I picked up this book, along with two of its sequels, a year or two ago on one of my carefully-regulated-because-I-also-need-to-buy-food (and-even-more-strictly-regulated-since-I-started-buying-comics-again) expeditions to Kidsbooks. I think it was around the time that the Next Big Thing in YA was going to be mermaids (they changed their minds again recently; apparently it is now going to be zombies). I did not, however, pick up this book because of its potential Next-Big-Thing-ness. I picked it up because I have a curious weakness to books set in places in the British Isles that are not London and environs; probably some residual effects of my brief undergraduate foray into Celtic Studies. One day I will have read excellent YA genre-fiction books set in all five Celtic Countries (So far I am missing the Isle of Man and Breton. I do not ever expect to swing Breton. If you know of books that will prove me wrong, please let me know!).
This particular book is set in Cornwall. One of my other favourite books, The Little Country by Charles De Lint (a book I seem to have tragically misplaced), is also set in Cornwall! (Fun fact: Cornwall in Cornish is kernow. Isn't that cool? Careful; if you stand still long enough I can still quote the names of all five Celtic Countries in their native tongues.) Also, mermaids. Mermaids are cool. This looked earthy and mysterious. "Okay," I said. "I'm in." And bought the first three.
Anyway the point was... mermaids. For some reason I'm always a little skeptical about mermaids. Maybe because I prefer my magical fantasy a little more grounded, no pun intended. But that's exactly what this was! Ingo is the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, who live in a village in Cornwall, in a cottage by the sea. It's as idyllic as you might imagine, at least on the surface, but Sapphire and Conor's lives are plagued by Dark Family Secrets of my very favourite kind; I call it Secret Legacy. In this case...
