In the tiny village of Rockabill, Maine, Jane True—26-year-old bookstore clerk and secret night swimmer—has no idea that her absent mother’s legacy is entry into a world populated by the origins of human myths and legends. It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: vampires are not quite what we think; dogs sometimes surprise us; and whatever you do, never—ever—rub the genie’s lamp. For Jane, everything kicks off when she comes across a murder victim during her nightly clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean. This grisly discovery leads to the revelation of why she has such freakish abilities in the water: her mother was a Selkie and Jane is only half human. With this knowledge, Jane soon finds herself mingling with supernatural creatures alternately terrifying, beautiful, and deadly—all adjectives that quite handily describe her new friend Ryu. When Ryu is sent to Rockabill to investigate the murder, he and Jane fall hard for each other even as they plummet into a world of intrigue threatening to engulf both supernatural and human societies. For someone is killing half-humans like Jane. The question is, are the murders the work of one rogue individual or part of a greater plot to purge the world of Halflings?
Jane True is a character that the reader begins to empathize with almost immediately. She is fun, sarcastic, and just a little unsure enough to make her downright lovable. Jane spends her days caring for her father and going through the same motions day in and day out, all the while never directly asking questions about her mother. In fact, the first few pages gave me sudden Twilight flashbacks (Bella cooking for her dad) but the comparison ends there (thank god).
Given that Rockabill, Maine, is such a small town, everyone remembers Jane’s mother, who showed up in the middle of town one day completely naked. Her father offered her a jacket, and the rest is history. Except her mother disappeared a year later, leaving her young daughter to fend for herself in a town that was more that happy to see their fears about ‘that woman’ confirmed.
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