Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie

Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie
                       A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid"
198 pages

     Pearl was rescued from the ocean by a fisherman when she was a baby. The fisherman and his wife have raised her for seventeen years. A plot is revealed against the royal family and Pearl's secret friend, the prince.
     When Pearl is on the beach one night, a strange young man comes up to her and claims to know her. He tells her that she went missing from the sea a long time ago. Can this boy be telling the truth?


    "You've traveled far?" she asked.
    He laughed shortly. "Farther than you know."
    She stared at her pale fingers wrapped in his. We must have come from the same place, she thought with growing excitement. "Are you my brother?"
    "No. I'm not. We are not related."
    "Good," she answered before she could stop herself. She felt a blush rising to her cheeks and was grateful that her couldn't see it.
    He was rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb, and her skin tingled where his touched hers. James did the same thing to my hand two days ago and it felt good, exciting, but nothing like this. . . . Something about him feels so right, even though I don't know him.
    She was suddenly nervous; the silence around them felt like the air did when a storm approached from across the sea. She spoke just to calm herself. "You've been searching how long?"
    "Thirteen years."
    "How did you know it was me if you haven't seen me in so long?"
    "How does the whale know when to swim to warmer waters for winter? How do the fish know when a predator is near? How do you know when love is real? You just know."