Aquarae

If there's a special hell for liars, LEIRA PETERSON (16) earns admittance everyday. It's the price of survival. Born of a Mehr mother and human father, she's erected a wall of deceit to hide the fact that beneath her silky black hair, creamy complexion and long runner's legs, she's a freak. Just add water. If her neck gets wet, gills form, wrenching her voice to operatic highs. When water hits her legs and feet, they transform into shimmery tail fins. She's spent years dodging rain showers and avoiding pools. That's the easy part. More excruciating is withholding the truth from ROWAN (17), the guy who's always been her best friend and is now much more.

Leira dreams of a normal life: college, career and love. The only way this can become a reality, however, is if she undergoes the same alteration her mother did to become human. But mother refuses to reveal where the Mehr live, warning that it's much too dangerous to undergo such a drastic procedure. And so life goes on in Yakima , Washington , the eighth driest city in the U.S.

Until a boating accident on prom night reveals her secret. Now there's only one way to prevent being turned into a lab specimen. That's what they do to freaks, right? She'll have to find the Mehr on her own, and convince them to make her a full-blooded human. But the alteration process is not as dangerous as the Mehr themselves.