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The Mermaid Collector by Erika Marks
Have read many of the authors other works and have enjoyed them. This one starts out in the present day and she is finishing up her sculpture of the mermaid. It's a big commission. Tess is back with Peter and Buzz maintains the cottages.
Tom Grace shows up and is given the keys to the lighthouse keeper's cottage a gift from Frank. Only he, Buzz and Frank know of what's happened. Dean is now incapacitated and Tom tends to hes every need. He looks forward to the new adventure and maybe even a local job as he's a school teacher.
Then the book goes back to 1877 where we learn of the legends surrounding Cradle Harbor Maine and the mermaid festival, etc. Lydia and Linus are taking care of the lighthouse, she is relieved he will not be on the sea and her nightmare might go away...she's not able to have babies either...
Alternating sections from the present to the past make this book like actually having two books in one and you hope they will connect with one another, down the road.
Love learning about mermaid purses and hearing of the wind chimes and their connection to the mermaid song... Love hearing the legends and being so close to the water and what it all encompasses. Love the DASH!
Beautiful magical majestic stories. Q&A at the end along with discussion questions.
Won this is a contest.

When I got this book, I thought it was going to be a decent read and honestly thought it was going to center around mermaids. Well, it does center on mermaids in a more non fictional sense. This is what took me by surprise but ultimately made the novel even better than I hoped.

The town of Cradle Harbor celebrates the Mermaid Mutiny that occurred in the late 1880's, but it seems more of a type of holiday such as christmas...everyone celebrates it as if Santa Clause were real but its really only the little kids who believe he is. Like christmas, everyone in the town celebrates as if the mermaids were real but only the little girls who run to the ocean to catch a glimpse of these creatures actually believe in them..until of course they grow older.

The story includes the the time of the mermaid mutiny of Lydia and Linus Harris and a love triangle that develops as Linus is lost at sea. Lydia has conflicting emotions of warm affection for her new lover and confusion and heartbreak from the "loss" of her husband. See, even though her husband returns, he's really not himself. It reminded me SO much of that alien movie johnny depp was in when he went to space and was out of contact with earth for 1 minute and then when he came back to earth he wasn't the same person, he was aggressive and cold hearted and just by looking into his eyes his wife knew he wasn't really there, he was dead and the alien had taken over his body. I seriously thought something had taken over Linus's body, even his wife claimed looking into his eyes she saw no love or affection and that he kept looking at her like he didn't even know who she was. Linus later claims in a log book that he believes he and the other men were rescued by mermaids out at sea and they eventually swam to their deaths to be with them again. Linus says how guilty he felt being in love with someone other than his wife.

Some people in the book claim Linus had too much mercury poisoning from working in the lighthouse and it drove him crazy. But then, why did the other 4 men also go to their deaths with Linus when they never had exposure to the mercury? There's no information at all as to if the other men changed like Linus had because Lydia is the only narrator at this time and when she talks to one of the other wives, the wife tells her nothing to add to the mystery. Linus says he hears the mermaids calling to him and says the other men heard them too. He doesn't understand why the townsfolk can't hear them and feels so bad to leave his wife but knows he must do it to be with his lovers. When you read this book you know how upsetting this seems because Linus was CRAZY about his wife! He absolutely loved her to death and was such a great husband and would have never even thought about cheating on her before this stupid mermaid thing happened. So it really is a sad story because as a reader all you want is for Linus to be normal so he and Lydia can be a family again.

Yet at the same time you do need to think about Lydia's lover...why did she choose to make love to another man before she know Linus had gone missing? She says it was to have a baby since Linus couldn't but was that really the case? The author repeatedly said "Lydia told herself this was why she was doing it (having the affair)" so it seems like Lydia had to convince herself she was having the affair to have a baby when really it seems like she truly cared for her lover and maybe also wanted something on the side? It's hard to say but it makes the story a little less heartbreaking when Linus comes back and refuses to love her again. I honestly don't know what happened to Linus, its up to the reader to decide if he went crazy or the mermaid thing was true. I want to say he went crazy but then why did the other men go with him to drown? Its obvious something happened out in that water, Linus was in charge of the ship and it crashed and they somehow make it to a island really far off course. Was it mermaids? Did they get mad from their experience of trying to survive in open water? I don't know, and its eating at me if you can tell! But overall I think this book is amazing and you should definitely read it to find out for yourself what the truth of the story is.

And of course the present day story is also really good just not as heartbreaking/interesting. It really helped me to keep my ground during all the heartbreak though since it was a much lighter story yet had so many different character developments you had to try to keep track of. I still don't really know the overall greater importance of Beverly, she certainly changed throughout the novel but seemed a pretty minor character nontheless.

I really loved Tess and Tom's love story and how it developed as well as the background stories of Tess and her mom growing up and her mom's eventual end and why it parallels so much to the story of the mermaid mutiny of the 1880's. I had to stop myself from reading too much of the book in too little time. It's such a great read and the back and forth of past to present day really help to keep you on your toes. But there is just so much depth to the book you should try to take your time!

"My dearest Lydie, By the time you find this letter, I will be returned to the sea..." So starts The Mermaid Collector, a mesmerizing book that alternates between the 1887 story of Lydia, Linus, and Angus and the current day story of Tess and Tom. In a captivating voice, Erika Marks weaves these two stories into a wonderfully rich book complete with an intriguing cast of characters whose histories are all tied to Cradle Harbor, Maine. Adding to the book's charm is how Marks interlaces each story in and around the magical history of the mermaids and the Cradle Harbor Mermaid Festival.

There's no question this book is a page-turner--made more so by the beautiful descriptions of the coast of Maine--and I was absolutely captivated by the love story of Lydia and Angus. But ultimately this book is so much more: Marks has written a compelling novel about finding courage to confront painful past secrets in order to move forward and live fully in the present. I highly recommend this book.

The title of this book was so intriguing that I just had to buy it. And yes, I'm glad I did. Ms. Marks does quite a remarkable job in weaving together two stories from two different eras. Personally, I loved the detailing and the emotional turbulence and intrigue of the original history of the lighthouse keeper's life. Linus and Lydia could have been a tale all their own, and I would have been satisfied with that. The modern story woven between is just as engaging, though. Tom and Tess are quite an unlikely pair. One of my favorite parts of the more modern story was the detailing of the sculpting and woodworking.
All in all, it was a delightful read!

Ms. Marks has hit her stride with her second novel, a gentle romance, smoothly and beautifully told with clear chronology.
The romance develops into a much meatier tale with the addition of various characters, their relationships, and the 1888 story of a lighthouse keeper who left his wife and walked into the sea with three other men seeking the mermaids who rescued them from a shipwreck a year earlier. Or so the legend goes. I loved the characters, the insights and revelations, and the secrets that keep the story intriguing.

I'd purchased another of Erika Marks' books that I really enjoyed so i was hopeful that I would like this one just as much. While the book was well written, I'm not sure if the character development was lacking or if I just didn't care much for the main character Tess. The side stories caught my interest a bit more but in the end I can't say it was a great book.