Where the mermaids live — María Martínez

Lucía left her childhood island with one promise: never come back. Even years later, the memories she tried to abandon still surface when everything goes quiet—like the sea pulling at an anchor that never fully lifted. But life has a way of circling you back to the places you thought you’d escaped. When her grandmother asks for something Lucía can’t ignore, she returns to Vila Mareva: sunlit beaches, blue Mediterranean water, and streets that remember her footsteps.

Coming home isn’t only about geography—it’s about facing what was left unfinished. Lucía must navigate the weight of old pain and the fragile space between what happened and what can still be repaired. On the island she reconnects with her sister, Laura, from whom she has been distant for too long. As summer unfolds, the days stretch warm and bright, but the past doesn’t fade so easily. Lucía tries to lower the walls that kept her safe, even when she’s not sure what is waiting on the other side.

Then the unexpected happens: a meeting that changes the direction of her return, and a secret that finally rises to the surface. Between family tensions and the pull of first love’s memory, Lucía is forced to ask herself what she truly wants—and whether new beginnings are possible without rewriting the truth.

Donde habitan las sirenas is a contemporary romantic story about love, destiny, and the courage it takes to start again. If you enjoy emotionally driven romances, atmospheric coastal settings, and characters who fight for their own second chance, this novel will feel like a wave—gentle at first, then impossible to ignore.