This book is all you could ever want and more. You may hear the word mermaid and think it is a story for children, but Laura Dockrill creates an entirely new world, with slightly heavier themes. This book is definitely one to read over and over again.

Hot Key Books had kindly sent along my copy due to its eye catching shiny cover, and also mermaids. Lorali is a mermaid Princess who, as Ariel did before her, decides that her time underwater has come to an end, leading her to the join the world of the humans, or Walkers. Her new home of choice – Hastings. Rory, a swaggering teenager from Hastings, is the one who discovers Lorali, stark naked and alone. Rescuing her from torrential rain, Rory becomes drawn into Lorali’s plight as they are chased by dapper pirates and grubby Dr Marten wearing sirens. Lorali (the novel) is narrated in chapters between Rory, Lorali herself and THE SEA, who is actually really hilarious. The Sea’s chapters tend to focus on the current or historical world of the Mer, and follows Mer-Walker liaison Opal Zeal as she attempts to make contact with humans in order to find the missing princess. Dockrill takes a spin on the mermaid stories, with the introduction of mythology around their creation and their tapestries (their tails), alongside the very real threat they face from poaching. The world she creates is rich and believable, and I’m very much looking forward to returning there with the sequel Aurabel, due in June. Let me get real a second though. What starts off as a witty, brilliant story of mermaids and embarrassing teen boys and lighthouses suddenly takes a turn at one point and becomes incredibly dark. I ended the book needing to lie down in a dark room to process all sixteen of my emotions. It’s a book that made me giggle, cry, and flail, which for me is the mark of an intense read. Also I can only assume that Dockrill is also a Gilmore fan, which is always a point in someone’s favour. You can already preorder the sequel Aurabel about a disabled steampunk mermaid here BUT BE CAREFUL BECAUSE THE DESCRIPTION SPOILS LORALI. Thank you kindly to Hot Key Books who continue to keep me in good books. You are angels.

An imaginative story about a mermaid, her mer family and the link with a very ordinary town. A great read for teens, first love and fear. Recommended.

Oh I had so much hope for this book! So so much hope! I mean, everything was there; the premise was great, the characters were well rounded and defined, and the cover art? Amazing. But where did it go so wrong? Okay, so let's start off with the pros shall we? First off is the 'mer-world' that accompanies this novel. There are countless books out there about mermaids, so it can become a wee bit tricky to come up with something new, but Laura Dockrill hit the nail on the head. The combination of sea mythology and real world societies created this vibrant and modern underwater world that I adored. There were also multiple characters that I loved through out the book, and I had a clear image of each one in my mind. It had excellent pacing too, so there was never a moment when I didn't want to pick it up. As a whole it was very enjoyable... until the ending. Oooh, why?! It was such an amazing build up, and then it just sort of splatted into this grey-ish mush. I won't spoil anything by giving it away, but it simply ruined the joy I had of reading the rest of the book. Don't get me wrong, I've read multiple books where the ending went a bit 'bleh', but for the best part I've been able to ignore it. I hate that I dislike this book so much, but I wanted to get my view across. As I said, the main bulk of this was very enjoyable, and I would recommend this to mid teens and up. Give it a go if you fancy, you may completely disagree with me! If you do feel free to hunt me down, thrust the book back into my hands and demand that I read it. I'll be willing to give it another go, but for now I feel there are better book out there.