Book Review Between Land and Sea

Title: Between Land and Sea
Author: Joanne Guidoccio
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

 After giving up her tail for an international banker, Isabella of the Mediterranean kingdom is aged beyond recognition. The horrified banker abandons her on the fog-drenched shores of southwest England, leaving her to face a difficult human journey as a plain and practically destitute fifty-three-year-old woman.

With the help of a magic tablet and online mermaid support, Isabella evolves into the persona of Barbara Davies. Along the way, she encounters a cast of unforgettable characters, among them former mermaids, supportive and not-so-supportive women, deserving and undeserving men, and several New Agers.

Once upon a time, Isabella was a mermaid. Now, she’s a middle-aged, overweight woman named Barbara. In Between Land and Sea, Isabella gave up her tail to be with an international banker. But when she’s punished, and loses more than just her tail, but also her youth and good looks, he leaves her. Now she’s stuck in a body she never wanted, and in a world she never wanted to belong to, and she struggles to live with her new reality.

Thankfully she has a magic tablet to help her, and an online mermaid support group. Barbara is determined not to rely on others, and not to need a man to help fend for her – she wants to be able to fend for herself. She does an admirable job of dealing with her new life, and of never giving up.

I loved this book. It’s at times hilarious, at times strangely eye-opening. The plot is great – original and entertaining. But the main reason why I absolutely adored this, would be Barbara. Why do all main characters tend to be either young (teens or twenties) or in their thirties? Barbara is in her fifites and she’s much more entertaining. She struggles with all the things women in their fifties typically struggle with – weight issues, getting tired faster than in the decades before, some type of midlife crsis, and so on.

This is an entertaining, solid book, recommended to everyone looking for a new type of book, offering something unexpected and a protagonist you can’t help but root for.