Let's be real for a minute here. I've read more monster-porn than I care to admit. Usually I'm quite masochistic about it. I still shudder every time I think of the T-Rex or Bigfoot erotica that I've read. This book isn't quite at that level, but I felt the need to bring it up because it does say the series title is Mates for Monsters. I kind of expected something along those lines.

I'm glad that's not what I got. Truthfully, my main goal in requesting this was because I developed this burning desire to know how mermaids (and mermen) have sex. I did get that answer, by the way, which I'll get into later. I started not expecting much, and in some ways The Merman's Kiss exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately, it didn't exceed them quite as much as I could have hoped.

The Merman's Kiss did some things incredibly well. The oceanic atmosphere was tangible. I really enjoyed the differences between the mer-people culture and our own. The initial trauma that Brianna was suffering was believable, and reminiscent of the reactions and experiences of more than a few people I've known in similar situations (Trigger warning: Brianna miscarries and suffers from infertility prior to the book's beginning).

There were quite a few more things that didn't work so well for me. I think it'll be easier on me, and you, if I just bullet them out:

**Brianna opens chapter 1 by trying to drown herself in the ocean. Within seconds (let's be honest about how long it's likely she can hold her breath), she is gulping air, and then kissing a merman....and that moves straight to sex. AFTER trying to KILL HERSELF BECAUSE SHE'S SO DISTRAUGHT OVER HER MISCARRIAGE. Strike one. I don't buy it. I don't care what the exigent circumstances are.

**Mermen (and -maids) don't have scales on their lower extremity. Zantu thinks (at Brianna - because of course they have a telepathic mate-bond) that "[s]cales are for fish." Um. You have a DORSAL FIN, dude. You have a tail-fin. You're not a fish?? Or at least fish-like? Okay, then.

**Mermaids are bitches. Seriously, they want to have sex with and seduce every male they see (against their will even). *sigh* I was really excited about the prospect of reading a society where women were promiscuous and men were the family-orientated party in the dynamic. What I really wanted was it done well though. Why do women being promiscuous have to be VILLAINS? Why must they be EVIL? Why can't they just be ? The more interactions we had with these slutty (and that's how they're looked up, not my opinion), evil women, the more infuriated I got. Strike two.

**Brianna's issues revolved around her fertility. The mermen were the children's caretakers. You had to know that a baby was going to come into this. I hate this. Not that she had a baby, because I wish everyone who has fertility problems, and wants children, would be able to without struggle. I hate it because it's all problem solved about it. No more worries about the baby she lost, because, hey, she's got a new life inside her. Ugh. Strike three.*

Those are my big issues with it, and I think it's more than enough.

Oh! And if you, too, are wondering how mermaids and mermen have sex, well, I'll tell you - at least how The Merman's Kiss describes it. Mermen have a codpiece like covering, or pouch, that hides their genitals. When they get aroused, it opens and they can have sex with their very human-like penis and testicles. Mermaids, by the same token, have a skin covering of some sort that covers their vaginal "slit." Practical, actually, but not quite the inventive explanation I was hoping for. It was the subject of a couple of thoughts how Brianna could actually wrap her legs around Zantu....or how he could enter her from behind. Oh lord.

I did really enjoy the fact that the female mermaids apparently color-coordinated - purple hair, fins, and nipples. :D

Overall? The Merman's Kiss wasn't awful, it just didn't give me anything really new, interesting, or life-changing. The sex was fairly bland, surprisingly, and the story was expected.



*Disclaimer: I'm fairly sensitive to this because my wife went through YEARS of infertility and miscarriages, and I know exactly how much this (years and years later) still affects her.

2.5 stars, rounded down because I don't like the way most women in the book were portrayed

When Brianna tries to end her life by stepping off the end of the pier she immediately regrets her choice, unfortunately she tied weights around her waist and now she can't get free to rise to the surface. When she's rescued by a mysterious Merman she's not sure if she's hallucinating because she's drowning or whether she's already dead but it turns out he's claimed her as his mate and now he wants her to stay in his underwater world with him.

I'm really torn about how to rate this book, if I'm comparing it to monster porn it looks pretty good (probably because I'm comparing it to the likes of Passion of the T-Rex or Cum for Bigfoot which were both truly horrendous!) but it reads more like a traditional paranormal romance and in that category it doesn't hold up anywhere near as well. It's not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination and it's been decently edited which is a bonus but there are themes I found problematic and there were some definite eye rolling moments, particularly at the beginning.

My first issue was a couple of pages in when we see Brianna try to kill herself. She immediately changes her mind and tries to remove the weights she tied to her waist to make sure she sank to the bottom of the ocean. Of course she doesn't manage to remove the weights but she does manage to strip off all her clothes "accidentally" in the process. Which actually comes in pretty handy for her when she's nearly dead and a stranger grabs her from behind. She's literally about to pass out from lack of oxygen when merman Zantu appears, he kisses her to somehow magically give her the ability to breathe underwater and in that very moment all she can think about is how horny she is so she ends up jumping him. Yes, you heard that right, she's seconds from death and her first thought is "yay lets have sex with this hot merman". Talk about insta-lust. Especially since having sex triggers Zantu's mating bond!

My biggest problem was probably to do with the way all of the mermaids were portrayed though. Literally every single mermaid was an evil slut who would sleep around with anyone, they took great pleasure in trying to make the mermen bond with them but then enjoyed being unfaithful even more. The mermen were the ones who stayed home and looked after the kids (most of which probably weren't even their own!) and since they could only bond with one woman they literally end up dying of broken hearts from watching their mates sleep around with other men. I get trying to switch up gender roles but why do women constantly have to put other women down? Why do all the mermaids have to be evil? Why are all the mermen nice? I just don't see the need for that and it actually makes me angry.

Once we get past the first couple of chapters I actually enjoyed the story more, I liked both Brianna and Zantu and I enjoyed meeting his brother Rubac and little Ebby. I think if the book had focused more on developing the characters and letting them spend time getting to know each other rather than rushing their first sexual encounter I'd have enjoyed it much more. I liked the description of Zantu's underwater world, the home he had made and his way of life was well described and easy to picture. The playful fish and other sea creatures added a nice element too. A few little random things threw me out of the story on occasion though like the way Brianna kept describing how things smelt. I'm sorry but even if you've developed the ability to breathe water you're not going to be able to smell things at the bottom of the ocean!

The ending also felt a little rushed, I wanted to see more of how things worked out for Brianna and Zantu (perhaps an epilogue would have helped there) and I was really upset that we didn't find out what happened with Rubac and Ebby. I've since discovered that you can get a free short story called The Merman's Quest by signing up for the author's newsletter and from the brief description on her website it sounds like this might be Rubac's story so hopefully my questions will be answered here. So I didn't love this book as much as I could have but its the author's debut novel and it had potential. I'm definitely going to be reading the short story in the hope of getting answers and I would consider trying the next full length book in the series to see if the author's writing has improved.

Source: Received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brianna's world is over. She lost her baby and her marriage. She puts on weights and walks off a pier into the ocean wanting to end it all. What she did not plan on was entering a whole other world underwater. Merman Zantu finds her and breathes life back into her. Shortly thereafter, they fall into lust and mate. Brianna's life starts over in a new world with a new mate because when merman mate, they mate for life.

Zantu has a hard time selecting a mate because all mermaids are greedy, manipulative, and leave mermen and their merchildren behind. Having recently witnessed this happen to his brother, he avoids mermaids even more, viewing them as predators. While treasure hunting, he comes across a human who needs rescued and breathes into her allowing her to breathe underwater. Saving her life forever changed his.

I tried to like this book but it was irritating at times. Zantu calls Brianna "my little angelfish" redundantly and the sweeping concept that all mermaids are greedy and malicious did not add to the book. Furthermore, it felt like they were having sex every five pages and then they were telling each other that they love each other after only a brief amount of time. The final redundant part for me was how Zantu kept thinking about how females cannot be trusted because they will leave you. Yet Zantu left Brianna behind on more than one occasion!

It was a novella and easy to read in one sitting. It is difficult to tell if this book was originally written with the intention of shorter length because it felt like a lot was left out. The plot holes seemed to be covered up by more sex scenes. Furthermore, there were big transformations that happened but were not explained how. It just did not feel like it flowed well, in my opinion.

I am adding the second star because there was a lot of detail regarding the marine world. Not only with what it was supposed to physically look like, but how all of the marine creatures interacted.

I would not recommend this book for those who dare bothered by explicit sex scenes, suicide attempts, infidelity, abandonment (particularly maternal abandonment), depression, violence, and coercion.

Quick read with a different spin on the human/merperson relationship. Well written, with the insta-love thing, very predictable, moves at a steady pace. Nothing bad about this story its just not very exciting the characters are likable enough but it lacks masculinity.

Um, this story was maybe a little on the macabre side. In the length of a novella, we deal with two dead babies, a suicide attempt, a gang rape attempt and child abandonment. Yes, it's freely decorated with gratuitous sex scenes (of which I'm always a fan and appreciate) but its length didn't give the reader any time to see silver linings to any of those scenarios. There was closure of a sort, but it was rushed and didn't shine over the bleakness of the plot. It felt like a Tarantino version of Finding Nemo. Not entirely in a good way.

While this book was enjoyable, it was far too short and I wanted more story. I know, I know, "who reads this kind of book for the story?" Well, I did. I loved the premise, getting to see why the Mermen would be secretive - spoiler, the females are just as bad as the stories say.
I greatly enjoyed this, and recommend it for those who are interested in this type of book, however it was just far too short for me. At about 80 pages, I started it and finished it within an hour. It feels like there is a sequel coming, but there were no hints to that affect.

Mermaids are my favorite mythical creature so I was really excited to dive (no pun intended) into this novella. I wasn't quite sure what to expect because I haven't read a mer-romance before but I was pleasantly surprised. I was hooked from the first chapter and the story moved at a very steady pace from there. What I enjoyed the most was the role reversal of male and females in the merworld. It was an interesting concept but also heartbreaking, especially how mermaids are so uncaring for their young. The chemistry between Zantu and Brianna was instantaneous but the constant sex was excessive and repetitive. That's really my only complaint with this novella. The story was original and engaging and it has a happy ending. Definitely give this novella a shot!

I primarily asked to read this because of curiousity. I'd read mermaid stories in the past, but not merman and I wondered how Ley would handle it. Ley created a very interesting world for the Mermen and a very intriguing mythology. My only complaint was that it was short, so the world building and characters were rather stunted. I really would like to know about this underwater world and hope Ley revisits it with more depth.

1.5

Wow, that was...um, um, um...not good. By the end of chapter one I had highlighted half a dozen passages and written ragey notes in my Kindle; most centering on the fact that the female main character was literally passing out from drowning, a merman came up and grabbed her arm, she bloomed into instant lust (while still drowning), and turned around to jumped on his cock. Which she could do because she was of course naked. Women always seem to end up naked before meeting their mate in this sort of book. I'm talking like literally five seconds start to finish, without even looking at him, while dying! Um, um, um...no! That's a big fat NOPE for me.

And while the rest of the book wasn't as bad as the start, it wasn't great either. The two basically just wandered around in a pseudo plot that allowed them to have abbreviated sex in different places and left more questions than answers. Ok fine, it's erotica. I shouldn't expect much more. But I couldn't stand the representation of the female mermaids. So, I had a hard time even tolerating the rest of the plot and world-building.

I admit I liked the idea as males as caretakers and how they nested and desired children. I thought Zantu really cute. But the characterization of all females except the main character as noting but aggressive sex maniacs just smacks of the good old patriarchal 'women are nothing more than slave to their lust and have no use or character beyond their sex and their ability to bear children.' Here their even stripped of any maternity, making them failures even in the minimal worthiness western society allows women. Maybe, MAYBE the author was trying to flip that script and engage the stereotype, but I rather think not. It just made me angry.

The mechanical writing is fine. The editing is fine. The book will probably appeal to some, but I was not one of them. I feel I'm being generous giving it 2 stars and that based on the fact that it is structurally adequate.

This is by far the strangest book I've read to date.
I enjoyed how different is it. It makes a real change reading about mermen!.
The story itself is well written, nicely descriptive and flows pretty well. I love the different take on the merman/mermaid world, the fact that the mermaids are the bad guys and the merman are victims to them was definitely different and interesting. Brianna and Zantu are decent characters with great potential and I definitely enjoyed reading them.

Why only 3 stars? It's not that it's a bad story because it's definitely not and I enjoyed it. It's just for me it was very rushed without enough explanation. I know Brianna's husband was an ass but what happened to him?. The fact that none of that was explained was definitely frustrating. Why are the mermen so weak compared to mermaids?, what is so special about human merman bonds?.. loads of unanswered questions for me that were vital to connecting to the story more. And regardless of unanswered questions it would have been nice to have read about them together settled after that ending I feel like it was left so unfinished and leaving me feel a little disconnected to them.

Like I said it's definitely a good story with a heap of potential. It's very original and I loved the writing style the author has. I love the world she created and I enjoyed the story itself. Just for me I didn't connect to it as much a I'd hoped however I do hope there is more to this as a series?!. There's so much potential to love this as it's so different for me.

I kindly received this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.