What happens when your sister has been dead for 15 years and you suddenly see her on TV? Well, you get yourself on a plane and search for her. And that is exactly what Kit does - and that is where the story starts. It goes back and forth to the terrorist attack on the train her sister was on to the time that Kit is in New Zealand looking for her sister.

Kit also find romance in New Zealand and finally finds her sister. But at what price? Josie's family doesnt know about her past and Kit's showing up brings up all the memories, past hurts and trauma and a flood of emotions. Actually found myself tearing up over some of the incidents that happened to these two sisters.

But the bond is there and we find out how strong it is. Lovely story that kept me turning the pages. Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC copy and right now it is on Amazon as a Kindle Unlimited book.

This is a great story. I was hooked from the very first scene where Kit Bianci, an exhausted ER doctor coming off the late shift, sees her sister on the television news. That might not have been such a shocker if her sister hadn't died 15 years prior. The mystery of why a woman would choose to leave behind everyone and everything she knows and loves kept me turning the pages.

Using chapters that alternate between Kit's point of view and her sister's, O'Neal builds a compelling story of sisters who, while extremely close, have vastly different childhood experiences, which ultimately lead to very different outcomes and perspectives. I thought the author did a wonderful job illustrating how flawed decision making can culminate in far-reaching, unintended consequences.

This is the first book I've read by Barbara O'Neal, but it certainly won't be the last. I found her descriptive, emotional writing to be beautiful and thought provoking. Her writing reminds me a lot of Kristin Hannah's. I look forward to reading more from her.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Barbara O'Neal for providing me with a free electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. </i>

This is the story about the deconstruction of a life. Not in the sense that things fall apart, because the lives of both Kit and Josie Bianchi fell apart a long, long time ago. The echoes of what happened in their childhood have rippled like aftershocks through everything that has happened since.

Including, but definitely not limited to, Josie’s death – and the faking thereof.

When We Believed in Mermaids is rather about the examination, in memory, of those long ago events. What begins as a look back at a seemingly perfect childhood that was ripped apart by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 reveals cracks in that perfection – just as the girls’ examination of their cliffside house revealed cracks that made the house’s fall inevitable.

There were plenty of warning signs that a disaster was coming – but the adults were too wrapped up in themselves, and much too damaged themselves, to see it. And the girls were children. It’s only as adults that they are able to look back and see that what went wrong was hardly their fault.

But now they are both adults. And both still scarred. Both, in their own ways, isolated because of it. Kit, whose life has come to be confined to her ER practice, her surfing, and her cat. While Josie, who seemingly has it all, is isolated by her secrets. No one knows her true self. Her past is another country, on another continent, and it happened to someone else.

One brief moment in the background in someone else’s camera frame brings Josie’s worlds into collision. And Kit’s walls come tumbling down.

Escape Rating B+: This is a story that can best be described as quietly charming. It feels like one of those stories where not a lot happens on the surface, but that surface is only 10% of what’s happening. Underneath, Kit and Josie are paddling like crazy.

While the comparison is to an iceberg, there’s nothing cold about the story – including its two settings, the California coast and Auckland, New Zealand. Where it’s a hot and steamy late summer when Kit arrives to investigate that three-second sighting of the sister who has been presumed dead for 15 years.

We begin the story from Kit’s point of view as she believes, disbelieves, questions and investigates a possibility that has haunted her for all of her adult life. What if Josie is still alive?

In alternating chapters we find ourselves looking through the eyes of a woman named Mari. Who seemingly has it all, a rich and handsome husband, two terrific kids, a storied house to investigate – and a gigantic secret.

As both Kit and Mari remember their childhoods, with each dive into the past revealing more cracks in that originally perfect surface, their memories converge. It’s obvious fairly quickly that Mari is Josie, and that she’s rightfully worried that her few seconds in that background shot are going to bring her world crashing down – and she’s right.

But until the crash, it’s Kit’s view that holds the attention. While Mari has found the life she dreamed of, and is afraid of losing it – Kit is very much still seeking, not just Josie, but a life that will not merely sustain her but support her and enrich her spirit. Her search, including her hesitant relationship with the handsome Spanish guitarist Jose Velez, opens her heart and shakes her certainties – even as she hunts down the sister she never expected to find.

Kit’s on a quest, and somewhat ironically, Josie is the macguffin she’s looking for. But all the while, both of them are internally exploring their memories of the life they once shared together. As those memories reach toward the present, Josie and Kit reach towards each other.

And the possibility of a shared – and much brighter – future.

I picked up When We Believed in Mermaids because I enjoyed The Art of Inheriting Secrets by this same author very much, with just a few quibbles. The same is true about When We Believed in Mermaids, including the quibbles. Both are stories where events in the present cause the narrator(s) to search through their own pasts as well as the past of a place that they become involved with in the course of the story, so if you like one you’ll definitely like the other.

In The Art of Inheriting Secrets, I had a couple of issues with the way that the hesitant romance in that book proceeded, but loved the look back into the past of the house she inherits and the mother she discovers that she never really knew. There’s also an old house in Mermaids, and I was hoping for as interesting a reveal of its history as there was in Secrets, but alas, it was not to be. The secrets about Sapphire House, when finally revealed, felt anticlimactic. That was the one part of the story where I really expected more.

Then again, I love stories about research done well and filled with fascinating reveals. And there were plenty of those fascinating reveals in Kit and Josie’s hesitant journeys down memory lane. As I said, this story is quietly charming, and I was certainly charmed. If you’re looking for a beach read this summer all you have to do is believe in these mermaids!

"I found this book very gripping and difficult to put down!....I really enjoyed this story and I'm already looking forward to reading other books by this author!

I thoroughly enjoyed When we Believed in Mermaids. My main draw to this title was it being set in Auckland, having lived there a few years ago I was interested to read a book set in this amazing city, and it did not disappoint. The descriptions of the various places in Auckland had me reminiscing of the time I spent there myself.

The story itself was great, two sisters telling their story of childhood and the reasons they are where they are today. I enjoyed the blossoming romance between Kit and Javier, and the reasons why sometimes you just have to start a whole new life, even take a whole new identity.

I would definitely recommend this book, and will fir sure be looking out for more titles by Barbara O'Neal.

I enjoyed this book, even loved it. But I got confused occasionally. The story kept me interested, but I found it a little unrealistic. But I read on and really liked the last half of the book (no spoilers).

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Kit Bianci believed her sister was dead, that is until she saw her on the television news 15 years later. Kit decides to travel to New Zealand and find her sister Josie and get some sort of explanation or closure. When the two sisters are reunited all their dark secrets are revealed. They will have to share all of them in order to move on and fix the broken relationships.

I found this book to be very slow to start and was almost halfway through the book before I started to enjoy it. I found Kit's romance and Josie's Sapphire House were used as filler during the first portion of the book. I get that Kit's romance needed to be there to show her guard weakening but it could have been shortened. I didn't see any purpose in the all the parts about Sapphire House. I don't feel like they added anything to the story and I feel like this book wouldn't have been missing anything had it of been left out completely.

I liked how the book was told in the perspective of both sisters. The perspective keeps switching between the sisters per chapter, each picking up where the last one left off. I think it added emotion and depth to the characters as it allowed the reader to know what they were thinking about major points in the story.

So, I ended up being slightly disappointed with this book. While the ending was partially redeeming, I expected a lot more from it. Is it possible that I hyped this book up too much to myself and it's my own fault I didn't enjoy it more? Yes it is. I consider this a lesson learned.

Amazing. Delightful. Realistic. Sensational. Excellent story. Couldn't put it down. Love the characters. Makes one want to visit the Sapphire House in New Zealand. Also, now I want to learn to surf.

In the fall of 2014, I fell in love with an utterly charming novel called The All You Can Dream Buffet. Since that time, author Barbara O'Neal has been on my radar, and while her books aren't auto buys for me, I almost always end up reading them eventually. Her latest novel, When We Believed in Mermaids, is truly spectacular, a true testament to the unbreakable bonds between sisters and the healing power of love in all its many forms.

It's been fifteen years since Kit last saw her older sister Josie. The two had been estranged for several years before their last meeting, and they never got the chance to mend fences because Josie died in a terrorist attack in Paris not long afterwards. Ever since that day, Kit has done her best to move on from the various horrors of her past - and believe me when I say she lived through some truly horrendous things. Her life is going well for the most part, though she'll always bear some scars, both physical and mental, as a result of what she and Josie endured as children.

One evening, Kit catches a glimpse of a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Josie in the background of a news story out of New Zealand. Obviously, the woman can't be Josie since she's been dead for years, but something about the woman's face keeps nagging at Kit, and so, against her better judgement, she decides to journey to New Zealand in hopes of discovering the identity of the woman who looks so much like her sister.

Unfortunately for Kit, learning the truth proves more difficult than she hoped it would be. The city she's staying in is beautiful, and it brings numerous childhood memories, some good and some painful, flooding back. Suddenly, Kit wonders if uncovering this woman's identity is really worth all the mental anguish she's suffering, but she figures she's come too far to turn back now.

What follows is a story that is sure to break your heart, but also make you smile. It sounds like a contradiction of the first order I know, but When We Believed In Mermaids made me feel so many different things all at the same time. Kit and Josie lived through some horrible things, and my heart broke for them again and again, but there's also a glimmer of hope that shines through all the sadness, something that reminds the reader that good things are always possible even when life seems incredibly bleak.

The story is told from alternating chapters, from both Kit's and a woman calling herself Mari's, perspectives. It's not a spoiler to let you know that Mari is actually Josie, who faked her own death and is living under an assumed name for reasons that will become clear as you read. Both women have inner demons to conquer, and each is forced to reconnect with a core of inner strength they haven't had to call upon in years. I loved that they were able to save themselves, rather than waiting for the men in their lives to sweep in and rescue them.

If you're looking for a steamy read, this is not the book for you. It definitely has romantic elements, and the characters do get their HEAs, but the romance takes a back seat to the complex relationship between Mari and Kit. There is one explicit sex scene, but even it doesn't qualify as steamy in my opinion.

The novel possesses a very strong sense of place, something I'm always happy to run across. The descriptions are so vibrant, making me feel like I was experiencing the sights and sounds right along with the characters. I've never been to New Zealand, but reading this book gave me a taste of what it might be like to visit.

I loved pretty much everything about When We Believed in Mermaids. The characters are so damaged but so resilient at the same time, and the writing is beautiful and lush, enabling me to sink into the story with ease. If you've never read a Barbara O'Neal novel, or even if you have, pick this up as soon as you possibly can. You'll be delighted with this compelling story of two women struggling to come out on top of difficult circumstances.

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This is one of the most heart wrenching books I have read in a long time. The subjects in this story are so realistic and heartfelt that it had me in gut wrenching tears. Especially toward the end. It’s one that will definitely keep you turning the pages and grabbing the kleenex.

Two sisters who are almost totally dependent on each other. Parents who for the most part are not available for them. A young boy who comes along and keeps them straight. Josie and Kit, the sisters who believe in Mermaids. Who believe in each other. Who have faith in the universe in many ways.
Then one summer it’s all torn apart.

This book will have you torn in ways you will not forget. It’s very realistic the way the author describes the things that happen. A young girl’s anguish. The things that happened to her at such a young and tender age. It’s not right. Children are meant to be happy and carefree. Free to run and play. Explore and live. But for one sister it’s a nightmare. For the other it’s innocence. One has no idea what is happening to the other. Then when they get older one is gone. Gone in such a horrific way. But is she really? Is she safe and sound and finally at peace with her life? Kit looks for her sister after seeing her on the news and finds more than she bargained for. She learns so much in such a short period of time too. Some good and some not so good. Actually a lot not so good but better now.

Josie had to take the chance she took. It basically saved her life. I was very upset with her for a while. Until I read her story. Then my heart broke into a million pieces for that little girl. The little nine year old who went through what no child should have to go through. I felt her pain. I truly felt it. I’ve lived it and know what she felt. The shame of it. The horror of it. It made her into a person she didn’t want to be though. I felt so sorry for her. When she “died” she was able to live again. To build a beautiful life with a beautiful family. One she richly deserved.

Kit didn’t believe in love. Not the soulmate, heart beating fast, earth shattering love that some of us do believe in and do have. It takes a trip far away for her to finally feel the earth move. To feel the waves of desire that touch your very soul. The beauty of true, unspoiled, heartfelt love. The kind of love that only comes once in a lifetime. If you are lucky. She finds so much on this trip and finally finds herself too.

I don’t know what to say other than this is a great book with a heartbreaking and then heart mending feel to it. It’s one that takes the reader on a ride that they will both love and hate. Love the good and the feels, hate the hurt and heartaches. It’s written is a way that pulls at your heart quite a bit. It did for me. My eyes are so swollen from crying. This book may should have a warning label attached.

It has great characters. Great scenery and will make you feel like you are actually on the waves with both Kit and Josie. You will feel so many of the feels in this book. I actually had to lay this book down a few times and breath. Deep breathing to calm me down. It hit me right in the heart. Hard!!

Thank you to #NetGalley #Lake Union Publishers for the ARC of this book.

I give it a high 5 stars and highly recommend it with a warning to stock up on kleenex. I promise you will need them.

This is a beautifully written story of two sisters and their very dysfunctional family and lives. The Bianci sisters are wonderfully crafted characters that you can’t help but root for. They will leave you frustrated at times but also leave you wanting to know more.

Barbara O’Neal has developed characters in this story that are easy to identify with and a storyline that will keep your attention all the way to the end. The story is heartbreaking in parts and joyful in other parts.

This is a new to me author and I’m so appreciative of being able to read this wonderful story. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it. I was able to read this book in one day because I didn’t want to put it down.

Thank you #netgalley and #lakeunionpublishing for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. The opinions above are my own thoughts and feelings about this book.

I adored this book, tumbled right into it and rolled around. It's emotional, hard, and resilient. I loved the writing.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I liked that each sister's story is unfolded in alternating titles. Kit's romance is lovely. And the mystery of Josie is engaging. It is both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.

I am so pleased to be able to recommend this novel from Barbara O'Neal. When We Believed We Were Mermaids pulled me in from the premise; woman spots the sister on the news she thought died 15 years prior. The plot takes us forward and back in time so that we see the events, actions and reactions that led to sisters taking different paths. The character portraits are first rate, the settings are spectacularly drawn, and the story itself riveting. If you like novels that strike an emotional chord, WWBWWM will definitely deliver. I'd definitely read more from Ms. O'Neal.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

I received this book "When We Believed in Mermaids" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. I have to say that I was torn between 4 and 5 stars but the end really pushed it up to the 5. I loved this book and the characters, the storyline was excellent. I felt right there - part of the story. Beautiful heartwarming emotional tragic.

Moving story about sisterhood, love, and learning how to let go of the past in order to live fully in the present.
O'Neal has a gift for reaching deep into the soul and breaking the reader's heart and then mending it again. If I have one quibble about this story was that the backstory wasn't revealed fast enough for me, I wanted to know more quickly about the things that shaped the sisters as they were growing up, and some of it was only hinted at until almost the end.
Other than that, this is a wonderful story told from the points of view of the two sisters, allowing the reader to feel their aching loss of each other and their anger and betrayal, as well as the love that survived it all. Although their experiences are unique, the emotions behind what happened resonated with me and my own life experiences.
Recommended for those who like emotionally heartfelt and occasionally heart wrenching stories of family and love.

Kit is shocked when she sees her dead sister on a newscast of a tragedy from half way around the world. With encouragement from her mother, she heads to New Zealand in search of answers. Mari (Josie)has a new life and she’s happy. To survive, she killed off Josie and started over, putting her past behind her. The sisters were close as children, sticking together through a turbulent childhood of neglect. Kit’s journey to find answers about her sister leads her into a journey of self-discovery, flashing back to her past and realizing what is missing from her life. Mari is on the same journey to reconcile her past and find a way to reintegrate her mother and sister into her life, while trying to figure out how she is going to explain to those she loves why she felt the need to take on a new identity.
My heart broke over and over for Kit and her sister as we learn more about their childhood and how much each had overcome. The characters were so well-written, they conjured a gamut of emotions in me, but ultimately I was rooting them both on. I love the way O’Neal put the story together, and her descriptions of the settings were beautiful.
This is a great one to sit back with and pass a summer day. Grab everything you need because once you start this one, you won’t want to walk away.
#whenwebelievedinmermaids #barbaraoneal #lakeunionpublishing

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I really liked this book.. After thinking her sister, Josie, has died in a terrorist attack, Kit sees her on a news report from New Zealand. Immediately, Kit decides she must go and find out what is going on. When Kit arrives in New Zealand, she begins to investigate and find out if her sister is alive. Along the way, she meets a man who helps her and becomes her love interest. This is the story of how the sisters reconcile and come to terms with their bad childhood. The author is a master at descriptive writing-I felt like I was really at the beach. Good family drama story!

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

I LOVED this book!! I was hook right from the beginning. The characters, story and writing style- so pretty much everything. I now need to go visit New Zealand. It sounded amazing. I loved Kit. I'm surprised how well she did in life with the childhood she experienced. She loved her cat so much and even wanted her mom to stay at the house with him, so he wouldn't feel abandoned. Loved how she FaceTimed with the kitty. I can understand her anger with Mari. Josie was definitely hard to like. Although her drug and alcohol use were how she dealt with with happened to her at such a young age. Josie and Kit's parents were simply awful. They didn't actually do much parenting and let their children run wild. If it wasn't for Dylan, I'm not sure what would have happened to the girls. He was only a few years older and had just as many problems.

I loved how the story alternated between Kit and Mari. I definitely recommend the book. I was sad to see the book end. I loved reading about Kit and Mari. Finding out about their childhood was heartbreaking, especially what happened to Josie. I wished she would have talked to someone, although I don't think her parents would have helped much. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.