April 28, 2026 by HarperCollins
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
**Spoilers in strengths and weaknesses.**
Lili Gardner, her mother Mia, and younger sister Goldie all come from Arizona to spend the summer in the Nantucket house that the sisters have been willed after their father's death. The parents divorced six years ago, in part because the father was devoted to staying in Nantucket, but obsessed with finding out information about his family, especially the purported pirate, Kezia Gardner. Lili starts right in on her own research using her father's files, ignoring her mother's requests to help renovate the old house and spend time with Goldie before going off to college. After being turned away from the museum she suspects has information she wants because her father had been banned, Lili takes the advice of a neighbor and visits the quirky Mermaid Museum run by Wren McCleaves and his single father. Wren is in a wheelchair after an accident, and the museum staff includes his friend Tate, who is much better at running the tour, and his girlfriend of several years, Eryn, who is the mermaid who poses out on the rocks for the boat tours. Wren doesn't trust Lili, since his mother was also a "tourist" and left him and his father, but offers to help her with research in exchange for working at the museum for free. Lili really wants to prove that Kezia wasn't a pirate, and is excited to find another volume of her diary in the mermaid museum. The research takes up almost all of Lili's time, so we see only brief glimpses of her mother, who is spending a lot of time with Graham, and of Goldie, who misses her sister. Feelings start to develop between Lili and Wren, but since Wren is still dating Eryn (who may of may not be interested in fellow cafe employee Elliot), the romance is very slow to develop. As the summer draws to a close, what direction will Lili's life take?
Strengths: Nantucket is a place about which I have read, but have never visited, so a virtual vacation there was delightful. The Mermaid Museum, while sadly not a real place, was quirky and fascinating. Given Lili's family history, it made sense that she was willing to pursue her father's obsession with Kezia Gardner, even though it didn't improve her life any more that it did his. Tate and Eryn welcomed Lili, so there was a nice, close cast of characters with which to spend the summer. I even liked the outcome of the research. Ms. Johnson was also injured in an accident, so her portrayal of Wren's occasional struggles with being in a wheelchair are true to life. It's especially nice that while it is a condition he has, it isn't his entire personality. Even though Lili has graduated from high school and Wren seems to have been out for a couple of years, there is no mature language or situations other than a kiss or two. The ending is a fairly happy one.
Weaknesses: There is a lot of history of the area, which my middle school readers might not enjoy. There also isn't as much romance as they like, since Wren and Eryn are dating but pulling away from each other, but Lili and Wren are mostly respectful of this prior committment. I enjoyed the book, but I was really looking for a YA ROMANCE that was also middle grade appropriate. Wren seemed like an odd choice for a male name; I kept thinking of Marie Killilea's book Wren: The Story of Karen. Wren does share a beer with his father, but that's not anything I would keep from middle school students.
What I really think: Fans of Dalton's summer romances like Pulled Under or West's Maybe This Time who can stand a really long lead up to a romance will enjoy this one, but I was a bit appalled that Lili gave up her college plans so that she could stay on the island with Wren. Luckily, at least Eryn was able to get back on track and was planning on leaving Nantucket and studying to become a pastry chef.
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