3,5 stars

This is book 1 of an upcoming 10-book MG series from Germany, translated to English. Release date: March 11.

Thank you NetGalley and Arctis Books, for letting me read an advanced reader’s copy.

It’s day one of Summer vacation and Alea is standing at the Elbe, a river she isn’t allowed to get too close to, same for any other body of water, but she feels drawn to it anyway.

She’s an orphan and her foster mother Marianne, had a heart attack that morning. Alea is so worried about Marianne, who was taken to a hospital, and about her own future.

When she sees 2 brothers (Ben and Sammy) and their friend Tess, aboard a cozy looking sailboat, she has no idea she will end up sailing to The Netherlands with them, to search for her biological mother, who was last seen there.

They make money along the way, performing as street musicians and make up their own fun rules, like choosing their own last names, based on astrological signs.

When a storm hits, Alea saves one of her new friends but ends up falling overboard herself! She’s very scared at first but she soon realizes she feels great underwater and she can breathe!

My favorite thing about this book, was the most perfect execution of my favorite trope, found family! I also LOVED an incredibly magical part involving whales!

There were a few pretty brief mentions of plastic pollution and Alea wasn’t a typical mermaid but a mer-person, which I had to get used to (I am so used to mermaids, so her legs not changing was a bit weird to me, but interesting!).

What kept bothering me were the many occasions where something happened that wasn’t very plausible.

I enjoyed reading about this great friend group, who were trying to unravel a mystery, while becoming a close knit crew!