Plain Jane gets a rude awakening when her parents die and a distant male relative stands to inherit everything - and kick her out of her house. Desperate and creative, Jane proposes an arrangement to handsome Peter, who works on the docks but chafes under his father's direction. Peter agrees, but then is taken by a mermaid, and Jane goes after him, with some aid from a crone (who she realizes later is the mermaid's missing sister; when mermaids take to land, their true age shows. As long as they stay underwater - and occasionally marry and eat beautiful humans - they stay young and beautiful themselves). Determined Jane meets an underwater demon, frees a selkie, and finds her lost younger brother on her way to rescuing Peter - who she decides she doesn't want to marry after all. But now that her younger brother is alive, they get to keep their house.

There's much to love about sturdy, brave Jane, who fights internalized ideas about beauty and worth, and helps two out of three of the mermaid sisters also realize that it's what's inside, not outside, that counts. An adventure fantasy with depth. ( )