I don't give away spoilers in my reviews. I am admittedly not usually the reader who loves fantasy but I knew from reviews that I wanted to read When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley. The cover is eye-catching with the graphic of Benny and the merman. I loved the oceanic colors used for it. Benny is on his own in life after losing his aunt. He has come to America and is working as a blacksmith. Benny has difficulties with his breathing and being in an environment such as a metal shop really affects his health. Benny is a talented blacksmith and his art is noticed by the owner of one of the local amusement parks - Luna Park in Coney Island. Benny is hired to build a large tank for a new exhibit and isn't told of all the details. Benny finds himself becoming attached to the new exhibit - a real merman from the ocean. I loved Benny's compassion and moral struggles within himself and with the merman. The other characters in the book that make up the menagerie were also such a great group of characters to read about. My two favorite parts in this book were the illustrations and the storyline. The illustrations added to the story and worked together with the cover. I usually don't read much fantasy but this was such a good story. (from my Goodreads review)

Amazing book! Would recommend.

It's certainly not the worst book I've ever read, but I don't know why everyone praises McCaffrey so much if this is her normal writing.

Book was pretty good. At times to much detail at once so it was a lot to sort out. There was a plot twist I did not see coming.

Very nice story

This is a great sequel to The Storm Runner. This book centers around Maya and Aztec mythology. There is the tiniest bit of romance that sneaks in, but it’s very funny and the romance gets covered up. Mostly. :)

I loved the selection series so much. It was the best!!!??

This book was good I guess. I read it in 30 minutes in a car trip today. My mom doesn’t like the series because of how hard the mom try’s and the middle school boy doesn’t care. She said that she would write about all her great ideas as a mom and how we think that there all soooo great. Blah blah blah, then I told her that no way it would get on a bestseller list! She thought that was funny. Still a pretty funny series. This book was my second favorite out of all of them, the first being the spaghetti one.

A little slow in the beginning because of all the Science info. but gets better as book goes on.

Couldn't put it down!