Geetha Krishnan's Reviews > Undine's Blessing

This is my first book by this author, and I enjoyed it. It wasn't like the usual books I read, but no less enjoyable. It's slow moving, like a gentle river, or breeze, but it carries you along, leaving you space to stop and smell the flowers.

Okay, enough with bad metaphors.

The story revolves around Marella, a young adolescent girl who is the caretaker of her sick mother. Her father, Marcos, is almost never home, sailing to faraway shores and bringing fish and all home to trade. Marella weaves baskets and smokes the fish that she carries to the market of a nearby town.

When her mother needs to go to her hometown for treatment, her father offers to take Marella with him on his next trip so she won't be left alone at home, and her mother can go to the town with peace of mind. But when her father takes her to a distant islands which is populated by nymphs, she has to revise her opinion of everything she knew of him. When it transpires that she has magic, an affinity with water, Marella has to readjust her entire worldview, especially since the nymphs see her as some kind of saviour who could restore the balance of the world.

This was, as I said, a very slow moving book. Marella is an intriguing character. Her relationship with her mother is both sweet and heart breaking. Her affinity to water translates to an affinity for aquatic creatures who are able to understand her thoughts and words and whose words she can hear in her head. I loved her friendship with some of the creatures, and how she was able to stand up for herself and for the nymphs even though she was afraid.

If you love slow paced, cozy fantasy with low stakes and flawed characters, you will love this book.