Stevens adds psychological manipulation to the seductive powers of mermaids in her rambling romance full of delayed and competing desires. Recently widowed Cara Sweeting and her six-year-old daughter, Kate, relocate to coastal North Carolina. They quickly become friends with the sprawling and mysterious Blake clan, later revealed to be sirens capable of shifting between piscine and human forms. Despite the families’ strong attachments, the parents disrupt a budding romance between Kate and Gabe Blake, offering only murky promises of later explanations and heavy pressure to achieve academically. The confusing early chapters drag through Kate’s childhood in an oddly nonchronological sweep and pit Cara’s calm but rich personal life against her sister Dana’s sterile workaholism as the two paths Kate might pursue. Things improve once Kate and Gabe reunite in early adulthood to consummate their long-postponed romance. Gabe teaches Kate about the strict customs of sirens and their powerful abilities to read and influence others’ emotional states. Patient readers are rewarded with the final dramatic arc of a gaslighting siren king who kidnaps Kate, but most will find the plodding work taxing. (BookLife)