An Amazon Charts, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller.
From the author of The Art of Inheriting Secrets comes an emotional new tale of two sisters, an ocean of lies, and a search for the truth.
Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news… years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a few heart-wrenching seconds to upend Kit’s world. Live coverage of a club fire in Auckland has captured the image of a woman stumbling through the smoke and debris. Her resemblance to Josie is unbelievable. And unmistakable. With it comes a flood of emotions—grief, loss, and anger—that Kit finally has a chance to put to rest: by finding the sister who’s been living a lie.
After arriving in New Zealand, Kit begins her journey with the memories of the past: of days spent on the beach with Josie. Of a lost teenage boy who’d become part of their family. And of a trauma that has haunted Kit and Josie their entire lives.
Now, if two sisters are to reunite, it can only be by unearthing long-buried secrets and facing a devastating truth that has kept them apart far too long. To regain their relationship, they may have to lose everything.
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Wow, this is a five star knockout! This is such an emotional story, on every level, a real tear jerker! A horribly broken and dysfunctional family, that appears to have been destroyed, along with the earthquake that left them displaced and homeless, is given a chance to rebuild 15 years later.
Josie, dies in a terrorist attack in France and Kit is left to struggle alone, managing to become a doctor, but so disconnected and unloved. Then she sees Josie on TV, running from a fire in New Zealand, apparently, very much alive, and Kit goes to find her.
Barbara O Neal is a masterful storyteller, and that she was able to pull this together was amazing. Lots of lives broken and damaged by the neglect of uninvolved parents, drugs, physical and sexual abuse, but it shows the resilience of the human spirit.
My thanks to #LakeUnionPublishing #BarbaraO’Neil for the ARC. I hope my review does justice to this superb novel.
This is a wonderful story of survival and the special bond of sisters. There are different ways to survive and this story shows how two sisters choose their paths. It’s heartbreaking to read about the slippery slope of addiction. I loved the characters and the bond that Josie and Kit shared. The book is an emotional rollercoaster of sisterhood, love, secrets and the chance to find forgiveness. I highly recommend this book.
When We Believed in Mermaids is a deftly woven tale of two sisters, separated by tragedy and re-united by fate, discovering that the past isn’t always what it seems. By turns shattering and life affirming, as luminous and mesmerizing as the sea by which it unfolds, this is a book club essential—definitely one for the shelf!
To put it simply, I loved the book. Barbara O’Neal does a fantastic job of writing an original story with many moving parts and a satisfying ending. It’s a must-read. Thank you for such a good story!
Two sisters, one found a path, one died. Or did she? Why would someone completely walk away from their life? What happens when you want to reclaim what you walked away from? The people you hurt. Women’s fiction at it’s best.
This is the first book by Barbara O’Neal that I’ve read and I liked the writing style. I don’t always enjoy the use of flashbacks but I did like the way she slowly told the back story on the two sisters. Also liked how the story was told by both sisters so that you can understand how each was affected by their family’s past.
Barbara O’Neal has crafted a captivating tale about sisters, secrets, and the family ties that bind them despite an unforgivable betrayal.
When We Believed in Mermaids grabbed my attention from the beginning and had me looking forward to turning the pages every day. This is one of those books that I just didn’t want to end.
There are enough reviews on this book that mine hardly matters, yet I STILL feel compelled to write… the book is THAT good:
I read a lot, mostly novels, and while I enjoy many of them, I particularly enjoy those that tap into unique, unusual storylines with characters that jump from the page in their originality and humanness. When We Believed in Mermaids is one of those books.
Cast with characters that are as flawed, confounding, touching, and inexplicable as human beings are wont to be, every aspect of this story, with its many twists and turns (some so unexpected you sit up in surprise), keeps you pounding ahead to discover what on earth will happen or be uncovered next.
Just the main framework — of a sister/daughter who supposedly died in terror attack suddenly appearing, 15 years later, in a news report from a world away … if it is, indeed, her — immediately draws you in. You’re seeing events through the eyes of Kit Bianci, an ER doc in Santa Cruz whose views and perceptions about her dramatic, eclectic and controversial family story are immediately engaging. There’s mystery there, sorrow, tragedy, and deep love, and as she is driven to find out if the fleeting image IS her sister, she leaves her life in California to travel to New Zealand in a quest that is either futile or fulfilling.
Along the way we learn her family’s history, twisty and dark at turns, and are eagerly in step with her as she moves forward. What she finds, WHO she finds, will ultimately change her life, and in the telling of that journey, we are drawn in, captivated, to the point that I hated for the story to end.
Another magnificently written page-turner from Barbara O’Neal. An emotional story of sisters, family, lies and secrets. O’Neal masterfully slipped in the layers of the family’s complicated past revealing more and more with each onion skin peeled away, keeping me glued to the page. Curl up and enjoy!
This was a magical story that I savored. The descriptions of food were something I loved and the way the story was woven together with complex characters was sublime.
I read this novel because many people in my book club read it. Typically, I don’t read the summaries because I feel like it ruins the book. However, I did read the summary to decide if I should read this or not. I was NOT disappointed. This book has many twists and turns you do not expect!
The story of Kit & Mari (formerly Josie) is gut wrenching and tear jerking. Their reuniting will pull at your heart strings.
A wonderful story about love and loss and being found again.
WHEN WE BELIEVED IN MERMAIDS is a book you want to savor, re-read, and gift. I was hooked from the opening line, “I thought my sister was dead until I saw her on the evening news,” and needed to understand the entire story underneath that single sentence.
The writing is gorgeous, and even when the action slows—for a mouth-watering description of food or the sensual moment of a first kiss—the story is a rich page-turner. Not a single word is wasted.
It’s an emotional tale of two sisters growing up in a dysfunctional family and the lost teen boy who briefly becomes their parent figure. Even in the midst of the horrors surrounding the three of them—addiction, abuse, rape—there’s magic. They run wild by the sea, sleep on the beach, tell stories about mermaids, and learn to surf.
But then tragedy strikes, and family secrets pile up to rip the siblings apart. Josie, the eldest, leaves California for Europe, where she apparently dies in a terrorist attack. Or does she?
Fifteen years later, Kit is an ER doctor in Santa Cruz when she sees Josie on the evening news. Behind her is a breaking story of a nightclub fire in Auckland. Taking a leave of absence, Kit, who lives for her work and her rescue cat, Hobo, heads to New Zealand for answers about the sister who abandoned her. But the truth is a complex tapestry that involves sifting through unwanted and traumatic memories, which are gradually revealed in flashbacks.
As the plot moves between the present and the past, WHEN WE BELIEVED IN MERMAIDS becomes a redemptive story, filled with love and hope. And one seriously hot Spanish musician.
This book was very well written. The characters have depth and you will find yourself on a journey rooting one of the main characters, Kit along. A great read with a lovely ending.
This is a story about forgiveness and rebirth. It is beautifully written with lots of “reveals” along the way.
Finished this amazing book yesterday. I have no bad things to say about this book. My favorite book of 2020. It really touched me and for some reason I have so many feels about this book. I also want to say is I felt for these character and the things they went to growing up and how they had to grow up and try and make it. With all that they went through. This book will forever be on my heart. I will be buying my own kindle copy since I read it through Amazon prime reads. I highly recommend this book to anyone to read this book. I will be checking out more of Barbra O’Neal books. The characters are amazing and Barbara writing style is beautiful.
About Book
Kit is ER doctor who is watching tv one night when she sees someone who looks like her dead sister Josie. Problem is her mother saw the same thing. So she plans a trip to New Zealand to see if her sister is alive or if what she saw was nothing. I don’t want to give to much much away in my review. Again highly recommend this book.
My friend recommended this book and I am so glad she did. It was excellent. A very strong drama with a lot of heartache. Beautifully written. Strong female characters.
Kit and her sister Josie are twin souls — raised by two damaged parents and a boy that makes an appearance in their lives, providing Kit with the only stability she has. Sadly Josie follows in her parent’s footsteps, drinking and boys. Tragedy strikes repeatedly: an earthquake kills their father, Dylan also dies and Josie and Kit’s relationship distances as her drinking and behavior escalates. After a train bombing, Josie disappears and is presumed dead.
Or is she? When Kit and her mother, now sober herself, see Josie or a lookalike on a news clip of a nightclub fire in Auckland, Kit heads there to see if Josie is actually still alive. What follows is the unraveling of Josie’s story, and Kit’s own lonely life. Without too many spoilers, this book is lovely, and well-written. I’d highly recommend it, despite the many sad themes it contains.
I was riveted by this story of Kit who searches for her older sister, who she believed had died 15 years ago. Set in Auckland, NZ, it was a wonderfully woven story of characters and their happy, yet tragic childhood
I loved this sister story. I definitely would read a 2nd book following these sisters. It seemed like a lot of the resolution came quickly then the book was over, felt a bit abrupt but that could be not wanting the book to end.