Little Shop of Stories continues to encourage young readers by offering them a chance to be a member of the Galley Review Club. As members of the club, children pick up advance copies of books for review and send in a short review to be published on the LSOS blog each week.

Atomic Family will be posting reviews from members of the Galley Club over the next few months. Enjoy!

I’ve been dying to get my hands on a great mermaid book seeing the influx of mermaid stories hitting the shelves lately. Monstrous Beauty was about a young girl named Hester who’s smart, quick witted and cursed. Each woman in her family dies once they give birth. So love is something Hester strays from but when she gets sucked into her town and family’s history, she finds there’s more to this curse where love and the sea are intertwined by magic and passion.

I couldn’t stop reading this book, and within hours I devoured every last page. I was captivated by the older story that was interweaved with Hester’s current journey and loved the clues that were given. Just enough to guide me through Hester’s mystery and intrigue me even more.

For it being my first mermaid story, I must say it’ll be hard to follow. It’s full of love, mystery and intrigue that any reader would love to devour!

— Vania Stoyanova

Monstrous Beauty, by Elizabeth Fama, $17.99, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Recommended for ages 12-17. Available at the Little Shop of Stories, 133A East Court Square, Decatur, 404-373-6300, www.littleshopofstories.com.