It has been said that love makes the world go 'round. Well if that is true this novel is spinning. Peri is a young woman just learning what love is all about and she certainly has many opportunities to study different permutations on love in this novel. Most of the love is flawed. The King Ustav "loved" both his wife and a mermaid. The mermaid, who did not "love" or care about the children, is still obsessed with Ustav and tries to punish him by taking his son and replacing the human son with her child. Peri thinks that she might be "in love" with one or the other of the flawed princes but she also knows that if they could really "love" they would not be looking at a commoner. She eventually realizes that her true love is a magician who knew the origin of...