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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This is a thought provoking book, not just because of the story but because you think about your own childhood through an adult lense.
Kit is a successful doctor and surfer, her life has had many struggles but the worst was losing her sister Josie. One day she is just home from work, while watching a news report of a fire at a night club she notices a woman halfway around the world that looks like her dead sister.
Will Kit find the woman in the video? Is the woman her sister? Will Kit face her childhood? Can she see her childhood through adult eyes?
Really don’t understand the reviews. Just don’t see it.
I loved this book. Very intense with a wonderful ending.
Loved this story. Bittersweet.
When We Believed in Mermaids was a touching, emotional novel! I enjoyed the way the women were portrayed and their relationships with the other people in their lives. Sisters Josie and Kit used to be very close growing up. They are only two years apart and they used to rely on each other when their parents didn’t take care of them like they should have. For years, the girls had an “adopted” brother, an older boy who stayed with their family. Fifteen years ago, Josie died in a train accident. But one night Kit and their mother see Josie on a news broadcast in Auckland. They feel so strongly that it is her, that Kit, with encouragement from her mother, takes off to Auckland to try to find Josie. Kit begins a romance with a man she meets when she first arrives in Auckland. Kit finds Josie and the sisters face each other. What happens next is hard for both of them and hard for the new family that Josie has who know nothing about her real past. Along the way, the sisters struggle with the painful memories of what happened when they were younger. This was a strong story about family, sisters, love, and marriage.
This book does not seem to be too realistic. Some of the characters are flat and need more back information about them to be considered main characters. There are also many coincidences in it. Would these happen?
I really enjoyed this book. Different kind of storyline. Secrets in the family, drama, etc.
Wow, I really loved this book.
I enjoyed how the story meandered back and forth and found myself trying to predict how it would unfold.
When families are dysfunctional the losers are the children. Two sister and their story of growing up mostly on their own. Heartbreaking but show how you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
If you’re wondering where I’ve been for the past few days… I’ve been wandering the pages of Barbara O’Neal-land, happily lost in her exquisite words. Reading this book was like falling into a gorgeous dream.
Two sisters are separated by tragedy and circumstance. Their love leads them to find a way back to each other. And in the process, each finds her own future a lot brighter than before.
This book had just what I love in a reading experience–beautiful writing, soul-deep characterization and setting that makes me feel like I’m right there in that brand new locale experiencing everything. For when you want to escape to a new world (New Zealand, Northern California) and spend time with characters so real they feel like they could be your neighbors, friends or co-workers. Highly recommend!
I hated to see this book end. Strong characters, good writing and a great plot. I also found the New Zealand setting intriguing.
This is quite a mixed bag of emotions that this book has brought me. My first thought was “how boring and slow”. Then, as it moved along, my thought was” how incredibly selfish” Josie was to let her family think she was dead all those years. The flashbacks showing the lives of these two, totally different little girls were devastating. What selfish people can do to their children is mind-boggling.
Then I thought, this book certainly isn’t the HEA I like to read……until it was and I found myself sobbing over the ending.
There are so many twists and turns that you come to realize, nothing in life is what it seems.
This book was gifted to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Loved this book! The characters jump off the page and become part of you. The emotions are genuine, and so well written! The story is intriguing, thought provoking and true shared human experience.
A very enjoyable read. This story is about the love and trials of two sisters Josie who is an ER Doctor and her sister Kit who was thought to have dies fifteen years ago. When Josie see a picture of her dead sister on a news program she travels to New Zealand to find her. The lives of both sisters are brought together by pain and past happenings. As they try to make sense of what has happened to them from childhood to now this author takes you along the ups and downs of emotion as the two sisters try to find their way back to each other and put the past to rest. Very well written characters and the storyline pregressed really good. Kept me reading to the end. Loved it.
This is one of the most heart wrenching books I have read in a long time. The subjects in this story are so realistic and heartfelt that it had me in gut wrenching tears. Especially toward the end. It’s one that will definitely keep you turning the pages and grabbing the kleenex.
Two sisters who are almost totally dependent on each other. Parents who for the most part are not available for them. A young boy who comes along and keeps them straight. Josie and Kit, the sisters who believe in Mermaids. Who believe in each other. Who have faith in the universe in many ways.
Then one summer it’s all torn apart.
This book will have you torn in ways you will not forget. It’s very realistic the way the author describes the things that happen. A young girl’s anguish. The things that happened to her at such a young and tender age. It’s not right. Children are meant to be happy and carefree. Free to run and play. Explore and live. But for one sister it’s a nightmare. For the other it’s innocence. One has no idea what is happening to the other. Then when they get older one is gone. Gone in such a horrific way. But is she really? Is she safe and sound and finally at peace with her life? Kit looks for her sister after seeing her on the news and finds more than she bargained for. She learns so much in such a short period of time too. Some good and some not so good. Actually a lot not so good but better now.
Josie had to take the chance she took. It basically saved her life. I was very upset with her for a while. Until I read her story. Then my heart broke into a million pieces for that little girl. The little nine year old who went through what no child should have to go through. I felt her pain. I truly felt it. I’ve lived it and know what she felt. The shame of it. The horror of it. It made her into a person she didn’t want to be though. I felt so sorry for her. When she “died” she was able to live again. To build a beautiful life with a beautiful family. One she richly deserved.
Kit didn’t believe in love. Not the soulmate, heart beating fast, earth shattering love that some of us do believe in and do have. It takes a trip far away for her to finally feel the earth move. To feel the waves of desire that touch your very soul. The beauty of true, unspoiled, heartfelt love. The kind of love that only comes once in a lifetime. If you are lucky. She finds so much on this trip and finally finds herself too.
I don’t know what to say other than this is a great book with a heartbreaking and then heart mending feel to it. It’s one that takes the reader on a ride that they will both love and hate. Love the good and the feels, hate the hurt and heartaches. It’s written is a way that pulls at your heart quite a bit. It did for me. My eyes are so swollen from crying. This book may should have a warning label attached.
It has great characters. Great scenery and will make you feel like you are actually on the waves with both Kit and Josie. You will feel so many of the feels in this book. I actually had to lay this book down a few times and breath. Deep breathing to calm me down. It hit me right in the heart. Hard!!
Thank you to #NetGalley #Lake Union Publishers for the ARC of this book.
I give it a high 5 stars and highly recommend it with a warning to stock up on kleenex. I promise you will need them.
This is a beautifully written story of two sisters and their very dysfunctional family and lives. The Bianci sisters are wonderfully crafted characters that you can’t help but root for. They will leave you frustrated at times but also leave you wanting to know more.
Barbara O’Neal has developed characters in this story that are easy to identify with and a storyline that will keep your attention all the way to the end. The story is heartbreaking in parts and joyful in other parts.
This is a new to me author and I’m so appreciative of being able to read this wonderful story. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it. I was able to read this book in one day because I didn’t want to put it down.
Thank you #netgalley and #lakeunionpublishing for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. The opinions above are my own thoughts and feelings about this book.
More than a mystery, Barbara O’Neal’s When We Believed in Mermaids is a story of childhood—and innocence—lost, and the long-hidden secrets, lies, and betrayals two sisters must face in order to make themselves whole as adults. Plunge in and enjoy the intriguing depths of this passionate, lustrous novel, and you just might find yourself believing in mermaids.
Kit is shocked when she sees her dead sister on a newscast of a tragedy from half way around the world. With encouragement from her mother, she heads to New Zealand in search of answers. Mari (Josie)has a new life and she’s happy. To survive, she killed off Josie and started over, putting her past behind her. The sisters were close as children, sticking together through a turbulent childhood of neglect. Kit’s journey to find answers about her sister leads her into a journey of self-discovery, flashing back to her past and realizing what is missing from her life. Mari is on the same journey to reconcile her past and find a way to reintegrate her mother and sister into her life, while trying to figure out how she is going to explain to those she loves why she felt the need to take on a new identity.
My heart broke over and over for Kit and her sister as we learn more about their childhood and how much each had overcome. The characters were so well-written, they conjured a gamut of emotions in me, but ultimately I was rooting them both on. I love the way O’Neal put the story together, and her descriptions of the settings were beautiful.
This is a great one to sit back with and pass a summer day. Grab everything you need because once you start this one, you won’t want to walk away.
#whenwebelievedinmermaids #barbaraoneal #lakeunionpublishing
This was such a powerful book. It certainly checks all the emotional boxes and in some respects it is definitely not a happy tale. But it is a glorious roller coaster ride. It is a story of difficult relationships, troubled pasts and abandonment. It is a story of new beginnings and hope. Barbara O’Neal has an amazing gift for making characters real, rather than too pretty and perfect to be true. This book was tragic, heart wrenching, beautiful and hopeful. Like a phoenix the relationship between a mother and two daughters rises out of the ashes and becomes something new. This book is a gift.