Review: A Well-Spun Tale of the Paranormal
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2012
Meg's father has died of cancer, and she is left completely alone.  She has no real friends, and no other family.  Her mother died shortly after she was born.  So after selling a few things off she gets in her car and just drives.  She wants to leave her town in Missouri behind.  Her money runs out in the small town of Trinity, Newfoundland.  Trinity is on the Canadian coast, and Meg doesn't know why she ended up there.  It's almost like she was drawn there.She walks down to the sea and jumps in.  But she can't swim, and she thinks she drowns.  The next day she wakes up in a small cottage in what she believes to be heaven.  There is a woman with her, spinning yarn.  She tries to talk to the woman, but gets no response.  Soon a young man shows up.  Devin tells her she really doesn't want to be in that cottage.  She explains she has no place to go, and she has no money.  Devin says she can stay with him and his mother for a while.She meets Maura, Devin's mother.  Maura says she is glad to have her, because it's another pair of hands in the house.  Maura leads a minimalist lifestyle.  She raises her own food, and weaves her own carpets and cloth.  Meg is happy to help out in the garden, and finds she really likes it.  She also grooms the horses Maura owns.  She is becoming a part of the family.Then Devin drops a bombshell on her.  He explains that the woman spinning yarn was actually Meg's mother.  She is very much alive.  And she is a selkie.  A selkie is commonly called a mermaid today.  They are irresistibly drawn to the sea.  Meg's mother didn't drown, as her father had told her.  Her mother just returned to the sea, as selkies will.  And Devin explains that since Meg's Mom was a selkie, Meg has selkie blood in her.  Which was why she was drawn to the seacoast.  And it is why Meg finds the water very attractive.  Her father had never taken Meg to the coast, because he knew she was a selkie, and she may have returned to the water.Meg doesn't believe this at first.  But as Devin and Maura explain it further it begins to make sense.  She starts to have dreams about supernatural creatures.  Her mother, of course, and a man name Omyn.  Omyn is a Sidhe, a leader among the supernatural.  She tells Devin about the dreams, and he explains what is going on.  There is a gate in Trinity.  This gate separates the plane where humans live from the plane where the supernatural beings live.  The gate must remain closed.  If it opens, the supernatural beings would flood through to the earth side and wreak havoc.  Devin further explains that since the gate is so close Omyn has sensed that Meg, a selkie, is on the other side of the gate.  He can enter her dreams, and is going to try to convince her to go through the gate to the land of Faerie, where the supernaturals live.  Devin also says he has some of the Old Magic in him, and he is the gatekeeper.  It is his job to make sure the gate is always closed.Meg tries to absorb all this information.  Meanwhile she has an unnatural attraction to the sea.  She is a selkie, after all.  But whenever she tries to enter the ocean Devin always stops her.  If she ever enters the water completely she is probably not coming back.  She will go to Faerie, and live there as a selkie.Over time Meg falls in love with Devin.  But she also falls in love with Omyn.  And she wants to know her mother, who lives in Faerie.  So Meg is torn.  Should she stay on the earth side and try to make a life with Devin, a man she loves?  Or should she cross over, where her mother and Omyn await her?  She is very conflicted, and there doesn't seem to be a good answer.  She can have one side or the other, but not both.  Which will she ultimately pick?Adrift is a solid book, and fun to read.  The characters are well developed, and you will get to liking them.  You'll even like Omyn, who is really the protagonist.  The plot is well laid out, and fairly straight.  There aren't really many twists and turns to it.  If you enjoy books with some paranormal content this is a book you definitely must read.  Highly recommended.