The Water Children — Anne Berry

WHAT WILL DESTROY ONE CHILD WILL BE THE MAKING OF ANOTHER.

From the icy banks of a secluded country pond to the fevered core of a historic London heat wave and immersion in an abandoned underwater village in the Tuscan mountains, four young people -- each of whose lives has been irrevocably altered by water -- converge in this brilliantly plotted drama of passion, betrayal, revenge, and redemption.

Owen is haunted by nightmares of the Merfolk. He believes they have stolen his little sister, who vanished while he was meant to be watching her on the beach. But he was only a child himself. Is it fair for his mother to have blamed him all these years?

Catherine's perfect Christmas was ruined when she went skating on a frozen pond with her cousin and the other girl nearly died. Yet it is Catherine who feels, as she says, "permanently trapped under the ice."

Sean grew up on a farm in Ireland. Learning to swim in the River Shannon was his way of escaping the bitter poverty of his childhood, but communing with the river spirits incurred his superstitious father's wrath.

Naomi never feared the water. She was orphaned, cruelly abused, and the sea offered a cleansing balm; she reveled in the ocean's power. But Naomi has another secret buried deep within her, and during one searing hot summer she will be the catalyst for the coming together -- and tearing apart -- of the water children.