The Mermaid Chair reads like a Harlequin Romance, hack-kneed, predictable, trite. I would wager that Kidd was offered at least a two-book deal when she submitted the wonderful Secret Life of Bees but she really couldn't come up with any great ideas for the second. Or else this is an earlier effort which found no publisher(rightfully so) until she became a best-selling author. I have never been let down so hard in all my reading life, I must say. So much so that I will not take a chance on Kidd again. Too bad. The Secret Life of Bees is so good!