Throughout the course of this book, I felt I kept waiting for something to happen. If you read the summary, you pretty much have it there. I found the story to be predictable; a short story lengthened into a novel by adding superfluous descriptions.I also had a problem with the mermaid subtext. It would take A LOT more convincing for me to believe that there was actually a monastery that would process back and forth from the ocean with a "mermaid chair," sprinkling it with seawater in some sort of mystical ceremony.I found Kidd's writing trite, as if she tried too hard to create a spirtual setting. Her descriptions are, frankly, not very creative, and her characters, stereotyped. I was disappointed, like most, who enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees.It's a quick read, but still time better spent reading something else.