From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: The Mermaids of Lake Michigan by Suzanne Kamata

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Blog Tour: The Mermaids of Lake Michigan by Suzanne Kamata

Author: Suzanne Kamata

Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing

Date of publication: February 2017

Elise Faulkner is more at home in the waters of her beloved Lake Michigan than on land where her beauty queen mom is always on her back about her lack of a social life; her sister is dating the boy of her dreams; her favorite penpal–the one who wrote about mermaids in Ghana–has gotten married and ended their correspondence; and no one’s allowed to talk about her glamorous great-grandmother, the deep-sea wreck diver. Elise is biding her time with books until she can flee. But then crazy Chiara Hanover pops into her life, as does Miguel, a mysterious carnival worker whose dark future has been predicted by a gypsy.

So, after finishing The Mermaids of Lake Michigan, I really had to sit on it for a while to decide my opinion. The book is about Elise. She is a bookworm and loves to be antisocial. When she meets Chiara and a mysterious love interest, her world changes in ways she couldn't imagine. That is the book I thought I was getting. In the end, I'm not sure I connected with the story as much as I had hoped I would.

I did enjoy the parts about Elise's childhood and her interactions with her mother. Those kept my interest and had the story been more about her and her mother, I might have liked it more. I never really felt like I connected with any of the characters. Elise was initially a bookworm and reminded me of myself at her age. She was content to read all day and not talk to anyone. As the story progressed, the similarities stopped there. I couldn't reconcile the bookworm and straight A student with the girl who all of a sudden makes really bad decisions. That is where the story fell apart for me. I never saw any growth in Elise even in the end. Everything seemed to fall too much into place for her and there were too many coincidences to be believable. Even the "consequences" she gets for her bad decisions are just too easy. The ending was really quick and left me with questions about Miguel and what came next.

In the end, I'm not sure this was for me. I didn't find the "coming of age story" that I was hoping to get. It has received a lot of good reviews from others on the tour, so make sure to check them out. The writing is good, it's just the story I didn't care for. Give it a shot and try it for yourself.

About the author:

Suzanne Kamata was born and raised in Grand Haven, Michigan. She is most recently from Lexington, South Carolina, and now lives in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan with her husband and two children. Her short stories, essays, articles and book reviews have appeared in over 100 publications including Real Simple, Brain, Child, Crab Orchard Review, and The Japan Times. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times, and received a Special Mention in 2006. She is also a two-time winner of the All Nippon Airways/ Wingspan Fiction Contest, winner of the Paris Book Festival Award, and winner of the Half the World Global Literati Award for the novel.

Connect with Suzanne

Website | Twitter

Suzanne Kamata’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Tuesday, February 14th: Kahakai Kitchen

Wednesday, February 15th: Books and Bindings

Thursday, February 16th: Bibliotica

Friday, February 17th: Books ‘n Tea

Tuesday, February 21st: Write Read Life

Wednesday, February 22nd: Reading is My Superpower

Wednesday, February 22nd: Just Commonly

Thursday, February 23rd: Ms. Nose in a Book

Friday, February 24th: Readaholic Zone