossible, and he believes them responsible for his parents’ death.

You see, what Alice and Griffin don’t know, is that they are merpeople, as was Griffin’s mother and her relatives.

There is a murder mystery, and lots of things for them, and us, to learn about merpeople, themselves, and each other.

I cried near the end, so be prepared with a box of tissues.

I highly recommend Alice at Heart.

Rating:  5 out of 5 stars