FINS ARE FOREVER

The second installment to Childs’ mermaid-princess adventure (after Forgive My Fins, 2010) takes up just weeks after the Seaview high schooler has resolved to renounce her title to the underwater Thalassinia throne and become a "terraped" college-bound senior.

Princess Waterlily, daughter of King Whelk, would rather settle down as the plebian Lily Sanderson with her boyfriend, Quince—the pesky neighbor of the former tale, now love-object—than assume her royal Thalassinian duties. Or would she? Lily makes a perfunctory stab at studying for her SATs and applying to a marine-biology program at a community college, when she is distracted by the sudden visit of her despised younger cousin, Dosinia. Sent by the king to live with Lily and her Aunt Rachel in order to learn how to appreciate humans, the flirtatious Doe charms Lily’s old crush Brody instantly—even bonding with him by kiss!—and generally making Lily’s life miserable in the two weeks leading up to her 18th birthday, when she plans to renounce the throne. Childs works in plenty of sea-worthy puns, though the plotting feels a little fishy and repetitive in this insistently lovey-dovey tale. Moreover, Lily’s cavalier ambivalence about assuming her patriotic duties and her air-brained negligence of her academic pursuits seem sadly retrograde.

For established fans of the first.