"I'm going to be bold here and say that this might be one of my favourite reads in 2016." -Unfathomable Reads

Losing my parents felt like drowning. My mother always tried to steer us away from the sea, but we took a surprise trip when I was five. I remember making a sand castle with a moat around it, and climbing over the rocks with my dad as my mother watched from a blanket nearby. We stuck our fingers in the sea anemones and chased the tiny crabs back into their holes. I was watching the water ebb and flow into the rock formations, gleefully surprised when it burst up suddenly and splashed me with water. But then a larger wave crashed over the rocks and wrapped around me like a giant hand, pulling me into the sea.

It happened so fast, my dad didn't have time to grab me. I went rushing out into the deeper water, the dreadful silence pounding in my ears, my flailing arms cut up by the sharp rocks as I was dragged, terrified, along the bottom.I remember feeling the undertow: overwhelming and inescapable. It pulled me into the deeper waters, the dark vastness, with a force greater than any I'd ever known. Sometimes I would fight to the surface and get a glimpse of the land slipping farther and farther away. I'd take a quick breath, and scream.

I was exhausted from fighting, but just when I was about to give up, my father grabbed my arm and then side-stroked us back to land. He hauled me onto the rocks, and patted my back as I coughed up water.Through my tears and the salt water I saw my mother running towards us. I held up my little arms to her, seeking comfort. Instead, she slapped me hard across the face. Then she grabbed my shoulders, staring at me with wild eyes and saying, "Never go into the sea again, do you hear me? Never."

Now she was gone, and she'd taken my life with her. I was shipped off to live in Ireland with a grandfather I didn't even know existed, and there I learned my whole life had been a lie. My mother's past was filled with tragic secrets... secrets that refused to stay buried. They were reaching up for me like dark shadows. I'm in danger, and I have to figure out who - or what - is after me, before everything I care about is destroyed.

Or maybe I'll show them that I'm the dangerous one.
Maybe they'll learn just how dangerous one girl can be.

Shearwater is a young adult mermaid novel that will appeal to lovers of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, witches, Irish mythology, and supernatural folklore.

This is PART ONE of the first book (Shearwater), of the Ocean Depths Series.