Start Reading Silverswift Brought To You By Natalie Lloyd Accessible From Bound Copy

just not summer without a Natalie Lloyd tale full of magic, And this one includes gasp mermaids! Wild child Eliza and her kooky grandmother are on a quest: to find the secret Sirens Harbor on the winter solstice, when the mermaids appear and sing their song.
The pair meet a cast of characters, overcome issues with sight, mobility, and meddling innowners, and delve into memory, Maybe were all just looking for our “better than forever”, So much love for this beautiful story! Book Rating:/stars, DNF

Eliza loves her Nana Mora, especially her stories about Silverswift, the legendary mermaid! One winter, Eliza receives a letter from Mora asking her to spend time with her for the holidays on St.
Simmons Island. After arguing with her mother about the story, eventually she is allowed to go, But when she arrives, she finds her grandmother more distraught than ever, Is it possible the story of Silverswift is true And if socan they make it to Sirens Harbor before the solstice so Nana Mora can see Silverswift one last time

I suppose it has finally happened: I have DNFd a book that I can actually rate.
I never rate a book unless I hitof the way through, For awhile, I kept trying to push through this story, but something just didnt work for me,

The story itself is heartwarming: a grandmother and her granddaughter hunting for a mythical legend, while facing issues about family and friendships.
The message is warm, and its well written, intermingled with a subtle hint of fantasy, I wanted to find Sirens Harbor as much as Mora and Eliza!

But, especially for a middlegrade novel, it dragged, It might have been the narration, which still seemed slow at,x speed! I felt my mind wandering while listening to this book, Often times, when I am listening to an audiobook and I struggle the narrator, Ill go and find the actual book or eBook.
But, this story was only shared as an audiobook, so I had to make the choice as to whether or not I wanted to finish it, especially when I have many other stories in my Library.


I chose to DNF it, While I am sure the story ultimately has a great message in it, now just wasnt the time for me to listen to it.


Also, personally, I was more interested in Eliza and Mora than in the detours into Silverswifts tale, and thats when my interest began to wane.
Im sure a lot of children will want to hear about Silverswift thoughand possibly find Eliza and Mora less interesting but I dont speak for children.
What I do think is that since the narration was so slow, it might not keep the interest of children, Though, it might help them get to sleep at night for better or worse,

I definitely do not recommend using my review to determine if youll enjoy this book, Perhaps you can overlook the slow narration, or will find the tale to be the mermaid story of your dreams, Personally, this audiobook did not work for me, Not for me. Turns out Im not that interested in mermaids, This was very slow moving, and About/of the way in I no longer cared, Abandoned. This is a tale of family, love, hope, adventure, and mermaids,

While this is geared to the middle grade audience, it has some great themes and reminders for adults to never lose that sense of wonder and that sometimes a fairy tale is true.
I also love the dynamic of the grandmother and granddaughter, This was a cute surprise! I felt like a kid again going on this adventure with Mora amp Eliza, It was fun amp sweet! This was such a good adventure, I enjoyed it so much, the story of love was great,


“No one is ever too old for fairytales, unless they decide they are, ”


This was a powerful stories with great echoes of truth in it, I enjoyed it so much this second time around,

“Theres still magic in this world, ”/
Aawww this was so cute! Super sweet!
Dare to believe,
Be adventurous.
Love.


There were some flaws but mostly this surpassed expectations!
very fairy taleesque but great for anynd grade up girl also great for g'mas!
I thought this was a beautifully written story.
It was engaging and even a little suspenseful, It spoke to my heart, ignited my imagination, and stimulated my curiositya good trifecta,

I listened to it audibly and enjoyed the two different readers, I thought maybe the Eliza reader shouldn't have tried an Irish accent, because it took me out of the story, So maybe read it rather than listen to it, Got this book for free on Audible, and I'm glad I didn't really spend any money on it, While it might be a cute story, and one I wouldn't mind listening to as a kid, I found the story dragged a lot.
There were a lot of characters that weren't important in the long run, and a lot of meandering, Not to mention one of the narrators were sooooo slow! What a sweet story! Like I said in one of my updates, Audible Originals can be hitormiss for me because, thus far, the authors of the originals are completely new to me, so I'm going in blind every time I choose to try one.
I was hopeful for this book, though, since it sounded like it had a close grandmother/granddaughter relationship which I love reading, and also mermaids, which I've always felt are perfect subject matter for summer.
This story does take place near the winter solstice, but it still worked as a summer story for me, :

The relationship between Eliza and her grandmother was what attracted me to this story and it was indeed my favorite thing about it.
Eliza's mom doesn't always understand her daughter and mother, but Eliza and Nana Mora understand each other just fine, As the synopsis states, Nana Mora writes to Eliza to invite her on one last adventure before Mora's failing eyesight fades completely and it was beautiful to watch their friendship grow deeper as they strove toward their goal.
I also enjoyed the interludes of the mermaid Silverswift's story as Nana Mora told Eliza about her, Her parts were written in such lovely, classic, fairytale style and her story was a touching one, I loved the themes of strength, forgiveness, love, and healing both in Eliza's and Silverswift's stories, I loved seeing Eliza's entire family starting to heal by the end, too, There was even a fun little fantasy twist near the end that I wasn't expecting, but it gave Eliza and Nana Mora's adventure even more meaning.
I also appreciated a sweet and poignant little scene at the end of the book where Eliza has a dream that was while not directly so reminiscent of people being healed and reunited in heaven.
I believe this was intentional imagery on the author's part, and will explain why in the next paragraph,



As I listened to and enjoyed the book I thought the author's name seemed oddly familiar despite being sure I'd read nothing by her before.
So when I was finished I came here to Goodreads and looked at her previous books and was pleased to find that I had actually heard of her before.
Back inshe released a Christian devotional book for teen girls called, "Paperdoll: What Happens When an Ordinary Girl Meets an Extraordinary God.
" I never read it myself, but remember seeing a glowing review of it in Focus on the Family's teen girl magazine called "Brio" back in the mid's.
I also see that a friend who's opinion I trust has reviewed it well, Knowing this is the same Natalie Lloyd makes me appreciate the beautiful themes in Silverswift even more because now I know where the author was coming from with them.
It makes me super happy when I see authors who are Christians slip positive, healthy themes into books even when it's not specifically Christian fiction.
As C. S. Lewis said, "The world does not need more Christian literature, What it needs is more Christians writing good literature, " And I believe Natalie Lloyd accomplished that here,

Content Advisory

Sexual:
Eliza's mom has a boyfriend who is not Eliza's father, It's briefly stated that he's handsy with her mom and Eliza finds it gross, but there's no description of this,

There's sweet, slowgrowing romance between two adult characters in the story of Silverswift that Nana Mora tells Eliza, Nothing physical gets described or implied,

Violence:

Some tales of Mermaids that get told say that they lure people to their deaths or kill people outright, but none of this is given gory detail.


Silverswift encounters sailors who have captured a bunch of mermaids in a net, The sailors have the intent of killing them and selling their scales, Trying to rescue her people, Silverswift ends up in a fight with a sailor who is trying to capture her too and makes it clear he has harmful intent toward her especially.
She has no choice but to kill him in self defense because he won't let go of her, The killing isn't described but blood on her hands and scales is mentioned, She also sustains an injury that bleeds, She feels awful about the killing but her family reminds her it was self defense and not intended, They forgive her and encourage her to forgive herself,

Magic:
Mermaids are able to change from having a tail to having human legs, simply by thinking pleasant thoughts about the ocean or the land.


There are characters in the story who believe mermaids are real and some that don't, In the end it turns out they are real.
The story was very cute, I should have read it instead of listening to it,

BUT!!! the narration from Audible was horrible,

The main narrator “attempts” an Irish that I can only describe as speaking with her mouth sewn shut,

She also had poor pronunciations, Pitchers and pictures are two very different words and said very differently, Such a cute book. I enjoyed listening to this one between classes at night,

This was so beautiful and full of adventure, Just what I needed to lift up my mood, This was definitely cute.

Silverswift just made me smile, Mostly because this little girl had dreams and she valued them so much, It sucked that her mom in the beginning was kind of shutting that all down and wouldn't let her go see her grandma.
Yet, she eventually caved and let her go on this wild adventure,

I honestly loved her relationship with her grandma, They just seemed really close to one other, . which is something I didn't have with any of my grandparents, Kind of sucks but that's what I get for living states away, Thanks mom and dad lol,

Other than that, I enjoyed all the magic and mermaids throughout the book, The ending almost made me shed a tear because of her last dream BUT again, this book was just adorable, I loved it so much, This story is enchanting from the first line to the last,

In this comingofage tale, Eliza's mother wants her to forget about fantasy especially mermaids, But first, Eliza will make one last visit to her eccentric grandmother, who lives on one of Georgia's barrier islands, Eliza and her grandmother embark on a secret quest to find Siren's Harbor, a hidden place where, according to local lore, the mermaids gather once a year.
This story is both that of Eliza and of Silverswift, a mermaid warriorprincess, who according to legend lived on the island as a human Eliza's grandmother says Silverswift is more than a fairy tale she's real, and Nana Mora wants to tell Eliza the true story.
Silverswift is the story of mothers and daughters of the passage of time of transformation and being true to ourselves of loss and love and of the things that make life magical.


This Audible Original is wonderfully performed and produced, Yet I wish this title was available in other formats, because it is now one of my favorite books! I long to have a hard copy on my bookshelf.


This was a "free" selection with Audible Membership, Cute, but predictable. The mermaid on the front of this beautiful book cover drew me in, as did the price free for Audible members, I have always been obsessed with mermaids, so that was an easy way to lure me in, Bad pun intended.

The story follows Eliza Grey as her grandmother asks her to come visit so that they can go on a quest together.
Eliza adores her whimsical grandmother, so she's excited to oblige, However, it takes some convincing with her mother who has a grudge against her mother's eccentric behavior, You see, Nana Mora and her late husband made their living selling mermaid maps and souvenirs, as well as telling fantastical stories to go with them.
Eliza's mother wants nothing to do with her mother or the island she lives on, But Eliza knows that her grandmother's eyesight is fading and that this is her last chance to go on this type of quest, so she convinces her mother in the end.


Together with a wacky lighthouse keeper, Eliza and Nana Mora go to the place where all the mermaids in the world convene once a year for their Winter Song.
Eliza believes it's just a story, but as they travel closer to the location, Nana Mora tells a tale Eliza has never heard before.


This was a really cute story, Parts of it were very similar to The Little Mermaid however, there were many unique parts, Not only is there a fantasy element with mermaids, but this story deals with the topics of: death of loved ones, illness and aging, family members who don't get along, divorced parents, dating parents, and speration of family.
This could be a good way for a child to bridge those topics in a relatively light manner, Most of the book I felt was a solidfor me, but the ending rounded it up to,. I think in this case, the book may be better received by children then adults, Overall, I do recommend this book to lovers of family stories and mermaids,

.Stars Rounded Up.