Molly Seabrook has a problem. She wants to be a normal 13-year-old girl. But she can’t be. Molly, as well as all her sisters, are mermaids. Well, half-mermaids, on her mother’s side. So she can be perfectly fine, walking with her friends or at school, but if she accidentally gets too close to water, she transforms into a mermaid. And she can’t transform into a mermaid in public, because it’s a secret. She can’t even tell her best friend Ada, and keeping that big a secret from her best friend is wearing her down.

Molly should be happy. Ada has started going out with Penalty Pete, so they have finally infiltrated the popular table in the lunchroom. Now Molly gets to sit closer to Cute Steve, her crush, even though he’s going out with Felicity. And the new twins at school. Finn and Serena Waverley, are friends with some of the popular kids from Molly’s class, so she has a chance of getting closer to them too. Everyone wants to get closer to them and to score an invitation to their party during the holiday break.

But there are problems at home. Molly’s mom has told her daughters not to go to the sea anymore. She’s gone so far as to add an alarm to their usual trapdoor, so Molly is torn. Not only does this mean that she can’t go play with her sisters in the ocean anymore, and worse, Molly has the feeling that her mother is keeping a bigger secret from her. She thinks that there is a reason their mother is suddenly being so protective, especially when her mother warns her about the Waverley twins too, but Molly can’t figure out what it could be.

Between schoolwork, hanging out with Ada, helping out at the family fish and chip shop, spending time with her friend Eddie (and trying to figure out if they’re more than friends, or if he wants them to be more than friends, or if she wants that), and trying to figure out what her mother is keeping from her, Molly’s life is full. But as Molly digs into her mother’s secret, will that put her own secret in peril? Will everyone at school find out that she’s secretly a mermaid?

Don’t Tell Him I’m a Mermaid is the follow-up to And Then I Turned into a Mermaid, and it’s just as goofily charming and fun. Author Laura Kirkpatrick creates characters who are flawed but funny, human and heart-warming. Through it all—friendship and first love, sisters and secrets, tests and tails—Molly and her family and friends bring humor, charm, and style.

I have loved both of these middle grade books, with their compelling characters and cute stories. Laura Kirkpatrick has a way of bringing these novels to life and making them hard to put down. I recommend these books to imaginative middle grade girls who love fun stories that warm your heart.

Egalleys for Don’t Tell Him I’m a Mermaid were provided by Sourcebooks Early Reading Program, with many thanks.